Email sent to the Common Council:
from: Kenneth Matinale
to: commoncouncil@whiteplainsny.gov
date: Nov 18, 2025, 7:41 AM
subject: Vintage Skynet: AT&T's Abandoned "Long Lines" Microwave Tower Network - 99% Invisible
White Plains seems to have the authority to require that apartment buildings use natural gas as a fuel rather than oil. But it seems to stop there, at least in terms of imagination. Why not require:
Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations
over-the-air (OTA) antennas on the ROOF for local channels (2-13) transmitted via direct line of sight. Individuals can try this in their own apartment but they might not have the necessary orientation. Most older buildings had old analog TV antennas and flat wiring to each apartment. That got superseded by "cable" TV coaxial cable wiring. But the old flat wires and their "jacks" are probably still in most, maybe all, apartments.
That would be free TV, like in the old days. It would also be a good backup in case the Service Provider (Optimum, Verizon) has a disruption during the World Series, Super Bowl, etc.
Plumbing upgrade:
Add pipes for a second bathroom in a 1,200 square foot, two bedroom apartment.
Add pipes and vent for ... washing machine and dryer INSIDE each apartment instead of down the hall or worse down in the cellar. This is especially needed for older condominiums and pretty much all co-ops. Their boards would have two reactions:
Do you know how much that would cost!?
If we did that for some apartments, everyone would want it.
No, their constituent owners do not know how much it would cost. But neither do the board members, mainly because they never tried to find out. NEVER.
I suggest that the city set up an informal structure so that plumbing companies can be contacted to provide advice and at least rough estimates. The board can then decide if it wants to get a detailed plan and estimate and the plumbing company can evaluate how much effort it wants to put into it depending on the amount of genuine interest. A board could contact multiple plumbing companies ... and consult with the boards of other buildings.
This could slow the gap between the old apartment buildings and the increasing thousands of new apartments created recently with thousands more coming. No one in his right mind would consider one of the new buildings if there was only one bathroom in a multi bedroom apartment. And even more so for laundry: who the heck wants to leave the apartment, especially to go to the cellar?
White Plains is a tale of two cities in multiple ways. Most fundamental, those who live in a house v apartment building. But there is also a divide among apartment building residents between old ones with inadequate plumbing and those with current standards.
As of January 2025, the U.S. Representative for New York's 16th congressional district is Democrat George Latimer. He defeated incumbent Jamaal Bowman in the Democratic primary and went on to win the general election. Latimer is a freshman member.
Latimer was born November 22, 1953.
_____________________________
https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2025282
United States House of Representatives
H.Res.719 - Honoring the life and legacy of Charles "Charlie" James Kirk.
119th Congress (2025-2026)
Sep 19, 2025, 10:53 AM | 119th Congress, 1st Session
On Agreeing to the Resolution
Honoring the life and legacy of Charles “Charlie” James Kirk
Yea-And-Nay
Passed
VOTES
yea: 310
nay: 58
present: 38
not voting: 26
Jeffries Democratic New York YEA
Latimer Democratic New York Not Voting
___________________________
Even Democrat minority leader and former Speaker of the House Hakeem Jeffries voted YEA.
Good luck figuring out if your doctor is moving from downtown White Plains to a corporate park along interstate 287.
White Plains Hospital is closing its long time building at 170 Maple Avenue to make room for its huge expansion. When? Who knows?
Message sent 8/1/2025 at the White Plains Hospital website: reply below:
My understanding is that 170 Maple Avenue will be demolished and at least some doctors moved to 1111 Westchester Ave. along with Columbia Doctors. I could not find this on the hospital website. How long will WP Hospital doctors will be there and when will that start? Which doctors? This impacts which doctors we want to see.
Any other logistics that we should know about?
________________________
Hi Kenneth,
Thank you for reaching out. 170 Maple is still operational with physicians moving to new locations over the next several months, including our new multispecialty center in Scarsdale at 750 White Plains Road, which will be fully open in October, as well as additional convenient WPHPA locations. Letters will be sent to all impacted patients in advance with details on your physicians and where they will be practicing. If you need an appointment, please call your physician and the team will inform you if there any changes you need to be aware of. Thanks!
Regards,
WHITE PLAINS HOSPITAL
41 E. Post Road
White Plains, NY 10601
P: (914) 681-0600
Connect with us online!
_________________________
Columbia Doctors is opening a huge office at 1111 Westchester Avenue September 9, 2025. That's about five weeks from now. It would seem that its long time but small office at 15 North Broadway in White Plains will close. When?
What happens to your office at:
______________________
No reply so far.
https://www.wphospital.org/about-us/campus-transformation/
6 Cottage Place Renovation and 99 Church Street Condominium
Westchester County is involved: $10,000,000.
I walked past on Church Street this morning at about 7:45 AM. There were two vans unloading way more workers who could fit in them comfortably, including some women. They all seemed to be of one demographic. Temperatures today reached about 93. A few of the workers do things on the roof, exposed to the sun.
Are they citizens or otherwise in the country legally?
Are they paid the New York State minimum wage?
About three years ago, there were multiple reports on national news that the Biden administration was landing planes full of migrants at Westchester County airport in the middle of the night and bussing them to ... ?
I sent links for at least two such reports to previous County Executive George Latimer but got no response. Latimer has since replaced Jamaal Bowman in the US House of Representatives.
Recently I saw an interview on local CBS with Latimer's successor Kenneth W. Jenkins:
https://www.westchestergov.com/kenneth-jenkins-bio
He repeatedly denied that Westchester County was a sanctuary jurisdiction. The 76 year old interviewer was fairly inept and did not get very far.
Whatever that may be, is any government official aware of the situation at this construction site and possibly others? Does anybody care on either level:
- immigration staus
- pay and working conditions?
Westchester County Executive Kenneth W. Jenkins Signs Land Acquisition Act for the Construction of Affordable Housing in White Plains Published: 07 January 2025
Joined by members of the Westchester County Board of Legislators, Westchester County Executive Kenneth W. Jenkins signed a Land Acquisition Act allocating $10,000,000 for the purchase of property in downtown White Plains for the construction of affordable housing. The property includes two buildings located at 99 Church Street and 6 Cottage Place, and will support the development of 108 affordable homeownership units for first time homebuyers, and 89 parking spaces. The Land Acquisition Act is the first piece of legislation Jenkins will sign as County Executive, proving that furthering fair and affordable housing opportunities remains a top priority in Westchester.
________________________
This will be sent to the Westchester County Executive, Mayor of White Plains and others.
mayorsoffice@whiteplainsny.gov
Flo is the name of the company that provides Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations to Westchester County.
Here is the automated email from Flo to me after I charged my EV yesterday at one of the 50 county administered spots south of the County Center in an unmarked surface parking lot. I've never seen more than the five cars, including mine, that I saw yesterday.
| from: | FLO® no-reply@flo.com | ||
| reply-to: | FLO® <service@flo.ca> | ||
| to: | Kenneth Matinale | ||
| date: | Apr 14, 2025, 5:44 PM | ||
| subject: | Summary of your usage session |
| Card identification: | Mobile Application |
|---|---|
| Park name: | Westchester - County Center - Zone 2 |
| Station name: | AUB-50433 |
| Station address: | 198 Central Ave White Plains NY 10607 United States of America |
| Session start date: | 2025-04-14 11:36:08 |
| Session end date: | 2025-04-14 17:44:00 |
| Energy used: | 31.4960 kWh |
| Session duration: | 6h 07m |
_______________________________
Note the Session duration of six hours. It took my car batteries from 44% to 80% charged. That's the slowest I've experienced. I have 80% as the limit in my car settings, as it's recommended for good battery maintenance.
Here is my email to Flo:
| from: | Kenneth Matinale | ||
| to: | service@flo.ca | ||
| date: | Apr 14, 2025, 2:41 PM | ||
| subject: | App problem reading IDs. |
Screen shot of some of your charging ports at the Westchester County Center in New York State. Taken today around 12:30 PM. These ports always state that their charging speed is limited. I'm charging my EV there now.
______________________________________
That's the end of that email.
As you can see, for some reason, many of the 50 EV charging "ports" do not display all five digits. To make it more difficult, the physical numbers are not in sequence, so you cannot even guess the number where you parked. You park, look at the five digit number of the equipment that you will use on your car. Then you look for that number in the Flo app but usually you cannot find it. And with 50 ports, good luck cruising in the app. Finally, it may not be there. Then what?
Maybe it's got something to do with the electrician truck that's parked there 100% of the times that I look at that parking lot.
Remember this from my message to Flo: "These ports always state that their charging speed is limited."
And by always, I mean every time I've charged there.
By the way, three of the ten charging ports at the North White Plains train station are out of service but that is indicated only if you try to access them using the Flo app.
It's good that Westchester County is at least trying to provide much needed EV charging stations. The City of White Plains got into it about six years ago but it has yet to replace its very outdated stuff and increase the number substantially. It's my understanding that the county knows that there is an electrical problem at the 50 EV charging stations (I think they are considered 25, each with two "ports"). The issue here is how many months does it take to get things going? It traces back to November, 2024.
The new county executive will be giving the state of the county speech later this month. No doubt he will mention this as an achievement. Hopefully, such remarks will be objective and informative.
Electric Vehicle charging stations: Westchester County promotes them before activation. What the heck? February 14, 2025
Videos of empty Westchester County EV charging stations, the ones celebrated prematurely. Saturday, February 15, 2025
Westchester County budget for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Status 4 weeks after 50 EV charging stations announcement: not so good. Friday, March 7, 2025
"Charging output restricted to 6 A due to power sharing between charging stations."
_________________________________________
Today I noticed signs at the entrances to the retail area of the City Center off Main Street and Mamaroneck Avenue.
Meanwhile, the Westchester mall now allows dogs. Not just help dogs but all dogs. A couple of weeks ago I spoke to a private security person there to verify. It contradicts a lone code of conduct sign on the top floor.
Dogs should be banned from any common sense place where a reasonable person would think they should be banned. It's gotten out of hand. They are even in food stores. Will we see dogs sitting at a table in a restaurant? Why not? Who will prevent that? The City of White Plains? Westchester County? New York State?
https://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/search/label/Dogs
Westchester County Expands Free Ev Charging To Support Sustainability Goals
Published: 07 February 2025
Westchester County has installed 25 new electric vehicle (EV) charging stations at the County Center’s South Parking Lot, providing free charging for up to 50 electric vehicles at a time...
That web page above has a link to an 18 minute announcement event:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDxdWgPRGaw
It's the new county executive and five others in self congratulation acting like cats licking themselves, oblivious that the EV charging stations have not been activated. I left this comment:
Today I walked to these EV charging stations and after they have been there for months they still do not appear to be activated. Nor is there any signage on the road or nearby that would alert drivers about their existence. The concrete steps to exit the parking area are closed at the top. There were no cars there getting charged. NONE. I just sent my fourth email in 2025 to the new county executive asking about this and I have received only the auto reply. Do any of these people on the podium know any of this?
_________________
As of yesterday March 6 at noon:
- no signage on the road or nearby that would alert drivers
- concrete steps to exit the parking area still closed at the top
- two cars charging; two of a possible 50
"Charging output restricted to 6 A due to power sharing between charging stations."
Flo replied:
... usually means that the charging station is sharing power between multiple vehicles. As a result, the output is limited to ensure that all connected vehicles receive a portion of the available power...
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention
____________________
https://www.westchestergov.com/meet-the-ce-staff
I counted 32 people on the staff of the County Executive. Maybe that's part of the problem.
This post will be sent to:
CE@westchestergov.com
Kenneth Jenkins, County Executive
PMcCartt@westchestercountyny.gov
Peter McCartt
Westchester County Electric Vehicles (EV)
Chairman of Climate Smart Communities Task Force:
1st Term Appointing Authority: Ex-Officio
Director of Environment and Sustainability
commoncouncil@whiteplainsny.gov
Videos of empty Westchester County EV charging stations, the ones celebrated prematurely. Saturday, February 15, 2025
Westchester County budget for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. Tuesday, February 18, 2025
2025 Westchester County Capital Proposed Budget
Pages 243-244:
ELECTRIC VEHICLE CHARGING STATIONS AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Project Description
This project funds the installation of electric vehicle (EV) charging stations and associated infrastructure at various County and municipal locations. The County will work
with NYSERDA, NYPA and NYSDEC to explore any Non-County funding that may be available for this project.
Current Year Description
The current year request funds the continuation of this project.
Current Year Financing Plan
Year Bonds
2025 $5,000,000
Impact on Operating Budget
The impact on the Operating Budget is the debt service associated with the issuance of bonds.
Appropriation History
2020-2024 $45,000,000
More money figures are on those pages.
_____________________
Is it $45,000,000 or $87,000,000?
Electric Vehicle charging stations: Westchester County promotes them before activation. What the heck? Friday, February 14, 2025
Videos of empty Westchester County EV charging stations, the ones celebrated prematurely. Saturday, February 15, 2025
Status 4 weeks after 50 EV charging stations announcement: not so good. Friday, March 7, 2025
The new county executive celebrated eight days ago: February 7, 2025:
Electric Vehicle charging stations: Westchester County promotes them before activation. What the heck? Friday, February 14, 2025
Two short videos taken this morning Saturday, February 15, 2025 about 10:30 AM. When the image appears, click it and it will expand and play my comments.
2 minutes, 18 seconds:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/FnxGBkk33JRpJhrb7
1 minute, 14 seconds:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/SAuVGJxQ5Bxve4nP8
Westchester County budget for Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations. Tuesday, February 18, 2025
Status 4 weeks after 50 EV charging stations announcement: not so good. Friday, March 7, 2025
