Comments on Mayor Tom Roach campaign literature.

Today I received the first Mayor Tom Roach campaign literature, either paper or digital. I've been receiving email messages from his challenger for the Democratic party nomination for mayor of White Plains: Milagros Lecuona, a member of the city Common Council. None of her messages suggest any real program but a bunch of platitudes from 20-25 years ago and one with the hysterical title that we are under attack. She's correct on that only if she is referring to buses overwhelming downtown with few passengers and do apparent benefit to downtown residents or White Plains generally.

One of the four elected officials with photos who are endorsing Roach is State Senator ANDREA STEWART-COUSINS, who over the years has NEVER replied to a single email message sent to either of her official IDs:
scousins@senate.st
scousins@nysenate.gov

Same was true of Amy Paulin when she represented me in the State Assembly.

Comments on three major points made by Mayor Roach to promote his own re-election.

Promoting affordable housing ... all built at the developer's expense.

comment: The developer makes a business plan which takes that cost into account and then passes it on to the 90% of his tenants who are paying "market" rates. Those rents are really market rate plus. Further, there is no affordable housing, only affordable apartments, which are no where near Common Council members, virtually all of whom for half a century have lived in houses outside of downtown. This is an issue which let's the politicians congratulate each other about what fine human beings they are, when they have no skin in the game.

Protecting our community. Every person needs to be comfortable talking to the police. We have not and will not ask about individuals' immigration status... (in response to) President Trump's Executive Orders on immigration.

comment: May the police ask about other status? For instance, I just served county jury duty. I received a subpoena, which threatened me with 30 days in jail and/or a $1,000 fine if I did not show up. I guess I could have said that I was an illegal alien (oops, undocumented person) and been dismissed from serving without a penalty.

May the police ask if a dead beat dad has outstanding legal items against him?

Blah, blah, blah. Apparently, White Plains has become a sanctuary city, just without those words. How humanitarian.

People at odds with the law should NOT feel comfortable dealing with the police. There is a natural tension between outlaws and the police. You can call an outlaw by some euphemism like undocumented but that does not change the person's status. Whitey Bulger was undocumented because he did not want the FBI to apprehend him for crimes, including murder.

Investing in parks and neighborhoods. Tom created an impact fee on developers ...

comment: This stuff is one reason it takes for freakin' ever for anything to get done in White Plains and the stuff never has any charm or continuity with anything else. There is ONE park in downtown, the one along Canfield Avenue between Lake Street and Main Street. That's it, and it's been there for decades. That really nice center divider on North Broadway between Main and Hamilton Avenue is NOT a park. And the thing at Mamaroneck and Bryant is NOT downtown.

All that this policy does is make White Plains a difficult place to build. Oh, those new buildings going up, like the LCOR project on Bank Street? Didn't it take about a decade? And the one approved for 60 South Broadway: two years before work started.

They are developing here because they cannot afford New York City. It's spillover crumbs that White Plains thinks it has earned on merit. It has not.
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White Plains is a convenient compromise. It lacks charm and apparently always will. Many of us live here because we cannot afford Bronxville or even Scarsdale. But the practical aspect of downtown is fragile and the city is in danger of fracturing that with the bus problem that's well documented in this blog and new "progressive" policies that insult our common sense without even asking us about it.

It's too bad that there is not any real choice for these Common Council seats. But we people living in downtown apartments are dumb and lazy. That's how the minority living the houses outside of downtown can continue to dominate local government here. That is made much easier by the nonsensical type of government, in which Common Council members are elected at large, rather representing a specific geographic district.

Change White Plains to have Common Council members elected from districts and then a declaration of a sanctuary city would be reviewed by many more White Plains citizens. Citizens, not merely residents. Citizens.