2,500 new, residential downtown PARKING spaces INCREASE traffic.

Somehow this gets lost in the development news about the 2,500 new very expensive apartments being built in White Plains. The numbers are a rough estimate. The point is that for each new apartment, at least one new, private parking space is also created.

- The Continuum rental building is already open at 55 Bank Street: 550 units
- Construction has begun at 60 South Broadway: 700 units
- Hamilton Plaza, site of the decades long pathetic mini mall: 900 units
- something between Franklin and Westchester Avenues: 300 units?
- 440 Hamilton Ave., the long time AT&T office building will convert to apartments when its business tenants vacate: how many?

2,500 new downtown apartments looks like a low estimate. No matter. Tom, Tom (mayor Roach, traffic commissioner Soyk) can clarify as White Plains officials speak yet again to the Battle Hill Association April 19 in a classic White Plains example of the tail wagging the dog.

So what happens on a Saturday morning when a significant percentage of new residents with new parking spaces decide to join the incumbents and drive to a supermarket, Bloomingdale's, a golf course, ...? Remember, these spaces are ALL downtown, not even in the suburbs of White Plains, you know, where the decision makers like Common Council members and commissioners live.

Or do decision makers think these new residents will all walk? Or take the county Bee-Line buses? Or maybe the regional buses and shop in the Adirondacks or in Babylon, L.I.? Those buses have few passengers. I recently rode the Bee-Line 63 bus in early afternoon and was the only passenger for much of the trip to/from Scarsdale. Why is there an ever increasing number of HUGE, mostly empty, buses driving through downtown. Ask Mayor Roach April 19. Ask Traffic Commissioner Soyk April 19. Ask the Battle Hill Association meeting organizers if any of that is on their radar.