DOWNTOWN WHITE PLAINS TRANSIT DISTRICT FINAL REPORT

Fewer parking spaces will reduce the number of cars downtown. So why add thousands?

Hidden at the city website:

DOWNTOWN

WHITE PLAINS

TRANSIT DISTRICT

FINAL REPORT

http://cityofwhiteplains.com/DocumentCenter/View/2351

It insists in various ways that the city is determined to reduce traffic, reduce pollution, save the planet, blah, blah, blah. Oh, also encourage use of public transportation, I guess through those HUGE buses like the Trailways buses to the Adirondacks and another bus to Babylon, presumably the one on Long Island, not in Mesopotamia. Are people really commuting to White Plains from far away places? Or are they simply connecting to MetroNorth on their way to Manhattan?

The report states five goals:

1. Create multimodal transportation opportunities and promote use of public transit
2. Catalyze economic development and opportunities for transit-oriented development
3. Create the civic role of the station and create a great place
4. Ensure that public infrastructure improvements and investments are environmentally sustainable and resilient
5. Develop a plan that is financially feasible and can be phased in over time

Wow, sounds great. Wonky but great stuff, right. Except White Plains has a long record of talking a good game but not doing it. Look at old renderings of the City Center plaza. No traffic. No road. Yeah, right.

Here's the rub. Thousands of new apartments are planned, each with at least one parking space. The Continuum has 550 units and about 600 spaces. The proposed Hamilton Plaza will have 900 units and over 1,000 parking spaces. Both are a block or so from the train station. There will be another 700 units at the 60 South Broadway development, which is under construction. And another 300 or so spaces between Westchester Avenue and Franklin Avenue. So what's with all those additional parking spaces? Aren't millennial renters going to live without cars?

How the heck does any of that meet the stated objectives? And factor in the BUSES, which never seem to have many riders. The regional buses are a mystery but the Bee-Line county buses seem absurd. Last week on a sunny afternoon I took the 63 from the train station bus terminal to a residential street in Scarsdale. I was the only rider for much of the trip in both directions. The county could save money giving chits for Uber.

This Transit District thing lacks credibility. It could be the urban planning debacle of this millennium, reviled in 50 years as is that of 50 years ago.

You want fewer cars in White Plains? REDUCE the number of parking spaces.

Explain how regional buses coming over the new Hudson River bridge help White Plains.

Explain how all the rush hour traffic that's been driving through White Plains for decades, especially on Hamilton Avenue, is good for White Plains.

This type of use is like allowing strangers to use your bathroom. It may be good for them but what do you get out of it?

How about intra-city transportation, i.e., a White Plains bus or trolley system or equivalent that gets residents around White Plains? Stop the civic self aggrandizement with HUGE regional buses driving into downtown White Plains on downtown streets, you know, the downtown streets on which few of the decision makers live. They are doing grand planning that does not effect them.