The roof of the Galleria parking lot is not cleared of snow even though the adjacent streets and sidewalks are. It's now Friday 2:40 PM and it's still not cleared. That's because no one parks there. It's that valuable White Plains commodity: open space.
During a recent Common Council meeting a member was discussing a current city shakedown of a developer for open space but it's near Liberty Park, which is near Silver Lake, which is in a bordering municipality. In other words, it's a farce and waste of time for city officials to be pretending that they are doing anything meaningful by trying to add open space on the borders of White Plains.
Open space on roofs of apartment buildings and municipal garages. Saturday, January 30, 2016
With just a little imagination we can substantially expand the amount of open space in urban downtown White Plains.
The City of White Plains should require all new residential apartment buildings to have green and recreational roofs. Any existing regulations that might inhibit such addition of this to existing buildings should be reviewed and reconsidered...
The City has many municipal parking garages scattered around town to serve the many multiple lane roads that slash through downtown. Obviously each garage has an open top level, which could be made into a green roof at the very least or more imaginatively into a public open space, some with recreational elements.
Yes, the City would lose parking spaces but it cannot sustain continual increase in cars driven and parked. There can never be enough roads and never enough parking. People need to move around in different ways. And, no, the Bee Line is not the answer. That county bus system is a ridiculous option for people moving around White Plains. The City needs to step up its efforts on this.
Downtown White Plains will not magically have any real increase in ground level open space at this late stage of its irregular development. It can, however, start to transform its abundant top level space from something forgotten into something to remember.
________________________________
Open space on Galleria parking lot roof could be a park. Saturday, February 17, 2018
With a little imagination, not even a lot. Photo below taken Saturday Feb. 17, 2018 at 2:30 PM. In other words in the middle of the afternoon on a cold overcast winter day: perfect for shopping. And even then the garage roof of the Galleria indoor mall has no cars, ZERO. Could that space be put to good use?
________________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment