The Capital of Sprawl Gets a Radically Car-Free Neighborhood
On an empty lot near Phoenix, perhaps the most auto-addicted city in America, a start-up is betting $170 million on a more walkable future.
By Conor Dougherty Oct. 31, 2020 New York Times
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The article is way too long but should at least be scanned by White Plains decision makes: elected, appointed and self-appointed.
District-Based Voting Sunday, February 24, 2008
You can see why CC members do not and cannot represent the interests of the majority of WP residents who live downtown in apartments. They all live in houses, mostly in the same area. None live downtown. With District-Based Voting most of them would not be on the CC.
WP might as well have its city government decisions made by people living in Scarsdale. Our CC members may be well intentioned but they visit downtown as non-residents do: they drive in, park, do some stuff and drive back. Most of their decisions are based on driving and parking. That's why WP is so extremely pedestrian hostile.
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White Plains Downtown Residents Association Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The White Plains Downtown Residents Association web site listed at the top of this post describes WP as "pedestrian-friendly". There was a lot of talk last night that supports my contention that WP is pedestrian hostile, much worse than Manhattan...
The most fundamental change that is needed is change from a car culture to a people culture. Without that, nothing else matters. How many people walked to last night's meeting v. driving?
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White Plains needs a Pedestrian Commissioner. Sunday, June 13, 2010
It's obvious that neither the Traffic nor Public Safety Commissioners give a damn how pedestrian hostile White Plains becomes, so how about a Pedestrian Commissioner, someone who represents the interests of pedestrians? ...
... the Public Safety Commissioner does not enforce the laws and because neither the mayor nor the common council members do anything to make WP less pedestrian hostile.
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White Plains Clean and Green event, July 17, 2010 Friday, July 16, 2010
You need to insist that people get there without driving...
WP is Motown, the most pedestrian hostile place I know. Every issue is impacted by the city government's reverence for cars. It is Dodge city. Drivers get away with infractions ALL day long. There is minimal enforcement of traffic laws. If CC members walked around downtown occasionally, they might know this. Instead they stay in their suburban enclaves and visit citizen groups that represent those enclaves. Let's save tax money and just have the Scarsdale government make decisions for WP. They have as much vested interest.
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Why are buses allowed to barrel down residential Barker Avenue? Saturday, December 19, 2015
Hamilton (Avenue) is already pedestrian hostile and wouldn't be made much worse with some buses.
It's appalling that the city does not seem to consider stuff like this. It's all about moving vehicles. Oh, and parking. Lots of parking.
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Have you ridden a Bee Line bus this millennium? Tuesday, February 2, 2016
White Plains will become even more pedestrian hostile as it adds thousands of new private parking spaces in new apartment developments that the house dwelling Common Council members have and are approving...
That's roughly 2,000 more parking spaces in downtown with more to come. Such development in New York City is sustainable because New York has mass transit. White Plains only has a sliver of the county bus system, the Bee Line, which is totally inadequate for moving people around White Plains even if they were inclined to consider using it.
So, have you ridden a Bee Line bus this millennium? If not, why would you expect people moving into these thousands of new apartments to use it? How will they get to the train station each morning to commute to New York for work? And where will they park? ...
The tradition of White Plains apartment residents being too dumb and lazy to engage continues with the people who live in the houses away from downtown continuing to make the decisions that increasingly seem impractical without some form of transportation other than cars...
When the TransCenter revitalization task force has its first public meeting in the library on the evening of Feb. 11 (2016), ask whether anyone in the room has ridden a Bee Line bus this millennium. If the answer is close to none, then the nature of the problems will be apparent. The next question is whether the City will do anything differently or will it continue to expand the use of personal cars until their movement has everyone going nowhere.
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How far will residents walk to reach the train station? Saturday, February 6, 2016
... 700 new apartments at 60 South Broadway ...
... 550 apartments are also being built at 55 Bank Street ...
White Plains is pedestrian hostile and that seems likely to get worse. Pedestrian Commissioner, anyone?
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Downtown White Plains Transit District public meeting very positive. Thursday, February 11, 2016
It will probably take a decade for substantive changes to be implemented but the City seems intent on correcting the sanitizing urban renewal changes that since the 1960s turned White Plains into a pedestrian hostile sterile place with a dozen roads slashing through downtown that are the functional equivalent of interstate highways. Maybe we'll eventually get that pedestrian commissioner I've been calling for.
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Two way mega streets: change Martine, Main, Hamilton from one way quasi interstates. Sunday, February 14, 2016
Mayor Tom Roach said as much a couple of days ago as the primary speaker at the first public meeting of the Trancenter Transit District task force, which had hardly any public input...
The mayor mocked the familiar nonsense of driving out of one's way to go half a block by needing to drive completely around a block. The days of having many functional equivalents of interstate highways slashing throughout downtown must end ... this year.
The administration wants some substantive change by the end of 2016. What is more attainable than this? ...
... make WALKING ... much less pedestrian hostile.
Mayor Roach needs to lead the other Common Council members towards his vision for remaking White Plains.
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Grass and trees on center dividers on Hamilton, Main, Martine. Friday, March 18, 2016
How about something like Park Avenue in Manhattan? Or even that really nice center divider on North Broadway between Main and Hamilton? You know, the one some people delude themselves into thinking is a park. If Central Park were surrounded by comparable lanes of traffic, they would extend to the Hudson River to the west and First Avenue to the east...
Yes, it would reduce the number of lanes but it would make WALKING on them much less pedestrian hostile.
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One way mega streets: mocked by Mayor Roach but not changed. Monday, August 28, 2017
City bureaucracy, special interests of residents of houses, the emerging impact of the bus industry all contribute to things like leaving intact the pseudo highways that slash through downtown posing as city streets, making White Plains pedestrian hostile in the extreme...
The real problems with downtown White Plains:
1. Common Council members are elected at large, not in geographic districts.
2. Those of us living in downtown apartments are dumb and lazy.
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Pedestrian controlled traffic light is long overdue at Lake Street and Stewart Place. Tuesday, August 29, 2017
White Plains is pedestrian hostile in the extreme. A great example is at the Lake Street intersection with Stewart Place, right across from the only downtown city park...
White Plains ... Motown!
Note: a pedestrian controlled flashing light has been installed with mixed results.
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Hamilton Plaza project. Sunday, March 18, 2018
In the last two years the City of White Plains has allowed bus traffic to/from the bus terminal adjacent to the train station and the train station itself to increase dramatically...
And you're adding another 1,000 parking spaces? What happened to the presumption that millennials will forgo cars? You can never have enough lanes or enough parking spaces. Try something different. Don't continue to compound the problem...
White Plains is pedestrian hostile in the extreme. It's Motown on steroids. All that matters to its decision makers is for it to be convenient for them to drive and park in downtown for their amusement: shopping, restaurants, etc.
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City waited THREE YEARS to implement the authorized safety cameras at only HALF the intersections authorized. Monday, July 9, 2018
White Plains is pedestrian hostile in the extreme...
2-3 years ago Mayor Roach repeatedly mocked the absurd city planning of 50 years ago that resulted in the mega one way streets in downtown. But rather than change that, the city has done nothing ...
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More pedestrian hostile than ever. Tuesday, March 26, 2019
More cars than ever.
More buses than ever. Isn't that good? It might be if they didn't have a greater percentage of empty seats than ever. Oh, and if the buses weren't driving more and more on congested streets in downtown White Plains.
2-3 lanes of traffic turning simultaneously on five lane roads AND immediately crossing diagonally parallel to the crosswalk unable to see pedestrians.
About three years ago the mayor repeatedly criticised the urban planning of half a century ago, which included creating the many 4-5 lane one way streets in downtown White Plains. But not a single change has been made.
Now 5,000 new apartments are being added in downtown White Plains with more parking spaces than the number of apartments. What the heck? ...
White Plains Common Council members for the last half century live in houses outside downtown White Plains almost exclusively. They are elected at large, not by geographic district. They represent the people who live on their street. Those people are interested in one thing: being able to drive from their house into downtown White Plains in ten minutes. That's it. Anything else is superfluous...
Downtown White Plains is pedestrian hostile in the extreme and getting worse by the day. If White Plains Common Council members ever walked around, they might know that.
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Bus mania is to get train station money as hub for east-west Lower Hudson Transit Link? Tuesday, April 16, 2019
Mayor Thomas Roach and others have delusions of grandeur dancing in their heads. As documented here, the Hudson Link buses have had almost ZERO passengers. It's been a local, state, federal government boondoggle. The number of cars has not decreased as the number of buses continues to dangerously increase, all at the loss of quality of life for downtown residents. The mayor and almost all Common Council members for the last half century live in house neighborhoods outside downtown. They are elected at large, not by geographic district. The current bad policy is just the most recent because of that basic disconnect.
In what millenium will ANY changes happen? Not ONE street has been changed. Not one. The 4-5 lane one way monstrosities that Mayor Roach mocked many times years ago remain, with their multiple turning lanes and resulting diagonal crossing. White Plains is more pedestrian hostile than ever.
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NYC closed 14th Street. What's White Plains doing? Friday, August 9, 2019
Nothing. White Plains is doing nothing. Oh wait, White Plains got itself declared a transportation hub for the lower Hudson Valley. Why? To get more money for the cheap MTA to finally improve its train station here: catching up on 30 years of neglect and correct fundamental problems with the original design.
In exchange for that White Plains gets a huge influx of regional buses, that not only go to the train station but also drive through the already overcrowded downtown streets. What percent of the passenger seats on those buses are occupied in downtown White Plains? The Hudson Link buses are a complete joke as many, if not most, have had ZERO passengers. ZERO...
The half century old White Plains car model is neither walkable nor sustainable but no White Plains decision makers show any real understanding, much less inclination to actually change anything.
Not one downtown 4-5 lane street has been improved. Not one.
Not one downtown street corner has been improved. Not one.
White Plains decision makers have no idea how pedestrian hostile White Plains is because they don't live downtown. They only visit the city for which they make quality of life decisions.
The only issue in White Plains: residents in suburban White Plains houses being able to drive to/from downtown in ten minutes...
Solution: election districts instead of Common Council members being elected at large. The reality is that the house residents keep their own in power and we downtown apartment residents are too dumb and lazy to take over as our numbers would support.
So White Plains schlepps along, the convenient compromise.
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What street or intersection has been improved this millenium? Wednesday, September 25, 2019
About four years ago the mayor criticized the urban planning of half a century before, especially the many one way 4-5 lane streets in downtown. However, not a single improvement has been made. And the streets are more pedestrian hostile than ever because of the ever increasing number and size of the buses that have a very low percentage of their seats filled with passengers. This includes the $115 million a year Westchester County Bee-Line bus system.
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NYTimes: Cars Were Banned on 14th Street. The Apocalypse Did Not Come. Monday, October 14, 2019
You Common Council members who live in houses don't give a damn about downtown White Plains being pedestrian hostile. None of the candidates do either.
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Fizzle: perspective on city video Sizzle. Wednesday, February 19, 2020
It's nice that residents are proud of their community and that the municipal executive had a promotional video created ...
But come on. It is the essence of what's fundamentally wrong with White Plains, which is a tale of two cities:
- downtown residents living in apartments in buildings most of which in 2020 are the functional equivalent of tenements, needing upgrades in electrical and plumbing;
- ruling elite living in houses and dominating the Common Council with membership probably 90 percent of member time on that body for the last half century.
The house residents use downtown for their convenience and amusement with no practical regard for the quality of life there...
White Plains is pedestrian hostile in the extreme but the Sizzle video would have you believe just the opposite. It did not show a single mega bus, including the virtually always empty boondoggle Hudson Link buses.
The lack of downtown open space was not just overlooked but obfuscated by the mention of parks, plural, when there is only one real park, that between Lake and Main Streets.
I know, this seems needlessly negative, especially if you live in a White Plains house neighborhood and not in a downtown apartment. But apartment residents are not extras in a video and White Plains is not Disney World.
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