Galleria garage roof: they don't even bother to remove snow because nobody parks there! Make it a park!

Photo taken this morning about 8:30 AM, Saturday, December 19, 2020:

Open space on Galleria parking garage 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?

Yes! As a park! Come on, it's a great idea.

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Galleria: put it out of its misery. Tuesday, March 10, 2020

White Plains is a one horse town. Always was. Always will be.

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Second call: NY: Plague: eliminate county benches used by homeless and worse at White Plains train station.

from: Ken
to: George Latimer <ce@westchestergov.com>
cc: digital@lohud.com,
letters@lohud.com,
"Thomas M. Roach" <troach@whiteplainsny.gov>
date: Apr 19, 2020, 8:56 AM
subject: White Plains, NY: Plague: eliminate county benches used by homeless and worse at White Plains train station.

To: County Executive Latimer​​

​CC: Mayor Roach​, ​LoHud​

https://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/2020/03/plague-eliminate-county-benches-used-by.html

​Come on, do it! Take one day off reading three day old stats about the plague.

They have been infested and infected for years. They serve no purpose, right beside the train station. No normal person will sit on them. The wood should be burned and blasted into outer space. There is debris and abandoned clothing. It looks like the Bronx.

I have not seen a county police officer on the county path next to the White Plains train station this year. I walk there almost every day.

Clean it up. There's no excuse for the filth and health hazard.​

Kenneth Matinale

White Plains, NY

Galleria: put it out of its misery.

Two views:
As the aging Galleria Mall nears its 40th year, can it last in a growing White Plains? https://www.lohud.com/
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In Las Vegas they demolish useless structures: Galleria, Library. Monday, March 14, 2016

10 LAS VEGAS Hotels That Were IMPLODED: a planning model for White Plains. Thursday, March 17, 2016

Questions for tonight's candidates debate for Common Council. Monday, June 17, 2019

At the library, tonight 7-9 PM. Hey, what else is the library good for? ...

Would you support controlled demolition of the Galleria and its garage for the purpose of creating a central park?
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My question was not asked. Too bad. White Plains is a one horse town. Always was. Always will be.

Fizzle: perspective on city video Sizzle.

It's nice that residents are proud of their community and that the municipal executive had a promotional video created:

https://vimeo.com/showcase/the-city-of-white-plains

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. The only issue in White Plains is making sure that the house residents can drive to downtown and park in ten minutes. To facilitate that White Plains long ago established 4 and 5 lane one way urban speedways that even the mayor criticized, although not recently.

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.

Open space on roofs of apartment buildings and municipal garages revisited.

Open space on roofs of apartment buildings and municipal garages. Saturday, January 30, 2016 by Kenneth Matinale

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.

If there are no inhibiting regulations, the City should start a long term program to encourage decision makers for existing residential apartment buildings to make the necessary changes where possible and use all that open space for their own residents...

The Trump residential apartment condominium at the City Center has on its roof space atop the public parking garage: tennis and basketball courts and what appears to be a small golf hole. Use Google Earth to check for yourself...

Renderings of the new residential apartment project at 60 South Broadway, the old Westchester Pavilion, suggest that the roof will contain multiple recreational items, including swimming pools...

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 ($115 million a year) option for people moving around White Plains. The City needs to step up its efforts on this.
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New Vision For Whole City Block In County Seat

It would add restaurants and retail to a currently people-unfriendly area close to the White Plains train station.

By Lanning Taliaferro, Patch Staff | Nov 27, 2018 10:13 am ET | Updated Nov 27, 2018 3:04 pm ET patch.com

Ginsburg Development Companies presented its idea for City Square Monday to the White Plains Common Council...

But one amazing highlight wouldn't be open to the public: an almost one-acre landscaped roof deck on top of the property's parking garage to be called City Park, accessible to people who work or live in the complex...

The transformation of Westchester Financial Center into City Square would be the first development project under the area's new Transit District Development Zone, designed to make the neighborhood near the train station more pedestrian friendly with new retail and restaurant offerings...

An amenity that the entire complex would be able to enjoy is "City Square Park," an almost one-acre landscaped roof deck that would sit on top of the property's 1,033-space parking garage and will be accessible from all buildings.

This Central Park would feature a dramatic fountain with plentiful seating, a putting green, a BBQ Pavilion and a 2,000-step, 4-level walking path with landscaping and sculpture features.

"City Square Park is a unique feature that will become a favored spot for all of those who live and/or work at this special place," concluded Ginsburg.
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Hamilton Plaza project.

from:		Ken
to:		aley@akrf.com, hanqing.wu@rwdi.com, edyta.chruscinski@rwdi.com
cc:		planning@whiteplainsny.gov, "transitdistrict@whiteplainsny.gov"
date:		Sun, Mar 18, 2018 at 9:49 AM
subject:		Microsoft Word - 200 Hamilton Avenue_Final Scope_05012017

http://www.cityofwhiteplains.com/DocumentCenter/View/2387

​Walking down Hamilton Avenue in recent days has been VERY difficult because of the wind. Unfortunately, for 50 years it has been one of many desolate, wind-swept mega streets in downtown White Plains. It's good that wind is being considered in design. I hope it's not too late to mitigate the existing problems.

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. Are you aware of that and has it been factored into your design?

On a more fundamental level, has the City of White Plains even considered, much less explained, how this increased bus traffic benefits the City of White Plains? The only benefit would seem to be the sad little coffee shop at the train station that these commuters pass.

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. 

​Just try walking around that area. Just try it. Try walking to the walking ​path on the west side of the tracks from say 4 Martine Avenue after 4 PM. Experience the impediments and danger.

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.

Open space is needed DOWNTOWN, not at the city border.

Thursday 6:34 AM, March 8, 2018, the day after the snow storm:

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.
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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?
________________________________

Open space on roofs of apartment buildings and municipal garages.

With just a little imagination we can substantially expand the amount of open space in urban downtown White Plains.

14 Nosband Avenue

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.

If there are no inhibiting regulations, the City should start a long term program to encourage decision makers for existing residential apartment buildings to make the necessary changes where possible and use all that open space for their own residents.

The Trump residential apartment condominium at the City Center has on its roof space atop the public parking garage: tennis and basketball courts and what appears to be a small golf hole.  Use Google Earth to check for yourself.

Renderings of the new residential apartment project at 60 South Broadway, the old Westchester Pavilion, suggest that the roof will contain multiple recreational items, including swimming pools.  The buildings will be 24 stories high and contain about 700 apartments.  Views from the roof should be spectacular.  Hopefully the City has plans to get the residents to the train station rather than have each of them drive.

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.