An appeal to New York state to provide public safety in White Plains.

Sent to New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo (you know, the guy running for governor):

Form submitted on August 9, 2010 7:38:25 PM EDT

Personal Information:

     Kenneth Matinale

Comments:

http://white-plains-ny.blogspot.com/2010/06/white-plains-needs-pedestrian.html

The city of White Plains, NY has a consistent pattern of refusing to enforce its own traffic and safely rules and laws.  This has been true for multiple administrations.

At what point can New York state step in and protect the citizens of White Plains?

We downtowners are dumb and/or lazy.

We must be.  Why else would the majority of White Plains residents living in downtown apartments let the minority living in the suburban houses set policy for our style of living?

The essence of White Plains is its downtown.  The suburbs could easily be part of adjacent municipalities.  Downtown could not.  Part of the problem is the aberrant form of government that is White Plains: the evil at large system of selecting Common Council members.  If White Plains had district based voting, you know, like the county, state and good old USA, most of the current CC members could not be members because they would be in the same districts.

However, the majority could still take over and elect its own to set policy and run White Plains.  Why don't we?  Some of us don't get it.  The rest are too lazy.  Shame on us.

That's why downtown White Plains looks like it is run by people who don't live here.  They don't.

White Plains Clean and Green event, July 17, 2010

To: WP CC
CC: Rob, Wp Times
BCC: others

Message sent to organizers:

Solar-powered rockers: does that mean that if it's a cloudy day we will not have to listen to them?

Are the organizers getting to WP without burning anything?  I understand that the lead person lives in Irvington.

It looks like the usual WP mess of an event with some kiddie environmental stuff.  You need to insist that people get there without driving.  You need to call out the city for allowing the development of thousands of new housing units in downtown with only 14 pathetic "affordable" units crammed beside the interstate highway with any hint of "green" elements.

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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.

Property Tax Perspective.

I received this message:

Your attitude towards the sections of White Plains that pay the lions share of the taxes that support the downtown infrastructure in nothing short of abysmal. The whole blog reeks of misplaced resentment. I might have been sympathetic until I read the bulk of your posts - by the time I was done the steam was coming out of my ears. My taxes have tripled thanks to all the downtown development and you guys want MORE. Pay for it yourselves and carry your own water for a change. The downtown is a huge drain on the suburban end financially. 
___________________________________________________

Response:

I checked the city web site tax records and found two people with the last name Hicks.  One lives in a house.  The other in a two bed, two bath condo.  Their taxes (school, city, county):

house: $7,680.36

apartment: $6,684.54

Only $1,000 more for an entire house.  With private outdoor space.  Probably a private garage.

On my physical block there are about 300 apartment homes.  How much is spent by the city to maintain, let's say, the public streets?  We'll call them four blocks, even though two are short.

How many blocks of houses would comprise 300 houses and what is the cost to the city? That money is not reflected in individual property tax.

In my complex of 282 homes, there are 70 children, including toddlers.  How many children would live in 282 houses and what's the school tax distribution per adult?

Oh, and my individual apartment has meters for water, which I pay as an individual.

Finally, whatever subsidies were given by the city were given to the developers, not to apartment residents.

The house owners who think that their taxes are too high should simply move to Scarsdale.

In which of the CNA groups does the resentful house owner live?  How many homes are represented by that entity?  How many people?

White Plains needs a Pedestrian Commissioner.

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 WP Police do not enforce traffic laws, except for an occasional speed trap near a school, such as the private high school on Mamaroneck Avenue, protecting 14-18 year-olds from strolling across four lanes of traffic.  Oh, and of course, parking violations.  Have you ever seen a summons issued for:

- car across stop line
- car in cross walk
- car not making full stop
- car making illegal right on red
- car running red light
- car failing to yield to pedestrian in cross walk
- cars nudging pedestrians in cross walk out of the way?

The Traffic Commissioner has established non-intuitive rules such as cars being allowed to turn from other than the immediate lane, such as Main Street turning right onto Lexington Avenue where cars from the TWO right lanes may turn.  The Public Safety Commissioner allows cars to get away with this trick even where it is not permitted, such as Main Street turning left onto Grove Street where cars in the second lane from the left lane have routinely made illegal turn for YEARS!

Saturday afternoon at about 4PM I tried to walk across Hamilton Avenue at Church Street from the northwest corner to the southwest corner.  Couldn't do it.  A long line of cars in the left turn lane failed to yield.  Worse, and what prevented me from attempting to wade into the oncoming traffic, was another line of cars turning illegally from the middle go straight only lane.  When the light changed again I crossed and looked to see if the Traffic Commissioner had made yet another dangerous intersection even more dangerous in the never ending effort to move cars through WP.  Nope.  The cars simply did it anyway.  Why?  Because 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.

complete the streets

http://www.completestreets.org/

Here's another idea for the WP Common Council (CC) to ponder.  The mayor has just announced that he will not seek another term.  I hope that my exposing him to new ideas was a factor in his decision.

As for the colossally unimaginative CC, "complete the streets" is a concept that can baffle them, like the apes dealing with the monolith in the opening of the 1968 movie "2001: A Space Odyssey".

It's really pretty simple.  CC members should get to and from downtown WP without their cars.  Yes, walk or use public transportation.  And eliminate those reserved parking spaces at city hall for them and for the commissioners.  Only then will they experience the enormous hostility to pedestrians that is White Plains.  Only then will they even consider something like "complete the streets".

Cars are the only issue in WP.  Move 'em, park 'em.  Park 'em, move 'em.  All for the convenience, not of non-residents, but for the convenience of residents of the suburbs of WP in almost Scarsdale and almost Harrison, where the CC members live.

Apartment dwellers: taxed but not heard.

I received this message:

Mayor Delfino and city commissioners will be attending the Fisher Hill meeting on Thursday.  There will be a presentation by LCOR - the developers of 55 Banks Street - as well as presentation by the White Plains Hospital regarding future plans, the Salvation Army future expansion plans,  and the development of the Shultz dealership property.  All are welcome.

How many homes are in the geographic area of the Fisher Hill association?

Other than the perfunctory "all are welcome", notice that they completely ignore the 500 homes at Bank Street Commons whose residents would be the most effected.  Apartment dwellers again are not even considered when such activities are planned.  Taxed but not heard.  That's the White Plains method.  If you live in a house, you count.  If you live in an apartment, you do not count.  This is especially true if the apartment dweller rents rather than owns.

betterplace.com

http://www.betterplace.com/

White Plains, try SOMETHING different!  More driving lanes and more parking garages do not solve any problems.  You just continue to escalate.  You never achieve anything.

CNA and CC Maps: CC closer to Scarsdale than WP city hall.

Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA):

http://www.wpcna.org/wpcnamap.jpg

Here again is the map that I had created showing the location of the homes of the six Common Council (CC) members taken from the White Plains web site:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?hl=en&gl=us&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=103040367337361097468.000445a6e9cc47e0e7b83&ll=41.026017,-73.760662&spn=0.059183,0.157757&z=13&om=0

I am guessing but I think that CC members correlate to CNA associations as follows:

Roach: Westminster Ridge

Power: Highlands

Hockley: Highlands

Malmud: Gedney Farms

Boykin: Idle Forest

Lecuona: Gedney Manor

Roach is almost in North Castle and the other five live closer to Scarsdale than to White Plains city hall.

Of these, Highlands is the only association with more than a few homes.  Remember, each CNA association gets one vote.  The few in the houses make decisions for the many in the apartments.

The complete list of CNA member organizations is repeated below for convenience:

Battle Hill

Bryant Gardens

Carhart

Colonial Corners

Downtown (BID)

Eastview

Ferris Ave

Fisher Hill

Fulton Street

Gedney Circle

Gedney Farms

Gedney Manor

Gedney Meadows

Gedney Park

Havilands Manor

Highlands

Hillair Circle

Holbrooke

Idle Forest

North Broadway

North Street

Old Mamaroneck Rd

Old Oak Ridge

Prospect Park

Rocky Dell/Reynal Park

Rosedale

Saxon Wood

Soundview

Westminster Ridge

Woodcrest Heights

White Plains Downtown Residents Association web site

http://www.downtownresidents.com/

This is the group run by Rob Tamboia.

It is not to be confused with:

http://www.wpbid.com/

The White Plains Downtown District Management Association is the Business Improvement District for the City of White Plains.

The Business Improvement District (BID) appears to be the Downtown group that is already a member of the Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA).