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. 
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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).

Why downtown residents should not join CNA.

The White Plains Council of Neighborhood Associations has these member associations:

http://www.wpcna.org/

Battle Hill

Bryant Gardens

Carhart

Colonial Corners

Downtown

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

Reynal Park/Rocky Dell

Rosedale

Saxon Wood

Soundview

Westminster Ridge

Woodcrest Heights

I count about 31 including Downtown for some reason.  As noted months ago Gedney has FIVE.  My guess is that each association represents a wide ranging number of homes, yet according to the CNA by-laws each gets one vote.  That's un-American.

Why would the newly forming Downtown association want to join that?  Especially since it already contains entities that are already organized: condos and coops.  Here is a better model for representing all the Downtown condos and coops in its association.

Each member condo or coop would have one vote weighted by the number of homes it contains.  Simple and fair.  A simple spreadsheet can be used to count votes and it can be posted for public review using the free google docs.  That way condo and coop residents can see how their rep voted or if the rep did not vote they can try to find out why.

Playing the game already established under CNA means that the emerging Downtown association is likely to fail much more than it succeeds and be bogged down in needless administration.  Remaining independent and setting its own agenda and membership guidelines means that it will have the flexibility to exert much more influence, especially if it does not make the huge mistake of becoming a toothless non-profit, non-political mush of an entity.  Exactly what are the political views on garbage pickup?

Condos and coops would be energized to take action on their own or in concert with others with like issues.  Many are probably larger (more homes) than most if not all of the current CNA associations.  The new Downtown association could act as a facilitator.

This model would also support my contention that the new Downtown association does not need money.  In addition to a web site and other supporting free services on the Internet, condos and coops could post paper notices on their premises.  Simple and effective.

White Plains Downtown Residents Association

http://www.downtownresidents.com/

Last night I attended my third monthly meeting in the last year, my first in a long time.  Obviously I have not been active but I was surprised by the change from pie in the sky to boring run of the mill.  Rob does a great job in getting so many people involved and the group is on the verge of incorporating as a non profit organization.  I have my doubts about that but the momentum seems unstoppable.  It seems to me more can be done by keeping it simple and having maximum flexibility.

There are two things that will eat up a lot of time and resources by this group becoming a non profit:

1. administration

2. money.

Money is the root of all evil.  Rob has already accepted $1,000 from an interested party.  Interested parties expect something in return.  I am not suggesting corruption but the group will be precluded from taking hard stands.  I am not sure what can be accomplished by being like all the other groups in White Plains.  I asked why they need money and the closest thing I got as an answer was for marketing to which I countered that with the web this could be done almost free.  A domain can be registered for under ten dollars a year.  That and a few well placed flyers is really all that is needed.

I think that one person there was a spy: a woman I have seen at the library asking about the ridiculous Railside issue ad nauseum during a candidates debate in the last election for Common Council.  During introductions she indicated that she was attending because she wants to keep up on what is happening in White Plains.  Believe me, the balance of power is not going to tilt from house dwellers to apartment dwellers unless something unexpected happens when the group drafts its bylaws and mission statement.

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.

Whatever form this group takes here are some suggestions:

1. Make it clear that it represents the interests of apartment dwellers, not house dwellers.

2. Ignore the current geographic bounderies of neighborhood associations and include condos and coops that logically belong.

3. Get all the board presidents involved.

4. Present the city with solutions, not problems.

5. Have interested parties decide on the solutions; for instance, the traffic problem at Westchester and Franklin Avenues should be addressed by the people who live there.  The movement of traffic on Franklin and Main St. east of Westchester Ave. should be addressed by the people who live there.

6. The White Plains Downtown Residents Association should then present that solution to the city as needed.

7. Look to New York City: many issues were resolved long ago there, including taxis, alternate side of the street parking.

8. Look elsewhere in Westchester: Garth RD in Eastchester has a very useful system for overnight resident parking that should be applied in downtown  WP.  The long standing contention that the city needs to prohibit overnight resident parking is nonsense as is shown in both Manhattan and Eastchester.

9. Be like Mike ... Bloomberg.  WP mayor has no imagination but NYC mayor does.  Don't be too proud or foolish to ignore Bloomberg's many good ideas.  WP mayor will not do that on his own so the White Plains Downtown Residents Association should do it for him.

10. Be GREEN!  WP will never do it on its own.

11. 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?

Given my views I do not know whether I will continue in this group or whether they would would want me to be there when they set policy.  I like the independence of this blog.  One thing I will not be is a spy.

Budget cuts: eliminate the library and schools.

OK, enough with the small stuff like snow removal from sidewalks.  The city budget is front and center.  Here are bold ideas that will have an impact.

1. Eliminate the library.  The web makes it a dieing relic at best.  Sell the building if possible or turn it into a free Internet center.

2. Phase out public schools.  Hey, might as well be the first kid on the municipal block to do it.  They're mainly warehouses anyway and could be put to better use.  I am guessing that most households do not use the public schools.  Smart kids will go to private schools.  The rest aren't learning anyway and are often wandering around town during class hours, especially those assigned to the high school.  You can see them slow walking west on Bryant Ave. starting about 10:30AM.  Do their parents know that?  Do school administrators know where they are?

We need firefighters and police officers.  We do not need librarians and teachers.  Cut to the essentials.

Get that federal stimulus money to provide universal access to the Internet.  People can find what they need on their own.