White Plains CitizeNetReporter - <i>King Komments:</i> Aesthetics of White Plains

King Komments:By White Plains Councilman William King. July 9, 2002: The peripatetic Councilman takes a weekend trip to Long Island and comes back with some ideas for White Plains.

Although you can't bring the beautiful coastline of Eastern Long Island to White Plains (although securing the Dellwood property from the County hopefully soon finally for a low key lakeside park would be something), there are several elements in practice there that should be also done in White Plains.

Neat Pedestrian Signs

I suggest calling Easthampton, NY to see where they bought their red, yellow and white, highly visible, vertical, rectangular "Yield for Pedestrians in Crosswalk" signs that they have in the middle of the roadways all over town. Since they are much more visible than the plain black on white signs that White Plains and other towns around us use, people tend to stop more when there is someone who wants to cross in the crosswalk. Check it out!

Bike Signs in Use. No carnage.

Also, when are the Bike Route signs coming? They were also in abundance in Eastern Long Island, on Shelter Island and along the North Fork. A good look. As with White Plains, the bicyclists were already there and biking already - the signs mainly serve to give drivers an extra head's up that there may be bicycles present -and there are many many bicyclists on Eastern Long Island.

Nifty Telephone Booths

Also, for George's (Gretsas) edification (and mine), I saw a public payphone in a bright red British phonebox in Port Jefferson. It can be done!

Intriguing Novelties

They had a nice 4-horses-deep carousel in Greenport that was a big hit - many kids riding it. It was under an open air gazebo with big glass folding doors that were open but could be closed if it rained. The round, peaked roof should have at least had skylights or hatches that could have been open and closed too.

Festive Street Banners

I see these everywhere but in White Plains but in Long Island I saw a couple more banners across the street advertising some upcoming town fair or something. Still waiting for one in White Plains.

Finally, I saw a Victorian house-looking building in one town in a hamlet of Shelter Island that reminded me of similar 'architectural statement' types of buildings that can redirect and set the tone for an entire downtown or commercial strip.

Theme Architecture to Set a Mood.

There are a couple of Victorian style gems in downtown Santa Cruz, California that are used as commercial structures for restaurants and shops that act as the catalyst for downtown revitalization there. I would think a nice restaurant like the recently defunct Wrapsody would have fared better in such a structure than the plain, white (in White Plains, how ironic) 2-story office type building it was in, and failed in, on Mamaroneck Ave.

I believe it would pay for the City to help jump start the rest of Mamaroneck Avenue, between the City Center and the block between Post and Maple, by co-investing with a building owner to completely redo a facade in a more architectural way.

Thanks - Bill King

P.S. I noticed a pothole where all the asphalt is missing near the Food Emporium on Mam. Ave. - there was yellow brick underneath - wow- Mamaroneck Avenue used to be brick! - would be cool if it was again.

P.P.S. Coming back into White Plains from my weekend trip, I was hit by the bright glare of our streelights again, bathing our town in a bright amber glow, brighter than any place else.

It occurred to me once more that White Plains could be saving hundreds of thousands of dollars a year by not having so many streetlights so brightly illluminating our streets, especially our major arterials which seem as brightly lit as night-time construction sites.


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