WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. MAY 14, 2013:

At its Monday evening Common Council Meeting, the city announced its intention to expand the duties and jurisdiction of White Plains Parking Enforcement Officers to enforce what Mayor Thomas Roach called quality of life laws.

The actual introductory letter for the legislation from the Corporation Counsel John Callahan reads:

"Submitted herewith for Council deliberation is legislation that would provide the Commissioner of Parking with the authority, concurrent with that vested in other city officials and personnel, to enforce certain quality of life violations and to authorize members of the enforcement staff of the Department of Parking to issue appearance tickets for said violations."

The actual proposed local law that will have a public hearing at the June Common Council meeting authorizes Parking Enforcement Officers, if they see a "quality of life" violation to:

"Enforce concurrently with other designated City department officials and personnel, quality of life laws relating to littering, noise, graffiti, refuse disposal, dumping, peddling, bicycling/skateboarding on sidewalks or municipal parking facilities, shopping carts, signage, handbills, removal of snow and ice, dirt, debris or foreign matter on sidewalks, obstructing or encumbering public streets, highways, or sidewalks, and custody and control of dogs, including but not limited to, authorizing the issuance of appearance tickets by enforcement staff assigned to same;"

What do Mr. and Mrs. White Plains think about this proposal? Do you support this quality of life initiative? Answer the poll at the right.

WPCNR NEWS AND COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. April 28, 2013:

Well, we heard the County Executive State of the County speech last Tuesday evening.

Well What kind of speech was it?

Exactly the kind of speech White Plains Week told you last week he would give. How do we know these things? Because White Plains Week has been observing politicians for the last twelve years. They are predictable. And uncreative. And pathologically believe everything will get better if we just hold on.

Last week’s show I said Mr. Astorino would tout the Astorino record of holding the line on taxes the last three years, and criticize the Democrats for not going along with his cuts…he did exactly that touting his three P’s:  Protect taxpayers, Preserve essential services, promote economic growth, cutting the tax levy 2% and keeping it there for two years—obliquely challenging the legislator to set priorities, make hard choices and that partisanship must give way to partnership, rhetoric must yield to leadership  Improving what is working, fixing what’s not and focusing on symptoms of problems…then proceeded to lapse into 40 minutes of rhetoric.

I said he’d say Westchester employment is coming back, he did mentioning businesses he helped keep: Pepsi, Captain Lawrence, Bake-A-Wish, and Regeneron saving 4,800 jobs and 4,600 new jobs. And pointing out he has $58 Million in capital projects awaiting legislature approval and $75 Million planned and creation of the Local Development Corporation providing access to low cost tax exempt financing for non-profits.

I said he’d lobby hard for Sustainable Playland and legislature approval of that Playland designated developer, but he added no new reasons to believe Sustainable Playland is going to get this done –no change in Sustainable’s capitalization was reported. The proposal continues to languish as does the disturbing lack of swift Playland repair.

This week in county committee we learned the north boardwalk was not going to be repaired and the casino would not be ready until winter. This dawdling on Playland repair  is a dropped ball by both Astorino and the legislature. Together their lack of sense of urgency is going to kill this park in my opinion.

I said he’d defend his position of defiance of HUD, and he did that with a vengeance,and his opposition to zoning change creavity.

He predicted that if the county did not fight HUD EVENTUALLY  HUD would have the county build 10,768 affordable units and cause a 200% tax hike. He was over the top on this, but I also said he would not offer an olive branch like vowing to develop zoning changes for each community, to fulfill the HUD demands.

 He did not offer a counciliatory said, as I said he would not. A missed opportunity there since after the U.S. attorney threatened the county with a contempt of court, Astorinio released the source of income legislation to the legislature for their action the next. What a mistake.

I said he would say how great his administration performed during Hurricane Sandy…he did citing several anecdotes. But, if you recall Hurrincane Sandy, it was not until after communities started screaming that the county huffed and puffed about the outages.

I said Mr. Astorino would probably not talk Tappan Zee Bridge traffic flow and transit in Westchester County after the new bridge opens. I was wrong, he did say we should not have congestion after the bridge is built BUT HE MADE NO PROPOSALS….He has to start taking positions and taking recommendations to the people, not just be on commissions.

I said he probably would not back off seeking an injunction to stop HUD from withholding federal community development funds. He did not say he would not seek an injunction.

I said he would not introduce plans for cutting non-union staff to lower taxes farther and he -- surprise -- did not.

I said he would not say he would cut any county departments—and he did not suggest cutting or combining any – no new cost cutting initiatives.

I said he probably would not ask the legislature to undertake a study of county government and make their recommended cuts to county government to reduce spending, and he did not – another missed opportunity to fire a salvo at Westchester’s new great hope Noam Bramson.

Astorino lauded his improvements to the Department of Social Services –increasing spending by $17 Million to $559 Million…increasing slots for taxpayer subsidized day care to 600 (18%) raising the adoption rate 41%

And of course there are his green initiatives.

It was a speech that talked about the past and not the future. But this is his main selling point…holding the line on taxes.

Now the question is whether Noam Bramson can do all he says he wants to do without raising taxes…where have we heard this before…I think a guy running for office 4-1/2 years ago said that somewhere in this country.

The state of the county is a sorry state. No leader is looking at reality. No one in government has any interest in changing things. Leadership we have and would-be leaders tell us what we want to hear.

We as individuals want to believe what we hear, because believing the lies is much more comfortable than realizing the uncompromising truth.

WPCNR's The Daily Bailey. By John F. Bailey. February 12, 2013 Retrieved from the WPCNR ARCHIVES.

Today marks the birthday of Abraham Lincoln, whose Presidential performance during the Civil War (1861-1865) was perhaps the most admirable of any American President. He had to create things as he went, dealing with a complex political issue: slavery, while deciding to fight a war to preserve a divided nation.

How did Abraham Lincoln handle pressure and political opportunists? He did not have press agents and spinmasters and talk show hosts and superior punditry critiquing his every move and loading him up with advice.

Though he did have the "crusading editors" and "editorial boards" of his day. Let's take a look at the Big Guy from Illinois

In the days of Lincoln, media coverage was simply print media, however, the amount of reporting on the burning issues of the day was far more detailed than today with dozens of newspapers presenting the chronicles of burning issues. For Lincoln’s presidency was the presidency of the nation’s greatest crisis in its eighty-five year history:

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. February 6, 2013:

Mayor Thomas Roach is most likely going to run for a full term as Mayor in his own right this fall. But, with the Democrat voter registration more than 2 to 1 than Republicans, you could run Richard Parker for Mayor as a Democrat and he would win. All he would have to do is roar.

The view from Dem-Heavy White Plains is whom would the Republican Party put up to run for Mayor against Roach? Would he or she have a chance?

WPCNR NEWS COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. January 21, 2013:

On this celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and the Inauguration of President Barack Obama for his second term, I want to write something that needs to be put out there now.

I LIVED THROUGH THE 1968 RIOTS IN CHICAGO, THE RIOTS IN WASHINGTON. I EXPERIENCED THREE ASSASSINATIONS  IN FIVE YEARS: PRESIDENT JOHN KENNDY, ROBERT KENNEDY AND DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JUNIOR. 

EVEN IN THOSE TIMES THOSE FIGURES WERE REVERED, YET THREE PERSONS ACTING ALONE WITH GUNS MOTIVATED BY WHAT--HATRED, PREJUDICE OR TJEIR OWN WARPED VISIONS OF WHAT THOSE THREE FIGURES REPRESENTED—SHOT THEM TO DEATH IN COLD BLOOD.

NONE OF THOSE THREE PERONS WERE SUBJECT TO THE LEVEL OF HATE RHETORIC THAT THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION AND GUN CONTROL ADVOCATES HAVE PUT OUT IN THE LAST WEEK.

I HAVE NEVER SEEN THE GHOUL-LIKE COVERAGE THE NATIONAL NETWORKS--WHO IN THEIR ZEAL TO COVER GUN CONTROL AND EXPLOIT THE SANDY HOOK MASSACRE -- TO SHOW ON THE RABBLE-ROUSING STATEMENTS SOME PERSONS HAVE MADE.

QUITE FRANKLY THE STATEMENTS AD COMMENTARY HAVE REACHED A HERETOFORE UNSEEN LEVEL OF RECKLESS INCITEMENT OF THE PRESIDENT AND GOVERNOR ANDREW CUOMO THAT QUITE FRANKLY IS DANGEROUS AND IRRESPONSIBLE BY THE MEDIA CHOOSING TO AIR THE SCURRILOUS COPY AND THE SPEAKERS AND WRITERS THEMSELVES.

YOU SHOULD BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SAY ABOUT MOTIVATIONS AND CHARACTERIZATIONS OF PERSONS YOU DISAGREE WITH ON MATTERS OF POLICY.

YOU NEVER KNOW HOW YOUR RHETORIC WILL UNLEASH AN UNBALANCED PERSON WITH A GUN, OR WHATEVER MEANS,  TO COMMIT A DEMENTED EFFORT TO ELIMATE A LEADER, A SPOKESPERSON, AN ADVOCATE – EVEN A NATIONAL LEADER SEEN AS THREATENING TO TAKE AWAY THEIR RIGHTS – AND THINKING ELIMINATING THEM WOULD BE A PATRIOTIC ACT. THE MISGUIDED, THE MENTALLY DIM COULD CONSTRUE STRONG REMARKS AS JUSTIFICATION AND MOTIVATION TO COMMIT SOMETHING AWFUL. IT HAS HAPPENED BEFORE.

I AM NOT SAYING THEY SHOULD NOT HAVE THEIR GUNS. I AM SAYING THAT IN THE WORST PROTESTS IN THE 60S, NO ONE ACTED ON NATIONAL TELEVISION AND IN THE PRESS AS THEY ARE ACTING TODAY.

NO ONE SAID IN MY MEMORY THE KIND OF THINGS YOU SEE HERE AND ARE HEARING ABOUT WHAT THE GOVERNMENT IN NEW YORK AND IN WASHINGTON IS TRYING TO DO TO GUN HOLDERS. IT IS RABBLE ROUSING.  IT IS INCITEMENT TO AN ACTION OF GOD KNOWS WHAT.

RABBLE-ROUSING IS DANGEROUS AND IRRESPONSIBLE. YOU CAN SAY IT, BUT IT IS NOT RIGHT.

I LIVED THROUGH ONE PRESIDENTIAL ASSASSINATION. I SAW REAGAN AND ROBERT KENNEDY SHOT ON TELEVISION. 

THIS LEVEL OF RHETORIC IS NOT CONSTRUCTIVE. IT IS THE CONTRARY. IT COULD INCITE A CRAZY PERSON THINKING THEY ARE BEING PATRIOTIC  TO STRIKE AT OUR PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, OUR GOVERNOR.

THIS  KIND OF DISCORD IS  NOT THE AMERICAN WAY. IT TAKES ITS ROOTS FROM A FAR DARKER PAST. JUST READ MEIN KAMPF, OR THE PRINCE.

THE UNSEEMLY CHARACTERIZATIONS  MUST BE TONED DOWN.

DISAGREE WITHOUT DISCORD. COVER NEWS RESPONSIBLY! DISCUSS RESPONSIBLY.

BEFORE SOMETHING TERRIBLE HAPPENS AGAIN.

AND THE MEDIA WILL WRING ITS HANDS AGAIN WONDERING HOW A THING LIKE THIS COULD HAPPEN.

THEY NEED ONLY LOOK AT THEMSELVES.

THEY PULLED THE TRIGGER WHEN THEY PRESSED THE SWITCH PUTTING THE LIPS THAT SPEAK WITHOUT THINKING ON THE AIR OR ON THE PAGE.

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. January 15. 2013:

The Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino published a letter today that he wrote to Janet Hasson of the Journal News demanding she remove the interactive map showing locations of gun license holders in Rockland and Westchester Counties. What in this reporters' opinion was interesting was his statement in the letter that reads:

"Constitutional Amendments -- even those protected by the First Amendment -- are not absolute."

He also chided his own County Clerk for cooperating and obeying the New York State law by releasing the information the Journal News requested.

Now. The question is raised here by Mr. Astorino's letter. Do authorities have the right to decide what is protected by the First Amendment and what is not. What is really First Amendmenty or not? There are hundreds of shades of gray.

Suppose The Journal News requested all the salaries of the Astorino administration hires. This info could very well be determined to violate the right of privacy of individuals and the ability to do their job due to prejudice against overpaid political hires who are usually political cronies. I would really love to know whether Astorino had this letter to Hasson cleared by county attorneys.

The National Rifle Association has based all its lobbying efforts to defeat gun controls on the "absolute" position.

Now does Astorino mean too that Freedom of Religion (in the First Amendment) is not absolute? Let's get rid of that sect down the street, shall we, obviously the forefathers did not mean to include them. Let's stop that strange religion from moving into the neighborhood. My point is once you start interpreting, the amendment -- all amendments- lose their meaning. The forefathers realized that. That is why the amendments are pretty straightforward.

Politicians hate that.

The Journal News had every right guaranteed by state law to publish the data in any form they chose.

What do you citizens out there think? Can Government rule a religion, a press report, a book is not within protection of the First Amendment based on its content?

Generally court cases are built on the unconstitutionality of a decision or practice based on a right being violated -- not the constitutionality of an action that is exercising a right.

But once you start nuancing what is permitted under any Amendment -- you are into a comprehensive plan of conundrums -- you cannot think of everything.

Give us your answer at the right.

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. December 30, 2012:

Well,  fasten your seatbelts, as Bob Murphy used to say.

Here we go in free fall, for the city, its school district, and Westchester County have already gone over the fiscal cliff.

Like congress a few years ago, they built this cliff themselves.

The city, the city school district, and Westchester County have lost control of their destiny. Not knowing the meaning of the word cut, all three have put themselves in vulnerable financial positions at a time when help is not on the way. We are not talking  disaster aid, either.

It makes no difference whether our incompetent representatives in Washington come to a compromise or not within the next 24 hours.

Here is what the city and the school district, and the county have to look forward to in 2013 and what the White Plains resident can look forward to if the city does not execute responsibly:

·         A dwindling tax base. Westchester County has informed the city of White Plains they can expect a 6.07% cut in their share of county taxes in 2016. This has been prematurely ballyhooed by some media as a tax cut. But, this “tax cut” will only come true if  the White Plains assessment roll stays the same. If the roll declines  for the fifth straight year, or the  $2.6 Million the roll declined this year, there will not be a 6% tax cut in your county tax bill. There will be a 5% increase in your city tax rate to cover the county tax.

·         Soft Sales Tax Revenues. The city is now off 4.5% in sales tax revenues, and crossing its fingers they hit $5 Million in sales tax receipts in December to hold the shortfall where it is. If December figures are off, the city will have to make up that difference with more tax increase piled on top of that 5%. The revenues are not looking pretty at the halfway point of the city’s fiscal year.

·         Financial Crisis in the School District. The crisis will be triggered if the above ominous trend in the assessment roll comes true. There is no reason to suspect that the assessment roll will stay at this year’s level with more certiorari settlements with businesses and homeowners to come. The School District will have to raise their tax rate in addition to the city tax rate increase to catch up with the

·         The Assessment Crisis Continues. The city government is the least affected by the assessment roll. But, the school district will be devastated again. Another assessment roll will aggravate a budget that faces at least a 7% increase in school taxes because of the pension increases the school district is facing, a  1.1% increase in debt service from its new $48 Million bond, and  the 2.5% step increases the district  was  not expecting to have to pay in 2012-13—brought on by the teacher association rejection of an expected contract settlement.

The district still has to negotiate that contract or face fact-finding, arbitration and worse,in face of a rising inflation rate. To avoid around a 8% tax increase  they  may be faced with  taking  savings by laying off some full-time teachers or teaching assistants, who will be the newest teachers hired. It is not a pretty picture.

Failure to cut the school budget this year in 2012-13  (raising your tax 3.01% because they could), is forcing the district into a pretty hefty school tax increase in 2013-14.

City Scramble for Development. WPCNR has learned that two new projects will soon be presented to the Common Council. There is one for the former Sholz Buick property at the intersection of South Lexington and Post Road. The other is a project for one of the office parks on Westchester Avenue, the first under the new mixed use ordinance approved to stop the bleeding property values of office park owners east on Westchester Avenue. 

You can bet that any project will be approved by the city to get the assessment roll into recovery in about three years – maybe. The last three years development in the city has stood still. Now finally it may be moving, but it’s not going to keep up with the inexorable march of the certiorari refunds. Business owners are already coming back for second rounds of refunds thanks to the poor economy.

FASNY Approval. I would think that no matter how much the South End of town protests against The French American School of New York project on the defunct Ridgeway Country Club, that the city will have to approve it.

They need the development public relations that approval of this project will generate. If the Council rejects it, if you were a developer would you  purchase a large tract in White Plains and go through what the city is putting FASNY through? If the Recreation District Ordinance affecting golf courses is not tweaked by the Planning Department and not resubmitted, that would be an indication to this reporter that the roadblocks put up by the Common Council in response to this proposal are in the process of coming down.

Detox Center Approval. This will be interesting. This is another project that should produce revenues for the city coffers. I’d expect it to be approved, despite the very reasonable objections to it by the neighborhood.

Labor Contracts.  The city has problems with the police and fire unions and binding arbitration is going to solve those. The city should cross their fingers that inflation does not glide over 3% otherwise they have big problems. With dwindling sales tax revenues, the fund balance cushion will be hard-pressed to meet a 3%-3% dictated settlement, then the city has to negotiate again on the 2013-14 year. What a mess.

Winbrook Limbo .  Ground has not been broken on the first building of the Winbrook  rebirth project so much lauded just 4 years ago. It’s been funded (at least the first floor of the first building).  Had the city managed this whole project better, something might be happening now. Instead the project, its residents, are in limbo, waiting on HUD and Washington for funding.  The huge parcel is in limbo, locked into a never-never-land project. Hopefully the masterminds in city hall and the Housing Authority have a blockbuster announcement to make that billions are on the way. That would be welcome.

Development of Downtown with Vision. The next two years the Roach administration needs to show some initiative in developing the Metro-North Plaza and work in tandem with the County and the state so they do not screw it up and take 10 years to do it.

They don’t have to even touch the station, just fix the bus station, the parking, and the plaza where traffic is a mess every rush hour. (The Traffic Commission has been alerted to this by this website and my television show  a number of times, and do nothing to straighten out the perpetual traffic jam during rush hours in the city. Hopefully the new Planning Commissioner can put a magic touch on this blighted transit hub – if only the envisioned Bus Rapid Transit system does not screw development potential up. The Roach administration has to be pro-active with the transit nuts on the Tappan Zee task force and not let White Plains downtown be sacrificed on the altar of rapid transit.

The administration is concentrating on marching development of housing and alternative uses out Westchester Avenue but the inner downtown has to be massaged it has stalled out like Providence, Rhode Island. Perhaps the new Commissioner of Planning  and BID can pull together the mishmash of the downtown as it now exists and get some districts going—financial-entertainment-park/rec. The downtown thanks to the downtown drinking district is holding its own but losing lustre – the new Planning Commissioner faces a growth problem that is the challenge of her career.

  Comprehensive Plan to the Rescue -- Or an invitation to procrastination. I expect the city will raise the possibility of reviewing the Comprehensive Plan again. But, this should not be an excuse to delay doing things.

When a city stops building and developing, it begins to whither economically. The last two Democratic Administrations sandwiched around the Delfino administration were marked by ennui and slow, if any growth and a fixation on affordable housing as opposed to vibrant projects that make the city grow.

The Roach administration needs to change that mindset.

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. December 26, 2012:

The Journal News published an interactive map on their website (compiled by filing a freedom of information request) this weekend that shows the locations and identifies persons in Westchester and Rockland County, who have gun permits.

By zooming in on the White Plains area on the map, you can see the locations, names and addresses of persons on your block who have pistol permits.

The map is  located at http://www.lohud.com/interactive/article/20121223/NEWS01/121221011/Map-Where-gun-permits-your-neighborhood- 

The map raises a question whether neighbors should have the right to know who has gun permits in their neighborhood, and whether or residents in a neighborhood should be notifieed by police and the county when new gun licenses are granted to persons living near them much as when persons are notified when sex offenders move into their neighborhood.

GNN – The Ghoul News Network.

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. December 17, 2012:

Guns don’t shoot themselves.

People shoot guns.

But is the news media and the tweeters of the moment,  right now tightening the trigger fingers of the next gunner with a grudge  that will lead to the next shooting of the next victims in the next American “tragic” shooting?

The coverage has been as despicable as the Newtown tragedy itself.

It has not been good. Not accurate. Brutally intrusive.  It is doing that it usually does. It works  America into a frenzy of grief and remorse, it is arousing  the demons in America’s troubled and mentally ill who watch it.

After watching reports; after reading  articles in “respected newspapers” admitting Sunday the print stories published Saturday were dead wrong;  after  jerk-your-heart photos of the victims, the latest orgy of sensational shooting aftermath coverage, I am convinced the media lust for ratings despite pious sentiments excusing the inexcusable.

( I saw one young reporter interviewing a child under 10 about what happened, saying the parents wanted the children interviewed).

After seeing and reading incredibly slipshod, unprofessional, tasteless, compassionless,  reckless, unsubstantiated reports of what happened in Newtown, Connecticut, I suspect the next “loner” somewhere is getting ideas on how he or she can secure a place in history and “get even” for the resentment he or she feels about God knows what and God knows who.

American media fascination with disasters is like covering lynchings used to be.

Their answer is you have to cover it.

Of course you have to cover it.

But what is missing is using facts to cover with,  not inventing them. Not substantiating.

Covering a big story as if it's the only story is just  not right. It may be exciting to the executives and the news editors but the way to do it is cutaway coverage, not nuance after nuance.

Facts are not showing  tape loop after tape loop of the same overhead shots, the same standup commentators to keep America watching your network, listening to your radio station, or buying your next newspaper with endless reams of commentary.

Facts are found by waiting until authorities have something concrete to tell you. Instead, the reporters for the most part reported the first things they heard. They reported the mother of the killer worked at the school; the principal let the gunner in, two blatant errors. These  were  flat out mistakes,  created by prolonging anxiety by reporting every piece of hearsay and supposedly informed source they can find at a scene, and doing a posthumous injustice  to the brave who died.

This is going to make you mad:

There is a part of  America  that drinks up these vicarious thrills from watching  real life tragedy unfold. They want to know why. They want someone to blame. They in some strange way are soothed by educators talking about it, experts advising on grief, leaders pontificating about it, and outrage is built.

The media feeds this like gossip columnists of olden days.

News Directors and editors have to get a grip. It was a mass murder in Newtown. Report it. Wait for facts to be released. Have taste to allow the the grieving to grieve instead of intruding.

Do not run it for the sensationalism.

A  famous Cavalry general, George Armstrong Custer came across two Calvarymen tortured and mutilated in the desert., As he surveyed the two dead men, he said, “How horrible. But how exciting.”  There is an appalling truth to that statement. Obviously the way the television, and the press cover disasters and the Newtown shooting they feel the same way.

Well, Monday Senator Diane Feinstein is about to introduce  an assault weapons ban.

Now, the arguments from the gun enthusiasts will be heard again.

Here is what it should do, off the top of my head:

1. Ban possession and licensing of automatic weapons, period. Only guns allowed to be sold should be hand automatics and revolvers and rifles that are not repeaters.

2. Have all sales of repeating ammunition clips and massive sales of hand-gun clips subject to a background check, and reported with names of the buyers. That would possibly stop a spur of the moment event.

3. Have all gun owners reapply for their license  each year or say, every six  months (like a driver’s license). That would quickly identify persons buying handguns legally then reselling them on the black market.

Don't worry, gun enthusiasts, congress will never do that. They do not have the guts.

There have been 181 persons killed in 60 school shootings in the U.S.A.  in the last 13 years according to McGill University in Montreal.  That is a rate of 4 a year! One every three months.

Extensive, Ghoul News Network coverage does not make this disturbing trend O.K., and I think it is responsible for a lot of it.

Ghoul News Network coverage advertises the behavior. It promotes it.  It shows the mentally unstable, the misanthropes of life, and the evil (who know exactly what they are doing) a way to achieve instant satisfaction, a horrible get-even high that will bring many people to a low they will never get over.

The media needs to think seriously about the impact of their coverage on the impressionable, the disturbed, and the suggestible in the future.

Because we should have another by Easter.

WPCNR CITIZENETREPORTER POLL. NOVEMBER 1, 2012:

This is perhaps the wrong time to run this poll. But, despite the great job authorities and utilities are undertaking to help the victims and the infrastructure of New York-New Jersey-Connecticut to recover from the Sandy disaster, the question comes to mind.

Should the tri-states and other regions across the country form an always ready disaster team to be able to swing in within hours like a military division with equipment, with men and women, with electerical, water, housing, repair and supply experts to address disasters from Coast to Coast?

Or should the military have an arm -- like the Seabees -- to deliver a force to make those electrical repairs alongside PSE & g, Con Ed, NYSEG and LIPA?

Obviously as you sit there in the dark with a home or a future you are going to vote yes. But is this the best we can do? It is a question for the future.

WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. From the Governor Andrew M. Cuomo Committee. October 3, 2011:

WPCNR MILESTONES. August 6, 2012:

Sixty-seven years ago, the Enola Gay, a single American bomber dropped an Atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima, Japan. The terrible effects of that single bomb are a horror that has never been repeated

A second bomber, Bock’s Car on August 9, dropped a similar bomb on Nagasaki. Unknown thousands of Japanese citizens’ lives were vaporized, burned,  and maimed and two cities leveled to the ground in an instant in both bombings.

To grasp what one atomic bomb did to Nagasaki. Readers may see the photographs Japanese photographer Yosuki Yamato took of the aftermath of Nagasaki the day it happened at http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/photos.html#journey/63.jpg

The decision to drop the bombs was made after the United States, Great Britain and the Republic of China demanded Japan  surrender in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26 or face  "prompt and utter destruction". The Japanese government did not.

The United States deployed two nuclear weapons  dropping one on Hiroshimi today, 67 years ago and one on Nagasaki on August 9.

Over four months the bombs resulted in the deaths of   90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki, half dying the day the bombs fell.

The Hiroshima prefecture health department estimated that, of the people who died on the day of the explosion, 60% died from flash or flame burns, 30% from falling debris and 10% from other causes. During the following months, large numbers died from the effect of burns, radiation sickness, and other injuries, compounded by illness. In a US estimate of the total immediate and short term cause of death, 15–20% died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from burns, and 50–60% from other injuries, compounded by illness. In both cities, most of the dead were civilians, although Hiroshima had a sizeable garrison.

The horror of those two bombings and the aftermath, the injuries have created  an effort and reluctance on the part of nuclear-armed powers to avoid any nuclear attacks since that date.

Within a few days of those bombings, Japan surrendered unconditionally, officially ending World War II.

The decision to use the bombs by the United States has long been debated. A dialogue on what the bombs did, why the decision was made was collected in 1995, the fiftieth year since the bombings. It is available at http://www.exploratorium.edu/nagasaki/commentary/decision.html

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. MARCH 31, 2012: 

One way of assuring that the public has the opportunity to know about agreements or the potential for agreements between developers and the city is for the city to make all meetings with developers to discuss changes in properties that would affect neighborhoods, city blocks, etc., or grant special privileges for developers is for the city to make such meetings public or televised. No exceptions.

For years developers come in, charm commissioners see what their objections are and tailor plans accordingly, the public is the last to know, except for possibly some neighborhood association personalities. It is a clubby atmosphere with representatives interacting with city officials in a cooperative, "chummy" way and reasons not to do things not considered too carefully so as to block the project.

The public (as the city argument for private developer meetings goes), has its chance at public hearings.

But, sadly many proposals such as the 5-day  "accelerated" approval of  city $17 Million to rebuild the Lyon Place garage for the Esplanade at taxpayer expense, never get weighed in on by the public. Not once did the city even say this garage had an average of  x amount of spaces occupied when it was open, and generated this amount of dollars -- to prove the garage was needed. Instead the city just decided to do it. l The garage has been closed two years. All the bars on Mamaroneck and merchants on East Post Road can easily use the Maple Garage. That's what people have been doing. We do want a walkable city don't we?

Perhaps the most hilarious aspect of this burning of $17 Million is the city is electing to pend $17 Million on a new garage it is leasing for 99 years and will have to be rebuilt in 25 years maybe. This is a leadership in the city that felt spending $9 Million to buy a country club (of 100 acres) and retaining control over what happens there was not a good idea.

The country club was resellable -- no one is going to buy that garage. If the garage is such a profitable concern why doesn't a major parking concession offer to put it up for the Esplanade? If the city is so concerned about parking, why not tell Esplanade to buy parking from the Westchester and the Westchester Pavilion or close?   Where is the whistle blower on this deal?

Well, too often lately we are just deciding to do things "for the good" of whomever without rational thought. How is the debt service going to be paid?

A way to get plans out from the cloak of secrecy before they slide on past a naive and lazy common council (who if they have knowledge beforehand are just not doing their due diligence), with careless Common Council review, if the council reviews them with a critical eye at all, is to make these developer "hey, we want to do this meetings" public. Ideally such meetings should be televised and made available on the website.

By the way, the $17 Million Esplanade bailout is going to be approved Monday evening,so FOILING for the garage numbers...would be too late.

What does Mr. and Mrs. White Plains think? Tell the city fathers what you think in the poll at the right.

WPCNR QUILL & EYESHADE. By John F. Bailey. February 28, 2012:

I have been fitting my mind around the stratospheric numbers involved in financing the new Tappan Zee Bridge.

Under the current plan for paying for the bridge,  the cost of handling the debt service on $6 Billion to build the Governor Andrew Cuomo Bridge would raise the new Tappan Zee Bridge toll to $11.50, and that is conservative.

WPNCR using standard municipal loan projects provided by the Municipal Capital Markets Group, notes that to handle the debt service on $6 Billion of loans at 3.11% (this week’s current bargain rate from TIVIA), the New York State Thruway Authority would have to pay $196 Million in debt service a year for 35 years in a combination of public and private financing, beginning in 2022, or earlier.

WPCNR MR. AND MRS. AND MS. WHITE PLAINS POLL. February 24, 2012:

This week, Governor Andrew Cuomo got solidly behind Town of Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner's idea of turning the old Tappan Zee Bridge into a pedestrian walkway, rather than destroying the bridge after the new replacement bridge is opened.

This got the WPCNR Editorial Board thinking. The Tappan Zee Bridge 'Walkway" would be 3.1 miles long, which is a lot longer, and a lot wider than popular High Line in lower Manhattan.

It is the opportunity for a lot more attractions that could make the Tappan Zee Bridge "Walkway" a money maker. Our editorial board came up with just a few attractions that could go on the Walkway over the Hudson, and just might help pay off the astronomical cost of the new bridge and keep the tolls down (perhaps $20-$25 to pay off the cost of that bridge? Just guessing).

So what do you think? Select some of the attractions you think might be good!