WPCNR WHITE PLAINS CITY LIMITS. By John F. Bailey. October 30. 2003: One week before Halloween,  Mayor Joseph Delfino’s announcement of the New York Presbyterian Hospital agreement in principle to lease 55 acres of land to the city if the city would rezone their northern tier of property in the heart of the city to commercial medical zoning is a spectre that  raises more questions than it answers.

The most curious mystery is the timing: 11 days before the Common Council election next Tuesday.

The other mystery is what it will ultimately cost the city in terms of recreation and parks expenses to put the 55 acres of parkland into shape. It seems that the city has no idea what it will cost to put that parkland into usable shape, let alone do basic maintenance on it.

The land deal was first broached to the Common Council at a work session in August, during Executive Session. Why, Executive Session?

Because it was a quid pro quo. 

During that Executive Session in August, it was revealed to the council that New York Presbyterian Hospital was willing to part with land long coveted by the city.

This magnanimous gesture would be made, if the council would rezone other portions of their land to commercial-medical. Ostensibly, this was to avoid the wrangles over word definitions long characterizing the 2001 approval process that resulted in an approval of the proton accelerator-biomedical complex.

However, the timing of that Executive Session was very shrewd.

It was a mere several weeks before the New York Presbyterian Hospital Special Permit renewal application for the proton accelerator project was to be considered by the Common Council. The 55 acre land for rezoning “bribe” was a carrot to the Common Council to assure renewal of that permit.

One cannot be too cynical here, but obviously if the Special Permit were not renewed in September, I would be very surprised if there was a land deal announcement last week.

But, is there something more at play with the land deal announcement?

Remember, we have been through the lackluster political campaign just furiously waged by Councilmen Benjamin Boykin and Robert Greer and political spear-carrier, Arnold Bernstein against insurgent Republican youth, Timothy Sheehan and Jeffrey Binder, and the Independent, Dan Hickey, punctuated by the withdrawal from the race by Rosa Munoz who has refused to campaign on her Conservative and Independent Lines.

One issue the Republican candidates hit very hard on was the fact that the Common Council candidate Benjamin Boykin voted against referring the Plan A proposal deeding 60 acres of parkland and a Fortunoff’s next to Bloomingdale’s. Messrs Sheehan and Binder made much of the Democrat Council lack of vision in rejecting even referral of Plan A because of politics and paying attention to the hysteria of a few instead of the needs of many. They say “we need to wake up the Common Council” to prevent this kind of political partisanship of the well-connected.

Another issue the Republicans have hit on is the illegal, unsafe housing foot-dragging by the Common Council, which they talk about, but have done little. This resonates in Battle Hill and Fisher Hill, but nowhere else.

Meanwhile, Democrat Boykin and Greer, and their third running mate, Bernstein have pointed out that they voted in Mayor Delfino’s proposals on Bank Street Commons, City Center, Clayton Park, approved Liberty Park open space acquisition.

They point to a “record of accomplishment,” but fail to acknowledge they nearly killed the City Center project by forcing Mr. Cappelli to scrap his original building design and turn it into two buildings. Cappelli was close to walking on that project due to the Council playing architect and listening to Robert Levine, William Rose’s architectural critique of the original project. Another example Republicans could have used to give credibility to their “Wake Up the Common Council” theme, but did not.

The Republicans also failed miserably to point out the Council footdragging on the Tishman-Speyer project that they literally killed with the request for an economic study in the spring of  2000. Far from moving things along smartly on either the Tishman project or the Cappelli project they dragged them out as long as possible.

So, the main issue the Republicans Binder and Sheehan have is the Council’s fumble of the New York Presbyterian Hospital land proposal in 2000.

The Mayor Taketh Away.

Now, in one swoop, Mayor Delfino took that issue away when he announced his land deal with hospital honcho, Dr. Herbert Pardes one week ago. Messrs. Binder and Sheehan have been robbed of their one issue that the Council does not think longterm.

In effect, by announcing the land deal before the election the Mayor has given his allies, Robert Greer and Benjamin Boykin, and to a lesser extent Mr. Bernstein, a vindication that Boykin’s denial of Plan A in 2000 was prudent. (Mr. Greer voted for referral of Plan A).

If the land deal had been announced one week from today, after the election, no harm to Sheehan and Binder and Hickey would have been done.

Absolution of Sins

But, now the lone sin of the Common Council, despite many prolonged flirtations and grandstanding to their Southend constituency with denying growth projects for White Plains, while ultimately approving them has been immaculately cleansed by the Mayor with this deal announcement.

Yet, already Councilman Malmud is raising questions about definitions of commercial medical, about lease takeaways. This is typical.

Never mind, that the city is now more or less committed to 720,000 square feet of more development on the hospital  property, in addition to the 384,000 square feet of biomedical research/proton accelerator space in what is becoming a very crowded area of the city.

That is the ultimate effect of the rejection of Plan A referral: loss of city control over New York Presbyterian Hospital development. Referring out Plan A, would have enabled the city to maintain control over how that development evolved.

 Instead Boykin,  Ms. Malmud, Mr. King (who has totally lost interest in Common Council doings, and now should get a pay cut, since he is not showing up at council work sessions), Ms. Oliva, and Republican Larry Delgado, handed over control to the New York Presbyterian Hospital legal team.

Why the announcement last week?

The Mayor’s motivations for announcing this land deal cannot be devined.

Does he want Mr. Binder and Mr. Sheehan to join the Council? If he does announcing this land deal did not help their candidacy or appeal one bit.

It hurt them badly. Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Binder did not know about this announcement three days before it was made since they talked a lot about the Council failure on New York Hospital during the televised debate at the White Plains Public Library.

Had Mr. Binder and Mr. Sheehan known about the Mayor’s announcement, don’t you think they would have taken a higher ground, positioning the impending land deal as vindication of why they (Binder and Sheehan) were needed on the Council?

They could have said something like “The Mayor has been working diligently to correct this politically self-centered rejection of Plan A, at the expense of the people of White Plains, we expect to have good news on this front. Meantime we ask you to anticipate how the council has acted when the well-being of the city was in their hands…”

Do you see the difference here? Binder and Sheehan could have turned the upcoming announcement into a benefit in the forums and in their campaign.

 Instead the Mayor, for whatever his reasons, chose to break the news last week, giving Mr. Binder and Mr. Sheehan little time to massage their message, while orchestrating events to show  by inference, that the council rejection of Plan A, might have ultimately been a smart thing to do.

Not a Smart Play

I don’t buy that. Rejecting referral of Plan A was dumb. It as I explained, lost city control of the situation with New York Presbyterian Hospital. Now, to get what the city wants, we have to give the hospital what they want.

Is the Mayor Comfortable with a Council He Knows How to Roundup?

It seems so. Mr. Sheehan and Mr. Binder are extremely hard working and intelligent men. So is Dan Hickey, the dark horse favorite son of the Southend. The Mayor knows the present Common Council as constituted. He has won their confidence, made Glen Hockley, Robert Greer and Benjamin Boykin allies, and has backed them into a box canyon on issue after issue.

Should Mr. Sheehan or Mr. Hickey, or Mr. Binder come onto the Council, he would be dealing with a new factor of independence. He perhaps has had his fill of political independence from Mr. Delgado when Mr. Delgado voted with the Democrats on exactly the Plan A issue. The last thing the Mayor really wants, it appears, is independent judgment on the council.

Otherwise, why give Mr. Boykin, Mr. Greer, and Mr. Bernstein the groundswell of achievement and vindication that the land agreement announcement last week gives them? It, in my opinion, sabotages the Sheehan Binder Hickey campaigns with little time for those gentlemen to make a midcourse correction.

Usually such announcements that would sway voters opinion, like William Ryan, the County Legislator, admitting that there’s going to be a “wallapalooza tax increase,” instead of not answering how he would solve the $52 million courthouse bill if the “pie-in-the-sky-from-Albany- in-the-sweet- bye-and-bye” he alludes to does not materialize, are held until after the election. 

You will notice no print reporters or print editorialists are asking County Legislator candidates what their solutions are to the budget problems the county faces, the most obvious question.

However, Mayor Delfino, cannot contain the news of the hospital land deal for 2 weeks.

Halloween Mystery Two:  How can the city acquire parkland without finding out what it will cost to run a park?

Executive Officer, George Gretsas, told WPCNR matter-of-factly Monday evening that, the park acquisition from New York Presbyterian Hospital came first, then there would be planning as to what would be done with the park, how it would be developed, and the like.

This is nice to say.

But, once you acquire that land, you have to start taking care of it. Several years ago, WPCNR was informed that the New York Presbyterian Hospital spends $2MM a year “just to cut the grass.”  Building one field in White Plains (Gedney Field) cost White Plains $300,000. To build several fields on the Bryant Avenue stretch of meadows will most likely cost a lot more because the grounds are not level.

The “Bloomingdale Pond” is a stagnant mess. The city has no clue what has to be done to clean that pond disaster up.

Then there is the parking problem. The need for security, just to mention a few items of ongoing expense associated with any new park. 

It will cost the city approximately $1MM to complete Liberty Park, which consists mostly of  tree and grass clearing, reseeding, and building two docks.

The city is serious about accepting these 55 acres. It should get very serious about getting a handle on the costs associated with creating and maintaining 55 new acres of parkland when its present recreation budget is only $4 Million. Where will the money come from to run the park? Will they turn it over to a trust? Long term thinking is needed as soon as possible.