Eastchester REVIEW THE
December 15, 2017 | Vol. 5, Number 50 | www.eastchesterreview.com
Purchase students collaborate on White Plains project
10 years and counting
BLT Steak recently celebrated 10 years on White Plains’ dining scene, changing the face of steakhouses and championing the importance of excellent service. For story, see page 6. Photo/Sibylla Chipaziwa
Bedford supervisor to run for Latimer Senate seat By JAMES PERO Staff Writer Bedford Supervisor Chris Burdick, a Democrat, will add to a pool of candidates looking to fill the seat of former state Sen. George Latimer, as he readies to take the reins as Westchester County executive next month. In a statement on Dec. 5, Burdick said he’s ready to take his political career a step further. “I am looking forward to taking that record, and my work ethic, to the next level by representing the residents of the 37th Senatorial District,” he said. Burdick has served as Bedford supervisor since 2013 and had prior to that served as a councilman dating back to 2007. Among Burdick’s priorities are building party unity, using
his candidacy announcement as an opportunity to criticize the Independent Democratic Conference, IDC, a group of eight state senators who were elected as Democrats but often side with Republican leadership in a power-sharing agreement with the GOP. Though Democrats have a one-seat majority in the state Senate, the IDC gives Republicans control of the Senate. “The IDC-Republican leadership has resulted in a failed record for New Yorkers,” Burdick said in a statement. “Their anti-choice, anti-immigrant, anti-reform record does not reflect the values of Westchester voters.” According to an Associated Press report last month, mainline Democrats in the state Senate and members of the IDC
said they are willing to agree to a proposal allowing for a power-split between leaders of both sides, successfully bringing members of the IDC back into the party’s fold. The IDC emerged as an opposition caucus in 2011 headed by state Sen. Jeff Klein, a Bronx Democrat, who was ousted from party leadership after Democrats lost the Senate majority in 2010. In addition to Burdick, state Assemblywoman Shelley Mayer, a Yonkers Democrat, and White Plains’ Kat Brezler—a teacher and campaign organizer for Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, during his presidential run—are also interested in the open seat. It is now up to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, to decide whether to call for a special election to fill the final year re-
maining on Latimer’s term. The other option would be for Cuomo to leave the seat vacant, and ultimately be decided by the November 2018 election. The Senate’s 37th District encompasses Rye, White Plains, Yonkers, Harrison, Mamaroneck, North Castle, Bedford, and Eastchester. CONTACT: james@hometwn.com
For the third year in a row, SUNY Purchase College School of the Arts has collaborated with the White Plains Business Improvement District, BID, to exhibit Art in Vacant Spaces, an innovative art project in empty storefronts in downtown White Plains. First launched in 2015, the project was created to improve the visual appearance of several vacant storefronts, thereby enhancing the overall ambiance and pedestrian experience in the downtown. This year, Warren Lehrer, a professor at SUNY Purchase, worked with his Community Design class to populate the storefronts with visual poetry as part of their pro-bono work for the semester. The School of the Arts hired poet Judith Sloan to research and interview people in White Plains, and to write site-specific poems for the project that represent the hopes, desires, memories, and soul of people working and or living in White Plains, leaving room for evocative interpretations by student designers. Sloan wrote poems that would invite experimental and evocative visualizations and collaborations with student designers. In writing the text for fall 2017, Sloan wanted to give voice to the fact that students and community members are living in a difficult, ‘divided’ country. “I wanted to reveal the things that are holding communities together including ideas around what it takes to create a community and maintain a community,” Sloan said. The students in Lehrer’s class visualized the poems, making many variations, using typography, image, shape, and color, then refining their solu-
tions, and making final presentations. This year, the project transformed three vacant storefronts on Mamaroneck Avenue, and included second floor windows for the first time. For her setting of the poem “Recipe for a Loving Community,” Madeline Friedman designed suggestive silhouetted scenes for each of nine sets of second floor windows at 131 Mamaroneck Ave., “inviting the public to engage their imagination and enter the world of the inhabitants. For the trilingual poem “I’m Here,” Kelly Mertz interwove the different languages into line drawings of buildings to evoke the diversity and co-existence found in White Plains. Hailee Knadle’s eye-catching interpretation of “New Rhythms” celebrates the seasons of life cycling through time via evolving shapes and vibrant colors. White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach said, “This initiative between the White Plains BID and SUNY Purchase Community Design students showcases a creative and collaborative approach to public art in an urban setting. The work has enlivened our streetscape and created inspiring and thought-provoking messages about community and place.” Brittany Brandwein, the director of events and business promotions for the White Plains BID and the project manager said, “Collaborating with property owners, city hall, artists, and students is the essence of the project and exemplifies the unifying message we have portrayed in the artworks. For the second year in a row, we incorporated the free downloadable app Otocast into PURCHASE continued on page 8
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