Good News? Pedestrian Struck On Knollwood Road

It has often been said that only good news emanates from Town Hall emails, press leases and interviews. Bad news is mysteriously shuffled to some place inside Town Hall, rarely exposed unless residents uncover it and publicize it. This is such a story.

One such piece of good news was when Mr Feiner announced that the former Cooke’s Florist facility on Knollwood Road had been sold after entertaining ruin for years when the owner passed away. It was purchased by the Mount Vernon Health Organization that does business in Greenburgh as the Greenburgh Health Center (GHC). Let’s not concern ourselves with pesky details such as the 1986 law that was passed mandating the property revert back to residential zoning should it ever be sold. No bother. Good news everyone! The Greenburgh Health Center is finally moving to Knollwood Road from Rt 119!

But wait, there’s more good news. People will no longer be crossing Rt 119 trying to get across the street for a White Plains bound bus. That’s right, no more playing Frogger on Rt 119. The new facility will be bigger and better able to handle more people. Let’s not concern ourselves with pesky details such as the size of the building on the non-reverted residential to commercial to residential back to commercial piece of property. Or it’s size, or it’s stadium-like lighting, or its lack of shrubbery.

But wait, there’s more good news. The Health Center will be building a sidewalk on their side of Knollwood Road. And, since that is one-busy stretch of road, think of how much safer the young mothers with strollers and kids in tow will be walking from the bus stop to the facility. What’s that? There are no bus stops there? Well, uh, wait a minute. Good news! There’s a state initiative to get money to build sidewalks in different communities. The only flaw is that your Town actually has to apply for the money, not just talk about. More good news! The Town is embarking on a new slogan: “Why fix it when we can talk about it?”

But wait, there’s more good news. The condominiums next to the location of the new GHC was required to build sidewalks in front of their property, practically extending the safe zone from Rt 119, where there wasn’t a bus stop to the A&P shopping center. However, the Town is not enforcing that tidbit and are allowing the condominium to get away with breaching their agreement. So if a young mother pushing her stroller and dragging her kids gets tired or needs to eat or even needs diapers while seeking a bus stop, they can walk in the northbound lane of Knollwood Road to go to the A&P, CVS, P&B, or DD. Although, if they are getting services from the GHC, they might not have enough money to shop there. But wait, there’s more good news. The state is raising the minimum wage, so all is well.

Okay enough! There is no good news on Knollwood Road. In fact, according to Police Chief McNerney, “On November 24th, at approximately 6:55pm, a pedestrian was struck on Joan Avenue at the intersection of Knollwood Road. The pedestrian was crossing Joan Avenue, from the north side to the south side and was struck by a vehicle that was traveling south on Knollwood Road, making a right onto Joan. According to the report, the pedestrian suffered minor injuries.” This piece of information was unreported to the media. Just so you know, the Journal News has someone call all police departments every day to see if there is anything they can report about crime in their next edition.

Whether or not we had sidewalks at this location, a stones throw from the GHC, may not have mattered for this person as they were on the opposite side and crossing a sidestreet and not directly on Knollwood Road. Or were they? This pedestrian was more than likely walking south (toward Dobbs Ferry Road) on the rough-to-navigate shoulder of Knollwood Road. There is no sidewalk there. So it just so happened that the pedestrian was crossing Joan Avenue while walking on Knollwood when they were struck by a car. Why is this important?

We spoke to a few people about the accident and were told by a Town employee that when Mr Feiner found out the accident took place on Knollwood Road near the GHC, he instructed the police not to release this information. They didn’t until a resident asked. Hmm, why would he do that? It doesn’t matter now, but it’s this kind of control over the Town’s independently operated fire districts and fire departments that Mr Feiner doesn’t have but seeks with the election of his hand-picked candidates.

The Broadview Civic Association has been lobbying the Town at countless meetings and with letters to have the sidewalks not only ADA compliant, but constructed per the plans and agreements made for them to get approval to first build the condominiums and then the GHC. It really depends on what Mr Feiner wants and the Town Departments will fall in lockstep. Sidewalks have been a missing safety ingredient throughout the Town and discussed often. The time to install them is obviously during construction. In fact, we recall when Mr Feiner coerced the developer of Stop and Shop on Rt 119 near Benedict Avenue to build a sidewalk by the apartments across two streets from them to receive building permit approvals. And now Brightview is building their facility nearby. Hmm, what did Mr Feiner know way-back-when that he wasn’t sharing?

Students from Westchester Communit College (WCC) petitioned Mr Feiner during a Town Board meeting to construct sidewalks from the college down Grasslands Road to the bottom of the hill. They came in with signs and enthusiasm that we’re sure are long forgotten now that they’ve either graduated or been struck by a car on the way to school and are in physical therapy. One speaker even commented to them that it was nice to bring this up but it would never happen. Good news! For a while, the sign the young man carried was left on display in the Town Hall lobby. It’s since been relegated to the same place bad news goes to at Town Hall. Mr Feiner got his publicity and nothing has happened for the walking safety of students at WCC.

Recently, there was a meeting in Edgemont about sidewalks at the Seely Place School in Edgemont. The long and short of it is Mr Feiner did his usual rope-a-dope that sidewalks here would be good but committed to nothing. While we have no issue with Police Chief McNerney suggesting they do a three season survey to assess the safety concerns, the simply goal of one sidewalk morphed into a much larger project that would require all areas in the Town with schools to be reviewed. Translation? Death. At the following day’s work session, Mr Feiner and the Town Board quickly changed the topic from sidewalks to something else.  Civic leaders in different parts of the Town have repeatedly requested sidewalks.

Death of a sidewalk, death of a student, death of a pedestrian crossing the street. Regardless how many people get hit and don’t die, government always installs what was needed after somebody gets killed. Ardsley just got a sidewalk installed because the Mayor and Village Board applied for state and federal grants. That’s the only flaw in the process with Mr Feiner and his Board. They actually have to apply for the money that’s there to get it. Why fix it when we can talk about it. The time to talk is over. The time to act is now. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.