I posted this comment back in Agust of 2010. Maybe it is time someone listened to suggestions.
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The irony in regards to the train station bathrooms is that just a few months ago a ceremony was held to declare the NR Train Station as a historic landmark.
The city of New Rochelle owns the station and I propose a real solution to the bathroom problem. Next time a lease comes up for renewal (especially the coffee shop/convenience stand) I would enter in to the lease renewal a provision stating that they (the renter) would have to be responsible for the clean up/simple maintenance of the lavatories (mop the floor and check it every hour). The City of NR would cover the cost of fixtures etc.
Write this into the lease. This idea has received a luke warm response from a council member saying he does not think anybody would go for it. I hear the point but maybe, just once the City of New Rochelle dictates terms instead of being dictated to.
Bruce Negrin
New Rochelle News and Views Radio Program
Thursday Nights at 8pm
WVOX 1460 am or www.wvox.com
Bryant Park Restrooms Always Clean like a Hotel
If you ever used the Bryant Park facilities you will know what a model could be for public restrooms. It takes full time employees on top of good planning. That takes dollars. They do that because it brings tourist to the area.
What do travelers see when they arrive at the New Rochelle Train Station a building that had good bones but one that has been neglected. Refurbish the restrooms an man it during Amtrak and Commuter Transit periods. Lock it other times. New Rochelle has a transit parking facility that was handed to them as a gift from Lowey’s federal ear marks. I guess when you get something for nothing you act like those in welfare housing by treating the entire thing poorly. The City should find a way to make this a gateway to the future like everything else they touch they have turned it into blight.
Please call the radio show
I would love to talk about this subject. Please listen and call the radio show on Thursday night at 8 pm on WVOX. Cause right now i got to get back to work. 914-636-0110
If the NR city council would
If the NR city council would pay attention, they would that this is an item that concerns many people. Rather than sweeping it under the carpet, maybe they should deal with it. Somebody might even praise them for their efforts if that happens.
Bathrooms
Standard Parking has the contract to clean the station. They have a full
time cleaner. It is hard to clean if you are always on the phone texting. If any
member of council had to use the station every day it might have a different
out come. As of last week 3 council members did not know they were closed.
Including the council member whose district the RR station is in. Starting to
wonder who is in charge in the city. I think the present management is
in serious need of an in house review. With all the problems in the city
this should not be hard to resolve. Just get people to do their job!!!!
City of New Rochelle as a Land Lord
The City needs to divest itself of all real estate holdings. the track record for the city is dismal. Buildings do not just lay fallow they fall to the ground.
I can’t remember which council person recently stted the NR should get rid of its holdings but I o know that Mr. Trangucci leaned to that same
conclusion on my radio show.
Facts? You want exapmles? Let’s get it started
1. Church on North Ave near City Hall. Bell Tower crumbled to the ground. Full demolition at tax payer expense seesm to be best option.
2. Ward Acres Barn. Mothballed but still falling down. Watching the decomposition of this structure must be another form of passive recreation.
3. Wild Cliff – needed a new roof and got it. Has not been occupied on a full time basis since the days they tried to scare every elementry school child that the metric system would be firmly in place in the US by 1985. Did hear a pre school is looking at it
4. The Train Station – NR saved it from a private source but owning a property is much easier than maintaining it.
I am sure there are others.
How about the Armory?
Bruce, I know you do not feel the NR Armory should be saved but to your point, the City has a legal obligation to maintain the Armory something they ignore. It is part of the City’s overall plan to let buildings they own, especially those on with historical significance, lay fallow until they deteriorate to the point of condemnation. Then they can give the store away to wealthy developers.
A Glaring Oversight
NRinfo,
You are absolutely correct in adding the Armory to this list. If the Armory can be repurposed as an asset than I am all for keeping it. I just do not like the argument that it should be another County Center because when was the last time anyone was at teh County Center?
All of that aside I want to say your are 100% correct in terms of the Armory and the City of New Rochelle’s role in the demise of the building.
Armory as County Center?
Bruce,
You invariably raise the same point over and over with regard to the Armory. I think you need to get a new line.
Over and over you say…”I just do not like the argument that it should be another County Center because when was the last time anyone was at the County Center?”
Has no one once challenged this unsupportable statement? If not, let me be the first.
Just because YOU do not go to the County Center does not tell us anything. I have been there twice in my life and I grew up in Westchester just like you. As a business proposition however, the question is whether the County Center is utilized and, if so, to what extent. Here is a link to the calendar for the Westchester County Center.
http://www.westchestergov.com/calendar/ccorgcalquery.asp
Tell me how you read the calendar because the way I read it the Westchester County Center is booked constantly. Maybe you do not care about a Golf Expo or a Gun Show or a Circus or a Harlem Globetrotters game or a Baseball Card show or basketball tournaments. That’s fine. But these events are booked by paying customers. To continually take the position that because you do not go to the Westchester County Center that no one else does seems just a tad parochial and entirely beside the point.
That said, maybe you should re-connect on the Armory issue because I have been going to the SOA meetings for about three years now and I have not once heard a proposal that the Armory be turned into another Westchester County Center.
What I have heard are plans to use one side, the drill deck, as a sports arena that can serve other uses, while the other side would have a variety of spaces used in different ways — restaurants, meeting rooms, classrooms, a museum and many others. The idea of using the drill deck as a sports arena cannot be that dumb since CB Richard Ellis, one of the top Real Estate companies in the United States just leased a part of New Roc City to Monroe College for precisely this purpose. Had the Armory been properly maintained the City could have had that lease instead.
If Echo Bay is ever developed the residents would be customers for the restaurants and other amenities at a revamped Armory. I know you live in the North End but surely you recognize that the area down there has some of the best new restaurants in Southern Westchester.Already there is development with thriving businesses across the street with restaurants like Fratelli and The Post Road Ale House and the nearby Cienega.
I think you need to shake off the cobwebs and take another look at both the area and what has been proposed to the City by the SOA Committee. It is beyond unfair to equate the vision for the Armory presented by Ron Tocci and Peter Parente last summer with your imagined version of the Westchester County Center.
Community Center vs County Center
Bob,
I think you misunderstood my meaning. To take this train station conversation another way i am not against keeping the Armory upright if the use is right. I was not against the SOA proposal at all. I think it needed a little more heft but the idea is correct. Because i knock the County Center does not mean I am against a Community Center for New Rochelle.
You have polls on this web site, why don;t you pose the question about the County center and get stats to cback uop your arguement instead of showing me a calander. The question can be how many times do you vist the county center a year?
We will see who in New Ro goes. Im reasonable, so at least one person has told me, if the numbers come in and i will take them into consideration when I make my posts.
Just to add more fuel to the fire Monroe is a business looking out for its best interests. As an outsider with an outsiders viewpoint I never beleieved they would go to the armory.
bathrooms
i worked at the railroad station for over 15 years and these bathrooms were a mess then just like they are now. The city tried everything to keep them clean and nothing worked. I myself had keys to lock them up at night, unless you have someone there watching them all the time nothing is going to work.It’s a disgrace how people treated these facilities and I’m talking inhumane things like going poop all over the floors,urinating everywhere,graffiti everywhere,condoms used ones at that on the floor you name it i seen it. The city mgr. made the right call CLOSE them down.Way to much money was being wasted there. There are bathrooms in the new center next door i thought? The “BID” tried to keep them clean and failed. So what’s next a $200.000 makeover to make them vandal proof like the library just did? I don’t think so unless you want less police,firemen,and dpw crews because that,s where the money is going to come from.So think about it can you hold it for 20 minutes( not that anyone is there 20 minutes before there train anyway)or take away your safety. And really now how many people really used them except mostly the bums and vagrants that hang out there?
Chicken or the Egg Question – Quality of Life
Eye,
I hear your argument but the questions of who really used them comes down to the fact as you say “Bums and Vagrants” are the ones occupying them. I have desired to use them a few times but have turned around because of the conditions.
The choice between a bathroom or a fireman is not the arguement. This is quality of life and you better believe that EVERYONE who runs for city council in 2011 will discuss imnproving the quaulity of life. It starts here right now. The bathrooms at NR Train Station are symbolic. This is our “Gateway” to NR and the proposed transit oriented development. We have public art on a parking garage but locked bathroom doors.
NR has to pick its priorities.
what have other cities done?
Surely New Rochelle is not unique in struggling to make public bathrooms available to residents and visitors. What successful efforts have been undertaken in other communities? Is this really a hopeless situation?
bruce,
There are bathrooms located in the transit center,as of yesterday they were clean, very clean. Let’s see what happens now. i just watched the city mgr. on news 12 and he Say’s is cost the city $50,000 for the bathrooms. I’m sorry but that to me is a issue.The bathroom’s you say are symbolic to whom? How many stations on the new haven line have bathrooms that are open?Port Chester close at 130pm. Rye none,Harrison close with ticket office,Mar’k not open,Larchmont they use the tunnel.I still have to check on the other’s.Stay tuned.
Train Station/Transit Center
Perhaps you are unaware that the transit center’s parking garage is taking in money that is not accounted for. If you would like to park for 4 hours and only have a 5 dollar bill you do not get change. So where is the extra dollar going? I asked the city manager about that and he stated to use my credit card. I will not put 4 dollars on a credit.
As far as I am concerned, the city manage is a big part of the problem.
I hate to say it, but you
I hate to say it, but you should try the Larchmont station where the parking is free. You have to pay a higher fair, but with free parking I think you come out ahead.
Train Station
Why should I. I live in New Rochelle and pay taxes to New Rochelle. I only what the best for this city. I could care less about Larchmont. I do not believe in running away from a problem, I would rather solve it.
Its economics for me that
Its economics for me that counts and my point was that its cheaper to travel by train to NYC from Larchmont than it is from New Rochelle. That’s after hours and week-ends I’m talking about, I don’t think you could pull this off everyday commuting, but if you’re going to a show or a concert.
And back to the topic at hand, the NR train station bathrooms, why not put in 2 or 3 porto-lets outside somewhere? They have to be a lot cheaper than $50k per year and they are a place to go if you need to. You can find porto-lets at most ball fields these days and they’re very convenient.
How does Strome come up with $50k anyway? That seems like an absurdly high number to clean 2 bathrooms. For $50k we should have a full time guy there cleaning ($40k salary plus benes) and we don’t.
You learn something new everyday
I had no idea that there were bathrooms at the Transit/Parking Center. At the risk of sounding like the most neagtive New Rochellean ever, which I am not, are those bathrooms located in the stairwell next to the Colt 45 bottles? (The bottle that is there for 10 to 12 days at a time)
FYI Pelham has a bathroom and it open. Problem in NR is that the lavatory is around the corner behind the wall so nobody knows what is going on.
And really, 50k to keep the bathrooms open. As someone stated you could hire a fulltime person to do that or funnel that money to the BID and charge them with the task. 50k for the train station bathrooms and to think bike path signage to nowhere only cost 30k. Priorities, New Rochelle has to determine what they are.
how about other metro-north stations?
Is New Rochelle unique? Do other stations have bathrooms?
Train Station
I have taken Amtrak from Stamford, CT and the station is spotless and the bathrooms are clean. Perhaps the city officials can contact the mayor and ask him/her how that was accomplished.
Our New Rochelle station is on the National Register of Historic Places. In other communities, it would be treated as a jewel of the city.
Train Station
Are you aware that some people are waiting for Amtrak? The wait for those trains can be as much as 1 to 2 hours.
The city manager had no right to close them down without discussing the matter at a council meeting where citizens could voice their concerns.
It seems very odd that during election season the train station is very clean. Perhaps if the elected officials would come to the station after an election they would be able to see the real picture.
Train Station
The city government has one excuse after another about solving the train station’s problems.
Perhaps if the mayor and the council would visit the station once in awhile the bathrooms, etc. would be cleaned.
I suggest we bring back the work program that was established by BID and have this as a supplement to the cleaning service or should we be looking for a new cleaning service.
Your Idea
That is an interesting idea. At least soem thought is being exercised oether than the sanp decison to close the bathroom. Again, the city administration had to see this comimg but they have NEVER been proactive. Discussions about solutions could have taken place before New Ro decided to take the most drastic action possible.
It is amazing we are going to talk about transit oriented development (i.e. our proximity by train to NYC) and not take care of our to use a Mayor Bramsom term “Gateway” to our city.
The Mayor did visit he train station to bestow upon it a national historic place plaque but once every hundred years may not be enough.
Can’t say I like the idea of
Can’t say I like the idea of the guy who makes my breakfast also cleaning the bathrooms. Moreover, small businesses like the coffee shop probably don’t have the time or money to service the bathrooms and still take care of their customers.
Here’s what I don’t get:
The city has employees that service the bathrooms in city hall, the police station, and other city owned properties. Do you mean to say that they are all so busy that they can’t stop by the train station periodically during the day and clean the bathrooms?
How is it they can have bathrooms at Grand Central but not in a small, city station?
Gas stations have and maintain bathrooms. They employees have the keys in a lot of cases. There are pay toilets and the like. Seems this whole issue is too shitty for the city to tackle and now they won’t give us a pot to piss in.
Maybe they should come up with some hair brain development schemes that cost the taxpayers more money.
Breakfast
All the food at the stand is premade anyway.
As for no time or money to take care of it? That would be the cost of doing business especially with their soda being $2.20 a bottle.
And as for gas station attendents they are on site. Nobody is stopping in from an outside to clean the bathrooms. That would be a lot to ask a city workr to stop in hourly or 3 to 4 times a day. The point is that you have some one onsite so it does not become an uncontrolable mess.