FASNY: TRAFFIC AND TAXES FOR WHITE PLAINS

This letter is in response to "Community View: French-American school will be a huge asset to city",  Sep. 20, 2013. Journal News.  This response was printed Sep. 29, 2013.

The only accurate word in this entire piece by William M. Mooney is the word HUGE.  If one reads carefully, one can find words and phrases lifted straight from the FASNY public relations writing from Mischa Zabotin's thank you letter to friends, September 2013, after the FEIS vote by the White Plains City Council.  His letter was emailed widely to city residents.  "Milestone", "complete", "clears the way", "create new school and nature Conservancy."  This is no coincidence, rather it is Geoff Thompson's FASNY public relations machine in action.

Several examples of magical thinking litter this piece:  mandatory busing program, alternative access routes, cultural, educational and environmental diversity as well as economic benefits.  As noted in a recent article in the White Plains Patch, magical thinking is the belief that thoughts by themselves can bring about effects in the world or thinking something corresponds with doing it.  http://whiteplains.patch.com/groups/opinion/p/fasnys-magical-thinking   
FASNY offers no hard evidence for any of these 'aspirational' proposals.

After, FASNY's purported economic benefits in its DEIS were soundly refuted by an expert witness at the second public hearing last fall it is shocking that they return to that well.  The economic expert using FASNY's suspect data estimated that FASNY would cost every single tax-payer in White Plains, $1,700/year!  

Huge is an accurate word to describe the tax-exempt FASNY development.  After all, the square footage is equivalent to four plus Super Stop & Shop stores plunked down in a beautiful residential neighborhood. 

Taxes and Traffic are the only certainties with FASNY in White Plains.

Anne M. Casey, M.D.
White Plains