Name is a translation of
Mohican name for location: Quarropas, alternately could be translated as White Swamp. Name is descriptive of heavy
fog banks that covered the swampland underneath most of the year, until the swamp was paved over, causing flooding in most major intersections whenever it rains, drizzles, humidity rises above 2%, or someone spills a drink.
Location:
Westchester County,
New York,
USA,
Earth - County seat of said Westchester County.
Right off I287.
Mayor:
Joseph M. Delfino
Attractions
Malls:
The Westchester: Most recent. Overpriced. Parking is $1/hour. Main "department store" on the end is Nordstom. Geared toward money-furnaces from NYC.
The Galleria: Rich white people moved to The Westchester when they built it. J.C. Penny (main dept. store) has more shoplifting that actual sales.
White Plains Mall: Used to be the poor man's mall until Westchester was built. Mostly ignored now.
Food
Excellent
pizza and Italian stuff, but Chinese is a bit deficient.
Schools
Most teachers are good, administrators are defective. You can get a good
public education there if you ignore the administrators. A lot of Dr. teachers, even at middle and elementary level.
SUNY has a campus there. Dorms are within staggering distance from a
bar.
The high school team is the Tigers, and is pretty good in a few sports. There's a pool there that's open to the public on weekends when they don't have a meet.
Other
This apartment building near the hospital keeps catching on fire. You can recognize it by the large soot stains near the top. You should probably avoid renting there.
One night, I think around '95, this propane tanker hit the support pillar on a bridge crossing 287. It blew up big time. The tank rocketed off over 2 nearby houses and blew when it hit the ground. It made a
mushroom cloud you could see from pretty far away. Woke up everyone within a mile, and you could feel it anywhere in town. The driver was killed, along with some guy in a car that cut the truck off and I think some other cars nearby, causing the whole thing. The bridge was closed for about a year.
It sucked if you lived there in the 80's. White Plains had one of the biggest homelessness rates in the country for awhile. If you're there, you'll notice there aren't any
Salvation Army clothes dump boxes anywhere. That's because people started living in them. The guys who emptied the boxes were afraid of getting bitten, so they got rid of them.
The NYC news guys always go to the train station to film whenever there's a
blizzard, so if you get there at 6 you can be on TV.
There's fireworks at the high school on 7/4 and there's a craft fair thing on Broadway during the summer. This guy who sells wood toys is always there. Check him out. There's also this go-kart race by the library about the same time of year. On the library, it's great. Better than most. Has
law books to
COBOL books to ACTUAL
LPs! There's also a Farmers Market in the summer with lots of
Amish goodness. Very nice pumpkin bread. Nice prices too.
Overall it's an
ok place, if a little better to visit than live in.