Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona Announces Mayoral Candidacy for White Plains (Updated 1-31-17)
White Plains Councilwoman Milagros Lecuona officially announced her candidacy Sunday for Mayor of the City of White Plains. Intending to engage in a vigorous campaign, Lecuona made the announcement outside of the Westchester County Democratic headquarters at 170 East Post Rd., surrounded by vacant storefronts in the heart of the White Plains business district. Lecuona chose the location to highlight the fact that although there is much “good news” being reported about White Plains growth and progress, there are areas suffering and “the current administration is not giving the full picture,” she said. “It is unacceptable that these stores are closed.”
“Today’s political announcement should not surprise anyone in White Plains, based on what the current administration has been advocating for the last six years. We reside in a very competitive regional environment where cities are struggling to attract dynamic business interests as well as new residents all while balancing quality of life issues. However the ongoing lack of vision, process and leadership have placed White Plains on a dangerous path. The time to change that path is now,” Lecuona told those gathered at the press conference.
Lecuona also claimed that the current administration’s lack of transparency was a major issue. “Developers schedule meetings with city commissioners, but residents are not even able to access basic information. Our citizens are purposely kept in the dark! City Commissioners have been instructed not to talk to specific Common Council members; the information provided is filtered, manipulated, or delayed. And as a result, our neighborhoods suffer.”
After the presentation, Lecuona told The White Plains Examiner that she began contemplating making the bid last year when she realized accountability and transparency were out of control. “Change must come from the top,” she said. “Communication is being manipulated by the Mayor,” who, she added, has a big public relations machine working with him; something she does not have.
“I am paid to work as a Councilwoman, I am paid by the taxpayers. I cannot do my work if I am not getting the information I need to make sound decisions,” added Lecuona, who noted she was being deliberately kept out of the information loop.
With support from many of the White Plains neighborhood associations behind her, Lecuona said she stands as a Democrat all the way, but that she is also running as an individual and will do what it takes to make her case all the way to the end. “We are early in the process, you don’t know who else might throw their hat into the race,” she said.
Lecuona said she is aware of the apprehension of residents in all the neighborhoods about ongoing development. She is concerned about how the application for development at the former Good Counsel property on North Broadway is being handled, including the treatment of historic buildings on the site, and the lack of adequate traffic studies in the surrounding neighborhoods.
She feels the $1 million grant, spent on a multi-modal transit study to analyze future development at the Metro North train station could have been used in a better way. “The Battle Hill neighborhood is even more disconnected [by the proposed plans],” she claims. “I would encourage the MTA to take care of the train station today. The MTA should have been asked to renovate the bathrooms and problems with the station’s structure,” which Lecuona added is unsafe in parts.
Lecuona is concerned that focus on a Transit District and rezoning for multi-use developments will cause Mamaroneck Avenue to suffer even more.
She has been steadfast in her rejection of development proposals by the French American School of New York to develop the former Ridgeway Country Club into a regional school campus in the middle of a single-family residential neighborhood.
While the current mayor talks about bicycle paths, Lecuona says she promotes more and better sidewalks for pedestrian use. She would also like to see more energy put into the development of parks in the city, rather than the current focus on developing recreational programs, which are nice to have – but the dog park is a mess, the Veterans Park has been ignored and more could be done with Liberty Park.
“Enough is enough,” Lecuona said. “I hope that by the end of the campaign we have a better mayor for the city of White Plains.
Lecuona is originally from the Canary Islands, Spain. After living in several cities around the world, she moved to White Plains where she has been a resident since 1987. Before coming to the U.S., Milagros lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, where she taught at the School of Architecture ITESO and co-owned an art school.
She holds a BS in Architecture from the University of Madrid Spain, where she majored in Urban Planning, and dual master’s degrees from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and School of Urban Planning (GSAPP).
She has more than 35 years of experience in Architecture and Urban Planning. For the last 16 years, Milagros has been working primarily on educational and cultural facilities and prior to that, she did extensive construction and design work on corporate, residential, health care and laboratories facilities. She is the principal at Lecuona Associates, an award winning architectural design and urban planning consulting firm in White Plains. Until recently, she was an assistant adjunct professor (AAP) at Columbia University at the GSAPP urban planning masters program and is currently teaching as an AAP at SUNY Empire State College.
She is a former member of the Westchester County Planning Board, the White Plains Open Space Acquisition Advisory Committee, the White Plains Cable Commission, the White Plains Budget and Management Advisory Committee and the board of the Westchester Hispanic Coalition. She was a member of the New York German School board of Education and co-president of the WPHS-PTA.
Currently, Lecuona is the chair of the White Plains Sustainable Committee, and represents the City of White Plains on the Long Island Sound Water Inter-municipal Committee (LISWIC). She is a member of the White Plains Historical Society and a member of the White Plains Volunteer Fire Fighters. Milagros hosts and produces a radio show called “Livable Cities” at WVOX 1460AM in New Rochelle since 2012.
Lecuona has been a councilwoman in the City of White Plains since 2008. She is a strong advocate for responsible and efficient growth, the protection of the built and the non-built environment, and the preservation of the city’s beautiful and diverse neighborhoods. One of Milagros’ priorities as a city council member is to assure that policies are universally inclusive physically, economically and socially.
After Lecuona announced her intention to run for Mayor on Sunday afternoon, incumbent Mayor Tom Roach, also a Democrat, released the following statement: “We’ve made great strides in revitalizing our downtown, bringing in new jobs, and enhancing the quality of life for our residents and visitors all while keeping taxes stable, maintaining our AA1 bond rating and ensuring that White Plains continues to be safe, clean, and well managed. To all the residents from every corner of this city who have expressed to me their desire for me to continue, I want to say thank you and that I am looking forward to continuing my work as Mayor. My focus right now is on continuing the progress that we have begun together. I will be making a more formal announcement in the coming months.”
