Criminal law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It proscribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law is established by statute, to say that the laws are enacted by a legislature. Criminal law includes the rehabilitation of people who violate such laws. Criminal law varies according to jurisdiction, differs from civil law, where emphasis is more on dispute resolution and victim compensation, rather than on punishment or rehabilitation. Criminal procedure is a formalized official activity that authenticates the fact of commission of a crime and authorizes punitive or rehabilitative treatment of the offender; the first civilizations did not distinguish between civil law and criminal law. The first written codes of law were designed by the Sumerians. Around 2100–2050 BC Ur-Nammu, the Neo-Sumerian king of Ur, enacted the oldest written legal code whose text has been discovered: the Code of Ur-Nammu although an earlier code of Urukagina of Lagash is known to have existed.
Another important early code was the Code of Hammurabi. Only fragments of the early criminal laws of Ancient Greece have survived, e.g. those of Solon and Draco. In Roman law, Gaius's Commentaries on the Twelve Tables conflated the civil and criminal aspects, treating theft as a tort. Assault and violent robbery were analogized to trespass as to property. Breach of such laws created an obligation of law or vinculum juris discharged by payment of monetary compensation or damages; the criminal law of imperial Rome is collected in Books 47–48 of the Digest. After the revival of Roman law in the 12th century, sixth-century Roman classifications and jurisprudence provided the foundations of the distinction between criminal and civil law in European law from until the present time; the first signs of the modern distinction between crimes and civil matters emerged during the Norman Invasion of England. The special notion of criminal penalty, at least concerning Europe, arose in Spanish Late Scholasticism, when the theological notion of God's penalty, inflicted for a guilty mind, became transfused into canon law first and to secular criminal law.
The development of the state dispensing justice in a court emerged in the eighteenth century when European countries began maintaining police services. From this point, criminal law formalized the mechanisms for enforcement, which allowed for its development as a discernible entity. Criminal law is distinctive for the uniquely serious, potential consequences or sanctions for failure to abide by its rules; every crime is composed of criminal elements. Capital punishment may be imposed in some jurisdictions for the most serious crimes. Physical or corporal punishment may be imposed such as whipping or caning, although these punishments are prohibited in much of the world. Individuals may be incarcerated in prison or jail in a variety of conditions depending on the jurisdiction. Confinement may be solitary. Length of incarceration may vary from a day to life. Government supervision may be imposed, including house arrest, convicts may be required to conform to particularized guidelines as part of a parole or probation regimen.
Fines may be imposed, seizing money or property from a person convicted of a crime. Five objectives are accepted for enforcement of the criminal law by punishments: retribution, incapacitation and restoration. Jurisdictions differ on the value to be placed on each. Retribution – Criminals ought to Be Punished in some way; this is the most seen goal. Criminals have taken improper advantage, or inflicted unfair detriment, upon others and the criminal law will put criminals at some unpleasant disadvantage to "balance the scales." People submit to the law to receive the right not to be murdered and if people contravene these laws, they surrender the rights granted to them by the law. Thus, one who murders may be executed himself. A related theory includes the idea of "righting the balance." Deterrence – Individual deterrence is aimed toward the specific offender. The aim is to impose a sufficient penalty to discourage the offender from criminal behavior. General deterrence aims at society at large. By imposing a penalty on those who commit offenses, other individuals are discouraged from committing those offenses.
Incapacitation – Designed to keep criminals away from society so that the public is protected from their misconduct. This is achieved through prison sentences today; the death penalty or banishment have served the same purpose. Rehabilitation – Aims at transforming an offender into a valuable member of society, its primary goal is to prevent further offense by convincing the offender that their conduct was wrong. Restoration – This is a victim-oriented theory of punishment; the goal is to repair, through state authority, any injury inflicted upon the victim by the offender. For example, one who embezzles will be required to repay the amount improperly acquired. Restoration is combined with other main goals of criminal justice and is related to concepts in the civil law, i.e. returning the victim to his or her original position before the injury. Many laws are enforced by threat of criminal punishment, the range of the punishment varies with the jurisdiction; the scope of criminal law is too vast to catalog intelligently.
The following are some of the more typical aspects of criminal law. The criminal law prohibits undesirable acts. Thus, proof of a crime requires proof of some act. Scholars label this the requir
Mike Fitzpatrick
Michael G. Fitzpatrick is an American lawyer and politician who served as a Republican member of the United States House of Representatives, representing Pennsylvania's 8th congressional district from 2005 to 2007 and 2011 to 2017, he was first elected to Congress in 2004 and represented the district from 2005 to 2007, but he was defeated by Democrat Patrick Murphy in 2006. He declined to challenge Murphy in 2008 but ran again in 2010, reclaimed the seat from Murphy, he was re-elected in 2012 and 2014. A supporter of term limits, he retired in 2016, he maintained a moderate conservative position, ranked among the most bipartisan members of Congress. Fitzpatrick was raised in Bucks County, he graduated from Bishop Egan High School, now Conwell-Egan Catholic High School, in Fairless Hills. He moved to Florida to attend St. Thomas University with an academic scholarship where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1985 from the school's honors program, he earned his law degree from the Dickinson School of Law at Penn State University.
He was named business manager of the Dickinson Journal of International Law. After graduating law school in 1988, Fitzpatrick was admitted to the practice of law in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. In January 1995, Fitzpatrick was appointed to the Bucks County Board of Commissioners by an 11-member panel of county judges; the appointment was made to fill the unexpired term of Mark Schweiker, elected lieutenant governor. Fitzpatrick, an attorney at a firm active in county affairs, was the candidate preferred by county Republican Party leaders; the appointment was not without controversy, however, as some claimed the judges had acted on the recommendation of the county Republican Party. As Commissioner, Fitzpatrick oversaw social agencies, coordinated the response of local governments to emergencies, preserved open space, responded to regional issues. Fitzpatrick supported a $7 million information-technology project to upgrade the county's communication and outreach abilities in light of the Information Age.
2004In July 2004, popular moderate Republican James C. Greenwood unexpectedly withdrew from his re-election campaign. In the party convention held to select Greenwood's replacement on the ballot, the more conservative Fitzpatrick won the nomination over Greenwood's choice, state Senator Joe Conti, thanks to the backing of Bucks County Republican Party boss Harry Fawkes. Fitzpatrick went on to face liberal activist Virginia Schrader in the general election. Fitzpatrick won the general election against Schrader 55%–44%, with the remaining vote split between two minor candidates; the Pennsylvania 8th District includes all of Bucks County, a sliver of Montgomery County, parts of two wards in Northeast Philadelphia. 2006 Fitzpatrick faced Democrat Patrick Murphy in the November general election of 2006. In January 2006, Fitzpatrick said he had donated to charity the $21,500 he received from political action committees headed by U. S. Representatives Bob Ney, Tom DeLay, Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Fitzpatrick was endorsed by several environmental groups including the Sierra Club.
He was the only incumbent Republican congressman in Pennsylvania who had the support of the environmentalist lobby during this election. The Cook Political Report rated the race as "Leans Republican". However, Congressional Quarterly pegged the contest as a "Toss-up". A poll released at the end of October showed Fitzpatrick trailing Murphy by three percentage points. In the end, the election was decided by less than one percentage point, with Fitzpatrick trailing by just over 1,500 votes out of nearly 250,000 cast. On November 8, with all precincts reporting, Murphy led by 1,521 votes. Philadelphia television station NBC 10 reported that Fitzpatrick had conceded the election to Murphy, he along with Mike Sodrel and Joe Schwarz were the only freshman Republicans to be defeated in 2006. In May 2006, Fitzpatrick introduced the Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006, which requires most schools and libraries to restrict minors from access to "Commercial Social Networking Websites" and "Chat Rooms".
In late July, the "DOPA Act" overwhelmingly passed the House. Speaking before the vote was taken, Fitzpatrick said, "The social networking sites have become, in a sense, a happy hunting ground for child predators". Fitzpatrick served on the United States House Committee on Financial Services and the United States House Committee on Small Business. After the loss to Murphy, Fitzpatrick re-entered the practice of law, taking a position with Middletown Township law firm—and major Republican Party contributor—Begley and Mandio. In the fall of 2007, the Bucks County Commissioners asked Fitzpatrick, along with former Commissioner Andy Warren and former Common Pleas Judge William Hart Rufe to co-chair an effort to pass a ballot initiative authorizing the county to borrow $87 million for open space preservation; the initiative, endorsed by Congressman Murphy, passed by a large margin. 2008 Throughout 2007, there was much speculation that Fitzpatrick would seek to reclaim the seat in Congress that he lost to Murphy.
Fitzpatrick laid the rumors to rest in January 2008 by announcing that he would not be running for Congress, but instead would challenge freshman State Representative Chris King in the 142nd District. Despite charges by some Democrats that he was "afraid to run against Murphy because he knows he would lose", Fitzpatrick claimed that he was interested in the job because of his "passion... in solving local problems and serving the local community", as well as a desire to "change the way business is done in Harrisburg."However, a cancer diagnosis forced Fitzpatrick to end his bid for the State House in early February
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania is one of the original 13 federal judiciary districts created by the Judiciary Act of 1789. It sat in Independence Hall in Philadelphia as the United States District Court for the District of Pennsylvania, is now located at the James Byrne Courthouse at 601 Market Street in Philadelphia. There are Eastern District federal courtrooms in Philadelphia, Allentown and Easton; the Court's jurisdiction includes Philadelphia, as well as Berks, Chester, Lancaster, Lehigh and Northampton counties. The district is a part of the Third Circuit, appeals are taken to that Circuit; the current Chief Judge for the Eastern Pennsylvania District Court is Judge Juan Ramon Sanchez. The people in the district are represented by the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania William M. McSwain; the United States District Court for the District of Pennsylvania was one of the original 13 courts established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, 1 Stat.
73, on September 24, 1789. It was subdivided on April 1818, by 3 Stat. 462, into the Eastern and Western Districts to be headquartered in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, respectively. Portions of these districts were subsequently subdivided into the Middle District on March 2, 1901, by 31 Stat. 880. At the time of its initial subdivision, presiding judge Richard Peters Jr. was reassigned to only the Eastern District. As of October 24, 2018 Chief judges have administrative responsibilities with respect to their district court. Unlike the Supreme Court, where one justice is nominated to be chief, the office of chief judge rotates among the district court judges. To be chief, a judge must have been in active service on the court for at least one year, be under the age of 65, have not served as chief judge. A vacancy is filled by the judge highest in seniority among the group of qualified judges; the chief judge serves until age 70, whichever occurs first. The age restrictions are waived if no members of the court would otherwise be qualified for the position.
When the office was created in 1948, the chief judge was the longest-serving judge who had not elected to retire on what has since 1958 been known as senior status or declined to serve as chief judge. After August 6, 1959, judges could not remain chief after turning 70 years old; the current rules have been in operation since October 1, 1982. Alexander Dallas Charles Jared Ingersoll George M. Dallas Henry D. Gilpin John M. Read William M. Meredith Thomas M. Pettit James M. Beck Joseph Whitaker Thompson James Cullen Ganey David W. Marston Peter F. Vaira, Jr. Edward S. G. Dennis Jr. Michael M. Baylson Michael R. Stiles Pat Meehan Laurie Magid Michael L. Levy Zane David Memeger Louis D. Lappen William M. McSwain Courts of Pennsylvania List of United States federal courthouses in Pennsylvania Official site Works by United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at Project Gutenberg Works by or about United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at Internet Archive
U.S. News & World Report
U. S. News & World Report is an American media company that publishes news, consumer advice and analysis. Founded as a newsweekly magazine in 1933, U. S. News transitioned to web-based publishing in 2010. U. S. News is best known today for its influential Best Colleges and Best Hospitals rankings, but it has expanded its content and product offerings in education, money, careers and cars; the rankings are popular in North America but have drawn widespread criticism from colleges and students for their dubious and arbitrary nature. The ranking system by U. S. News is contrasted with the Washington Monthly and Forbes rankings. United States News was founded in 1933 by David Lawrence, who started World Report in 1946; the two magazines covered national and international news separately, but Lawrence merged them into U. S. News & World Report in 1948, he subsequently sold the magazine to his employees. The magazine tended to be more conservative than its two primary competitors and Newsweek, focused more on economic and education stories.
It eschewed sports and celebrity news. Important milestones in the early history of the magazine include the introduction of the "Washington Whispers" column in 1934 and the "News You Can Use" column in 1952. In 1958, the weekly magazine's circulation passed one million and reached two million by 1973. Since 1983, it has become known for its influential ranking and annual reports of colleges and graduate schools, spanning across most fields and subjects. U. S. News & World Report is America's oldest and best-known ranker of academic institutions, covers the fields of business, medicine, education, social sciences and public affairs, in addition to many other areas, its print edition was included in national bestseller lists, augmented by online subscriptions. Additional rankings published by U. S. News & World Report include medical specialties and automobiles. In October 1984, publisher and real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman purchased U. S. News & World Report. Zuckerman is formerly the owner of the New York Daily News.
In 1993, U. S. News & World Report entered the digital world by providing content to CompuServe and in 1995, the website usnews.com was launched. In 2001, the website won the National Magazine Award for General Excellence Online. In 2007, U. S. News & World Report published its first list of the nation's best high schools, its ranking methodology includes state test scores and the success of poor and minority students on these exams, schools' performance in Advanced Placement exams. Starting in June 2008, the magazine reduced its publication frequency in three steps. In June 2008, citing the decline overall magazine circulation and advertising, U. S. News & World Report announced that it would become a biweekly publication, starting January 2009, it hoped advertisers would be attracted to the schedule, which allowed ads to stay on newsstands a week longer. However, five months the magazine changed its frequency again, becoming monthly. In August 2008, U. S. News revamped its online opinion section.
The new version of the opinion page included daily new op-ed content as well as the new Thomas Jefferson Street blog. An internal memo was sent on November 5, 2010, to the staff of the magazine informing them that the "December issue will be our last print monthly sent to subscribers, whose remaining print and digital replica subscriptions will be filled by other publishers." The memo went on to say that the publication would be moving to a digital format but that it would continue to print special issues such as "the college and grad guides, as well as hospital and personal finance guides." Prior to going defunct, U. S. News was the lowest-ranking news magazine in the U. S. after Time and Newsweek. A weekly digital magazine, U. S. News Weekly, introduced in January 2009, continued to offer subscription content until it ceased at the end of April 2015; the company is owned by U. S. News & World Report, L. P. a held company based in the Daily News building in New York City. The editorial staff is headquartered in Washington, D.
C. The company's move to the Web made it possible for U. S. News & World Report to expand its service journalism with the introduction of several consumer-facing rankings products; the company returned to profitability in 2013. The editorial staff of U. S. News & World Report is based in Washington, D. C. and Brian Kelly has been the chief content officer since April 2007. The company is owned by media proprietor Mortimer Zuckerman; the first of the U. S. News & World Report's famous rankings was its "Who Runs America?" surveys. These ran in the spring of each year from 1974 to 1986; the magazine would have a cover featuring persons selected by the USN & WR as being the ten most powerful persons in the United States. Every single edition of the series listed the President of the United States as the most powerful person, but the #2 position included such persons as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Federal Reserve Chairmen Paul Volcker and Arthur Burns and US Senator Edward Kennedy. While most of the top ten each year were officials in government others were included, including TV anchormen Walter Cronkite and Dan Rather, Chase Manhattan Bank Chairman David Rockefeller, AFL-CIO leader George Meany, consumer advocate Ralph Nader.
The only woman to make the top ten list was First Lady Rosalynn Carter in 1980. In addition to these overall top ten persons, the publication included top persons in each of several fields, including Education, Finance and many other areas; the surv
Willem C. Vis Moot
The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot or Vis Moot is an international moot court competition. Since 1994, it has been held annually in Vienna, Austria attracting more than 300 law schools from all around the world and spurring the creation of more than 20 pre-moots each year before the actual rounds are held in Vienna, it is considered a grand slam or major moot. A sister moot, known as the Willem C. Vis Moot, is held in Hong Kong just before the rounds in Vienna, it was established in 2003 and attracts around 150 teams every year, making it the second largest commercial arbitration moot and a grand slam moot. It uses the same moot problem as the Vis Moot; the objective of the Vis Moot is to foster study in the area of international commercial arbitration and encourage the resolution of business disputes by arbitration. The problem for the moot is always based on an international sales transaction subjected to the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods, 1980 and involves procedural issues of arbitration.
The moot consists of submitting written memoranda prior to the moot on designated dates for both sides of the dispute. The moot is named after Willem Cornelis Vis, a world-recognised expert in international commercial transactions and dispute settlement procedures. Vis was born in Utrecht and graduated from Leiden University and Nijmegen University in the Netherlands, he read law and philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford. Vis began to work for European co-operation in 1957 as a member of the Council of Europe Secretariat, in its human rights and legal affairs directorates, in 1965, became Deputy Secretary-General of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law in Rome. In 1968 he moved to the United Nations Secretariat in New York, where he became Senior Legal Officer Chief of the International Trade Law Branch of the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, Secretary of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. Vis served as Executive Secretary of the Vienna Diplomatic Conference that created the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods.
He helped craft the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules. He was Representative of the Netherlands to the UN Commission on International Trade Law and served as Chair of its Working Group on International Payments. Vis served on the faculty of Pace University School of Law from 1980 until his death in 1993. At Pace, he continued to participate in the development of international commercial law, was founding director of the Pace Institute of International Commercial Law. Vis is survived by his wife, Faith Marion Stedman, their three children: David John Christian Vis, Thecla Catherine Vis and Alix Elsebee Vis; the moot is organized by the Association for the Organization and Promotion of the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot; the Director was Pace Law School's Eric E. Bergsten, Professor Emeritus of Pace University School of Law and a former Secretary of the UNCITRAL until his retirement in 2013 after the 20th annual moot; the current directors are Mag. Patrizia Netal and Prof Dr Stefan Kroell.
The moot is sponsored by Pace University Law School, the International Centre for Dispute Resolution /The American Arbitration Association, the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the Australian Centre for International Commercial Arbitration, CEPANI, the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, Chicago International Dispute Resolution Association, the Chinese-European Arbitration Centre, German Institution of Arbitration, the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre, the International Chamber of Commerce, JAMS, the London Court of International Arbitration, the Moot Alumni Association, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre, Swiss Arbitration Association, Swiss Chambers' Arbitration, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, the University of Vienna Faculty of Law. The Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot is a sister moot to the Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot; the Vis East Moot takes place annually in Hong Kong.
Founded in 2003 by Louise Barrington, a Canadian arbitrator based in Hong Kong, the Vis East was underwritten by the East Asia Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators. The Vis East Moot uses the same moot problem and the rules are the same as the Moot that takes place in Vienna, they are two separate moots with separate registration, including registration fee, separate winners - the Hong Kong Moot is not a regional elimination moot for the Vienna Moot. A law school can register for the Vienna Moot or both. While the same students can be on both teams, a given student cannot argue in both the Hong Kong and the Vienna Moot in the same year; the organization of the Vis East Moot lies in the hands of Director Louise Barrington and Alix Povey. The first local host of the Hong Kong Vis Moot was the City University of Hong Kong: the 1st–3rd Vis Moot were held at City University's campus located in Kowloon Tong; the following two moots were hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong at its campus in Central.
Since the 6th Vis Moot, the moot has moved back to City University of Hong Kong. The Vis Moot consists of two parts: The preparation of two written memoranda in support of the claimant's and subsequently the respondent's position, the oral h
Milton W. Glenn
Milton Willits Glenn was an American Republican Party politician who represented New Jersey's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1957–1965. Glenn attended the schools of the Atlantic City School District and Georgetown University in 1921 and 1922 and graduated from Dickinson School of Law in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1924, he commenced practice in Atlantic City, New Jersey. He was the municipal magistrate in Margate City, New Jersey, from January 1940 to November 1943. During World War II, Glenn was commissioned a lieutenant in the United States Navy and served from November 1943 to June 1946, subsequently served as a Lieutenant Commander in the United States Naval Reserve. After the war, he was elected to serve on the Atlantic County Board of Chosen Freeholders from June 1946 to January 1951, he was elected to the New Jersey General Assembly for an unexpired term in 1950, was reelected in 1951, 1953, 1955. He was elected as a Republican to the Eighty-fifth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the death of T. Millet Hand.
Glenn was an unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1964 to the Eighty-ninth Congress, falling to Democrat Thomas C. McGrath, Jr., making his first run for elective office. After leaving Congress, he resumed the practice of law. Glenn died in Margate City on December 14, 1967, was interred at West Creek Cemetery in West Creek, New Jersey; this article incorporates public domain material from the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress website http://bioguide.congress.gov. United States Congress. "Milton W. Glenn". Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. Milton Willits Glenn at The Political Graveyard Milton W. Glenn at Find a Grave
White Plains, New York
White Plains is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is the county seat and commercial hub of Westchester, a suburban county just north of New York City, home to one million people. White Plains is located in south-central Westchester, with its downtown 25 miles north of Midtown Manhattan; as of 2013, the city's total population was estimated to be 57,866, up from 53,077 at the 2010 census. According to the city government, the daytime weekday population is estimated at 250,000; the city was ranked third in the top 10 places to live in New York for 2014, according to national online real estate brokerage Movoto. At the time of the Dutch settlement of Manhattan in the early 17th century, the region had been used as farmland by the Weckquaeskeck tribe, a Wappinger people, was called "Quarropas". To early traders it was known as "the White Plains", either from the groves of white balsam which are said to have covered it, or from the heavy mist that local tradition suggests hovered over the swamplands near the Bronx River.
The first non-native settlement came in November 1683, when a party of Connecticut Puritans moved westward from an earlier settlement in Rye and bought about 4,400 acres from the Weckquaeskeck. However, John Richbell of Mamaroneck claimed to have earlier title to much of the territory through his purchase of a far larger plot extending 20 miles inland from a different tribe; the matter wasn't settled until 1721, when a Royal Patent for White Plains was granted by King George II. In 1758, White Plains became the seat of Westchester County when the colonial government for the county left West Chester, located in what is now the northern part of the borough of the Bronx, in New York City; the unincorporated village remained part of the Town of Rye until 1788 when the town of White Plains was created. On July 9, 1776, a copy of the Declaration of Independence was delivered to the New York Provincial Congress, meeting in the county courthouse; the delegates adopted a resolution approving the Declaration, thus declaring both the colony's independence and the formation of the State of New York.
The Declaration itself was first publicly read from the steps of the courthouse on July 11. During September and October 1776, troops led by George Washington took up positions in the hills of the village, hotly pursued by the British under General Sir William Howe, who attacked on October 28; the Battle of White Plains took place on Chatterton Hill, the Bronx River. Howe's force of 4,000–6,000 British and Hessian soldiers required three attacks before the Continentals, numbering about 1,600 under the command of Generals Alexander McDougall and Israel Putnam, joining Washington's main force, which did not take part in the battle. Howe's forces had suffered 250 casualties, a severe loss, he made no attempt to pursue the Continentals, whose casualties were about 125 dead and wounded. Three days after the battle Washington withdrew north of the village, this was occupied by Howe's forces, but after several inconclusive skirmishes over the next week Howe withdrew on November 5, leaving White Plains to the Continentals.
One of Washington's subordinates, Major John Austin, drunk after having celebrated the enemy's withdrawal, reentered the village with his detachment and proceeded to burn it down. Although he was court-martialed and convicted for this action, he escaped punishment; the first United States Census, conducted in 1790, listed the White Plains population at 505, of whom 46 were slaves. By 1800, the population stood at 575 and in 1830, 830. By 1870, 26 years after the arrival of the New York Central Railroad, it had swollen to 2,630 and by 1890 to 4,508. In the decades that followed the count grew to 7,899 and 26,425. White Plains was incorporated as a village in 1866 and as a city in 1916. Following World War II, White Plains' downtown area developed into what amounted to a "destination" shopping district featuring branch stores of many famous New York-based department and specialty stores; some of these retail locations were the first large-scale suburban stores built in the United States and ushered in the eventual post-war building boom.
Construction of nearby parkways and expressways in the 1940s through the 1970s only enhanced White Plains' role as a retail location. With a city opening ceremony, Macy's launched a grand White Plains store on Main Street across from City Hall in 1949; as the mayor said at the time, this was a significant event in the life of White Plains. Other prestigious stores followed, such as B. Altman & Co. Rogers Peet, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, Alexander's, a short-lived branch of Bergdorf Goodman, converted to sister chain Neiman Marcus in 1981. White Plains is still a huge retail destination in the area with Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom Rack, Macy's, Burlington Coat Factory, over 1000 other small and mid-size stores in four malls. During the late 1960s, the city of White Plains developed an extensive urban renewal plan for residential and mixed-use redevelopment that called for the demolition of its entire central business district from the Bronx River Parkway east to Mamaroneck Avenue.
By 1978, the urban renewal program centered around the construction of the Westchester County Courthouse, the Westchester One office building, the Galleria at White Plains mall, a number of other office towers, retail centers and smaller commercial buildings. At the time of its construction, the West
