We Can’t Afford to Keep Everybody Alive
By George Capsis
One of the best ways for a newspaper to make money is to give a conference. Everybody from the Times on down does it. However, perhaps one of the most profitable are those given by Crain’s Health Pulse, a publication aimed at the business of medicine. I attended one in Brooklyn and it was packed; [...]
Full StoryAn Indian Gives Thanks
Who would have predicted the results of September’s primary election in the doldrums of last summer, when a shape-shifting of Bloomberg into Quinn was all but inevitable?The outcome would have been a double shock if we had known about it then. Not only was it a win for Bill deBlasio but a transcendent moment in [...]
Full StoryMrs. Green’s
COMING SOON? The rumor is true; Mrs. Green’s Natural Market, the Westchester chain specializing in natural foods, plans to open a branch, their first in New York city, in the space at 99 Bank, on the corner of Hudson; it was vacated two months ago by Duane Reade. Company headquarters has confirmed that a lease [...]
Full StoryLynne Stewart
Lynne Stewart is a true martyr for our time. None other than Ramsey Clark, our famous attorney general who marched by hand the first black children into newly integrated schools, spoke about her integrity, and, above all, her absolute innocence of the crimes with which she was charged and for which she has been persecuted [...]
Full StoryThe Villager Changes Pace After 80 years
While sidewalk chatting with Joan McAllister, the publisher of a 26 year old newsletter for homeless families, I caught with the corner of my eye a deliveryman accompanied by a shopping cart filled with copies of The Villager with a brand new logo. Wow! As the publisher of WestView News, approaching our 10th anniversary, I [...]
Full StoryBargain Wines
Everyone likes a good bargain. Everyone has a go-to wine. A bottle that consistently delivers each and every day at a reasonable price is a big deal for the budget savvy. Naturally, we follow the path of least resistance, which promises zero stress and all pleasure. The concept of cheap yet enjoyable table wine is [...]
Full StoryResponse to September’s Presentation by MTA of revised proposal for new North-South bus route for far west side
In response to September’s “presentation by MTA NYC Transit of revised proposal concerning a new north-south bus route for the far west side of Manhattan,” Community Board 2’s Traffic and Transportation Committee’s Resolution pointed out thatthe uptown segment of the route along Hudson to 14th Street (originally planned for Greenwich Street) was redundant, duplicating the [...]
Full Story6 Emergency Room Survival Tips
Emergency room lab technicians usually have a hard time getting needles into my veins. Last week was no exception. Emergency room (ER) experiences can be awful. Especially in New York City. You just never know what type of scene you’ll be walking into. In NYC, emergency rooms are typically packed full of non-English speaking immigrants, [...]
Full StoryWriters’ Writer Wins Nobel
Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature in October. The author, 82, lives in Clinton, Ontario and has written 14 short-story collections, including her latest, Dear Life. I am a fiction writer myself, and I was hoping that Philip Roth would win, but that’s because I didn’t even know that Alice Munro was [...]
Full StoryRudin Opens Sales Office
Last month, the Times offered a tree-framed shot of the steel skeleton of the 200-unit condo complex that a Rudin copy-writer (to the revulsion of West Villagers) has named “Greenwich Lane.” The article was fed to the Times by Joey Arak of Rudin’s new PR firm M18 and announced that you can now stroll up [...]
Full StoryWitkoff Backs de Blasio
Developer Steve Witkoff offers an opinion before you have finished your sentence. It was at a fundraiser he hosted on October 23rd for Bill de Blasio at his Upper East Side townhouse that he offered to fund the Charles Street Association holiday reception, before I could fully ask. Some months before, when I started to [...]
Full StoryIn 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores
Throughout her career, Hilary Hahn has been an advocate for new music; most notably commissioning a concerto by Edgar Meyer and a Pulitzer Prize-winning concerto by Jennifer Higdon. Her recent album,Silfra, was a genre-bending experiment with prepared-pianist Hauschka. Prior to that, she released an album of sonatas by Charles Ives. More than 10 years ago, [...]
Full StoryMajor Documentary Film Festival Invades Greenwich Village And Chelsea DOC NYC Returns November 14-21
In just four years,Thom Powers has made DOC NYC the largest documentary festival in the US. will take place at IFC Center (323 Sixth Ave) and the SVA Theatre (333 W 23rd St)with an expansive of films, panels and guests. DOC NYC will showcase 131 films and events, including screenings of 72 feature-length films and [...]
Full StoryLou Reed RIP
Once upon a time, artists and poets roamed Greenwich Village streets without a care; no TMZ, etc. Lou lived in and around the Village during his adult life. He was just a neighbor to many who would see him out and about. To the rest of the world, he was a rock god, a poet, [...]
Full StoryJim Fouratt’s REEL DEAL: MOVIES THAT MATTER
LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES! The Square dir Jehane Noujaim Last January, Egyptian-America filmmaker Jehane Noujaim and her crew literally landed in Salt Lake direct from Cairo and drove to Park City to reach the Sundance Film Festival theater `where The Square was premiering as the house light came up after the first screening. They [...]
Full StoryCommunity Members Angered that New 75 Morton Street School is Behind Schedule
On October 22nd, the West Village’s upcoming new middle school at 75 Morton Street cleared its final approval step when the City Council subcommittee agreed on the site location. However, parents and community members, many of whom have worked on launching this desperately-needed new school for the last five years, are now worried. Renovation of [...]
Full StoryAs Curtain Falls on Bloomberg Era, Ideas Rise for New Education System
A new height of public indignation towards the Department of Education (DOE) was reached last month in reaction to the DOE’s audacious fast-tracking of approvals for a long list of 50 new school co-locations, re-sitings, and grade reconfigurations, with approximately half representing charter schools. None of the proposals would take effect until 2014 or even [...]
Full StoryThe High Line: from vision to fruition
There have been many stories written about the High Line but what of Robert Hammond, one of the co-founders of Friends of the High Line. Robert and I met on the High Line at the 10th Avenue Square on a very breezy morning; this was the first cool day after the eight-day muggy, heat wave [...]
Full StoryThe End of Rent Regulations
“So, what would happen if Manhattan were completely free of rent regulations and other forms of housing subsides?” The New York Times offered this gasp-provoking hypothesis from Christopher Mayer, a Columbia University housing expert, in a July 23rd article. I, as a small time landlord, was transfixed. “Tens of thousands of professionals, currently scared away [...]
Full StoryI Have to Sit Down
“I’ve got to sit down,” said Maggie, her face taut with anxiety. It was “I have to sit down now.” We were walking on Bleecker and with half of her right lung excised by cancer and radiation, she could not walk another step, not another step. Yet there was no place to sit down. I [...]
Full StoryTurvy-Topsy
Translated byKeith Michaelfrom the original Pembroke Welsh Corgish, an unwritten language characterized by complex interactions between vocalizations,body gestures, facial nuances, and spatialdynamics apparently intensified byproximity to food. Why does he take so long to put on his shoes? Treat? Treat? Thank you. Quick. Snap on that annoying long strap.Why does he never let it go? [...]
Full Story53 West 8th Street
Amanda Davis, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation West 8th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues has not always been the most beloved street in the Village, but it certainly has a character all its own. I recently came across this John Barrington-Bailey “Then” photograph of 53 West 8th Street from the mid-1960s. Taken a [...]
Full StoryWoody Guthrie, American Troubadour, Officially Recognized on Charles Street
On October 16th, Charles Street residents fortunate enough to be out and about on that fall, weekday, mid-afternoon, could not help but notice the sizable crowd gathered in front of 74 Charles Street. I live there, on the fourth floor. Returning at 3:15 pm, I learned that the gathering had to do with the newly-installed [...]
Full StoryTheatre Threads
October 6, 2013 – Lady Day at the Little Shubert Theatre written and directed by Stephen Stahl, with Dee Dee Bridgewater, who stars and commands the stage as Billie Holiday. The production is framed simply. Act One takes place during a rehearsal on the stage of a London theater on a rainy afternoon in late [...]
Full StoryTennessee, His Mother, Sister, and a Gentleman Caller
The Glass Menagerie written by Tennessee Williams in l944 is an autobiographical ‘memory’ play; and it has received mostly rave reviews from the uptown newspaper critics including Ben Brantley who wrote in The New York Times that by the second act he was beyond tears. Despite the accolades accorded to this production, I found that [...]
Full StoryBasic Grammar of Cakes
SnackBar Cooking is like singing in the shower, you can go with the flow — butcher a classic melody, mix your own mash-ups, add a dash of whatever nonsense that pops into your head, and enjoy it immensely despite or because of the improvisational process. With a bit of experience, dishes can be tweaked to [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter November 2013: Greedy Landlords
Greedy Landlords Dear Editor, This is becoming the biggest joke. Here we are NYC, capital of the world! This is where you come when you are young and brave with a new idea. Not anymore. I have been in my three stores for 24,20, and 14 years. My rent has gone from $108,000 per year [...]
Full StoryVID Approves Healthcare
On Thursday October 10th in a general meeting at St. John’s Church on Christopher Street, the Village Independent Democrats (VID) voted overwhelmingly (35-1) in favor of two resolutions tentatively supporting the New York State Health Bill (Gottfired/Perkins) and The Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Bill, HR 676 (Conyers), which establish single payer health insurance [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter November 2013: Rudin’s luxury condos
Rudin’s luxury condos To the Editor, As noted in the previous issue of WestView News, Rudin’s luxury condos are making a play for nostalgia by using the throw-back designation–Greenwich Lane. But that isn”t all. A sign on 12th street advertises the apartment building that will occupy the totally gutted space with a mere facade as [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter November 2013: D’Agostino at the Archives
D’Agostino at the Archives Dear Editor, Upon reading in WestView that the D’Agostino at the Archives might have to leave, several of us long time Villagers became giddy with delight. We have for so long bemoaned D’Agostino, which we feel doesn’t serve the needs, or wants, of this neighborhood sufficiently. Their limited selections of produce, [...]
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