Somebody Out There Helped
By George Capsis
Death of a son prompts $1 million grant for new hospital It was as if somebody were out there making things happen. I received a call on a Sunday from Steve Witkoff whom I had met briefly, maybe four years ago. He quickly began to tell me of the drug overdose death of his son. [...]
Full StorySo many bike racks placed in front of 175 West 13th Street
Dear Editor, The photo accompanying this article says it all! What mastermind in the City administration arranged to have so many bike racks placed in the street in front of the entrance to 175 West 13th Street, a busy apartment building? These racks block the ingress and egress to the building and thus, apparently violate [...]
Full StorySix Sought GOP Ballot Line By Bribes to County Leaders
By Henry Stern The frustrated plot to seize political power is a staple of both history and fiction. From Guy Fawkes’s gun powder plot in London in 1605 through the party switches and seizure of power in the New York State Senate in 2009, politicians have sought to improve the outcomes of elections through various [...]
Full StoryGood-bye Acoustic Tuesdays
On many Tuesday mornings, for over 20 years, I walked from my apartment on West 10th Street up Sixth Avenue, past Joe Jr.’s Greek Diner on the northeast corner of West 11th, up to West 12th Street, then over toward St. Vincent’s Hospital bringing with me my book bag and a second briefcase filled with [...]
Full StoryThe Hospital That Never Happened
Operating a hospital and emergency department in downtown Manhattan takes far more than you might think. Yet the need in the Village and its surrounding areas is so great. On March 6, 2009, the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted to approve the design for a replacement hospital for St. Vincent’s Hospital, at 20-40 Seventh [...]
Full StoryChanges coming to 150 Charles Street
Until a few years ago, several hotel towers were being planned for the West Village and a 32-story condo tower could have been built at the Whitehall Warehouse site at 150 Charles Street, by right of the existing zoning regulations. When the city down-zoned parts of the West Village, to limit sizes and heights, any [...]
Full StoryAbingdon Square Bruised by Another Boom and Bust Cycle
Susan Sipos, Abingdon Square’s horticulturalist, often receives compliments about the park. She usually bites her tongue and thanks the kind passersby. However, Sipos has a different response to those who will stop, look, and listen. “It’s happening again. There are fewer tulips this year than last. The grass in our little meadow is now splotchy. [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter May 2013: The Lighter Side of Running for Mayor
The Lighter Side of Running for Mayor Dear Editor It was just a few nights before my 20 month odyssey of running for New York City Mayor was about to end because I had a business opportunity I couldn’t afford to pass up. I was scheduled to be a guest the following morning on the [...]
Full StoryDown The Up Escalator – How the 99% Live in the Great Recession. Doubleday 2013
Reviewed by Barbara Chacour If you suspect that “generalizations are always wrong,” you will love this stereotype-bending book recounting the economic problems of a cross section of Americans. The energetic author gives us in-person interviews of close to 30 people – from New York City, Massachusetts, the rust belt, Minneapolis, northern and southern California – [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter May 2013: Listing the Jefferson Market Branch Library Programs
Listing the Jefferson Market Branch Library Programs Hi! I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your listing the library’s programs in West View! We do surveys after each program to discover where people have heard about our programs – and many responded West View! Thank you! Frank Collerius Library Manager/Jefferson Market [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter May 2013: Shocked at membership for Citi Bike at $95/year
Shocked at membership for Citi Bike at $95/year Dear Editor, I am shocked to read that membership for Citi Bike is $95 per year. This will exclude people. Many seniors live on low fixed income like social security. This pricing policy will also exclude teenagers who do not have this form of discretionary income. I [...]
Full StoryDOE Sets Fast Pace for New Common Core Rollout
The atmosphere in our beloved Greenwich Village public schools was not filled with the usual exuberance for learning and discovery over the last few months. April was fast approaching when 3rd – 8th graders would be taking the New York State ELA/Math tests, and everyone knew, especially the kids, that this brand new test would [...]
Full StoryWill Quinn Lose To The Horseless Carriage
NYCLASS (New Yorkers for Clean, Livable and Safe Streets) just signed a contract with Jason Wenig and The Creative Group to build the first prototype of an electric vintage-replica car –“horseless carriage” – to replace the over-worked carriage horses in New York City and revamp the carriage industry. The organization has gained support from a [...]
Full StoryPolitical Mischief?
Perhaps you, or someone you know, have been assisted by the Community Outreach Unit of the New York City Council, a taxpayer-financed entity run out of the office of Council speaker Christine Quinn. With an annual payroll exceeding one million dollars, many of its 16 staffers are Ms. Quinn’s political allies. Their support of her [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter May 2013: Good day George
Good day George Good day George, We met last night in the elevator of 435 Hudson Street. We were leaving the event and you were kind enough to say that speaking about St. Vincent takes a much longer period of time than just an elevator ride. I have no money to donate. However, I am [...]
Full StoryAn Honest Look At Haiti
Morally Repugnant Elite, or MRE, is a phrase I learned from an American Embassy worker over a cup of tea at an old, historic hotel in the heart of Port au Prince. It appropriately describes the divide between the rich and poor here. Labor is literally dirt-cheap and the wealthy wallow in the woe of [...]
Full StoryStop and Go
My corgi Millie and I are standing on West 11th Street outside Tartine. Millie is looking down to see if perchance a Saturday brunch frite has been liberated from someone’s plate. I’m looking up at an elm tree with a hole in the bark that a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker pair seem to be examining for nesting [...]
Full StoryWashington Mews: Stables, Artists, and Students
A familiar site to New Yorkers and visitors alike, the charming Washington Mews sits just one block north of Washington Square Park. There are a few street names in New York with the word “mews” attached; this indicates that many, if not all, buildings were originally developed as small-scale horse stables for nearby townhouses. These [...]
Full StoryMusic at Charles Street Shul
Twice a week, there’s a sign outside Congregation Darech Amuno on Charles Street that simply says “Bluegrass 9 p.m.” However, people who venture into the basement of the small Orthodox synagogue to hear the Andy Statman Trio perform, are in for far more than bluegrass. A fixture for more than 13 years at the shul, [...]
Full StoryWest Village Original: Allen Pilikian
This month’s West Village Original is Allen Pilikian, currently the Vice Chairman of Jefferson Market Garden. Born in Lenox Hill Hospital and raised in Manhattan and on Long Island, he has been associated with the garden since its inception 38 years ago. A former fiscal director for the city’s Human Resources Administration, Pilikian currently lives [...]
Full StoryHow Do I Get There?
Have you ever come out of the subway to an unfamiliar neighborhood and felt totally lost, clueless about how to get where you’re going? Most of us have experienced feeling disoriented in a new place with no familiar landmarks, no hint of north or south. If we’re lucky, after asking passersby who are just as [...]
Full StoryCONTROLLING GUNS
President Obama, in a recent speech, has said that one of his main aims in the last years of his term would be to institute gun control laws. Exactly how many Americans would like to see stronger gun controls is not certain, but according to polls recently reported in the New York Times, 87% of [...]
Full StoryJim Fouratt’s Reel Deal: Movies that Matter. May 2013
We have just put to bed the best Tribeca Film Festival since its beginning. Kudos to programming chiefs Genna Terranova, Geoffrey Gilmore, and Frederic Boyer for taking a giant leap forward with all round quality programming. This year, we saw many films, some of which we will write about and let you know when you [...]
Full StoryThe Big Knife, a review
In the past few years, there has been a quiet Clifford Odets revival. Lincoln Center showed Awake and Sing and Golden Boy, both productions directed by, tone deaf, Bartlett Sher. Currently, the distinguished Roundabout Theatre Company presents The Big Knife. The Lincoln Center productions in my opinion were miscast and wrongly conceived. Thus, I looked [...]
Full StoryCelebrating And Remembering Lanford Wilson
In 2013, two significant plays by Lanford Wilson opened in New York. The first is The Mound Builders at the Signature Theatre on 42nd Street and the second, Talley’s Folly, produced by the Roundabout at the Laura Pels Theater. Both plays were originally presented at the Circle Rep on Sheridan Square at Seventh Avenue in [...]
Full StoryTechnicolor Spring
SnackBar In the Village, the tree-lined blocks and street-side gardens are exploding in a Technicolor spring. Ambling through the St. Luke’s Garden on Hudson Street means being assaulted by the radiance of violently red and purple tulips and brushing shoulders with demure ivory-skinned camellias. Despite the keen loss of the shade of the old cherry [...]
Full StoryOld and New Traditions
Café Loup has been on West 13th Street in the Village since the 80s, almost 30 years with very little change. It is old school, not overly traditional French dining and does not make apologies for it. The room is big, with a very long bar all with a bit of patina that goes easily [...]
Full StoryDemocratic Club Endorsements Start With Upsets
On Thursday April 11th, an enthusiastic standing room only crowd met in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street for the first endorsement meeting of the Village Independent Democrats (VID). Two of the results were considered by many to be upsets related to community based issues. The first endorsement was for City Council District 1 and [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter May 2013: Seeking info on research at Bell Labs (now Westbeth) during Manhattan Project of World War II
Seeking info on research at Bell Labs (now Westbeth) during Manhattan Project of World War II Dear WestView readers, I am seeking information about the scientific research that went on in Bell Labs (now Westbeth) when it was one of the sites of the Manhattan Project during World War II. As written documentation about this [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter May 2013: Speaker Quinn
Speaker Quinn Dear Editor, According to what I read in a New York Times article, Speaker Quinn directs her fury, intimidation and retaliation at people who are not sufficiently grateful and deferential to her or who put forward ideas which deviate from the Quinn agenda. I am no puritan when it comes to salty language, [...]
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