A good friend — a dedicated sister volunteer with the Red Cross — wrote to me and wrote, in closing, “Thank you for your service.” This was my response to this dear woman: A very gentle bit of insight, from a person who greatly respects the work that you do and your dedication. I most
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‘Tis the Wedding Month of June
By Jane Heil Usyk June is wedding month, and this month Eddie is getting married. That sounds odd, because Eddie was two years old in the video I just saw, the one I am giving him for his wedding. My cousin Stuart made the video in 1986, which, to me, doesn’t sound that long ago.
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso FBI: For Business Interests. CIA: Corporations In Action. ___ The eternal question: What’s in it for me? ___ Bleak beginning for the day: An old man’s cough from the next apartment. ___ After a divorce, how quickly ‘Mom’ becomes ‘Your mother.’ ___ Why travel? Shakespeare never went anywhere but he knew everything.
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A Long Ago Lesson On The Cost of War
By David S. Kerr I must have been six, or maybe just a little older, but I was with my Mom, Dad, and Grandmother, and we were visiting some dear friends of hers, the Whitakers. This was Goldsboro, North Carolina and “visiting” on Sunday afternoons after church was an important part of the culture. However,
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The Chelsea Hotel
By Brian J. Pape and Bruce Poli These two articles compare the good and bad sides of the most powerful forces in New York City—artistic and historic character… and profit seeking “progress.” To see both sides, Brian J. Pape and Bruce Poli have chosen the Chelsea Hotel—touchstone of the great musical, literary and performing arts
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Play Emerges as Important Factor in Early Childhood Arts Education
By Joe Salas That children benefit from early and sustained access to music and arts education has been widely known. Music education helps develop language and reasoning, increases coordination, and builds imagination and intellectual curiosity. It’s been shown to help children maintain focus in the classroom, improve academic performance, and so much more. At the
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Giving is Ancient — The Need is New
By Graeme Napier The Open Door was a characteristic West Village response to HIV/AIDS. It was located where the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute is—in the courtyard of Saint John’s in the Village (West 11th Street at Waverly Place). At a time when men and women with AIDS (especially those who were young) were ostracized by
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Health of the Hudson
By Isabelle Stinnette We may not always notice it, but New Yorkers live along waterways that mix saltwater from the ocean with the fresh water from the Hudson. This unique ecosystem is called an estuary, and its health is as important as our own. Though it is hard to overemphasize the environmental damage created by
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My Friend Eric Schneiderman
By Arthur Z. Schwartz On April 10, 2017, I texted a politician whose thoughts about running for Governor had been cut short by Cynthia Nixon’s candidacy, and said, “Don’t go home. #MeToo is going to get Eric Schneiderman soon.” On May 7 my premonition came true. Eric and I had been friends. We were both
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Broadway Hit: Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women
By Robert Heide Three Tall Women is the play that won Edward Albee his third Pulitzer Prize for playwriting when it was first produced off-Broadway in 1994. His earlier Pulitzers went to A Delicate Balance (1966) and Seascape (1974). Prior to Three Tall Women, Albee was labeled by Broadway producers as “box-office poison” after works
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The Untold Love Story of the Birth of Hollywood
By John Bredin Born on Mott St., Blanche Walsh was America’s first movie star. She also played a key role in my family story. I’m on a mission to re-write Hollywood history. A very important woman has been left out. But don’t the women usually get left out? Well enough, I say, of this patriarchal
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So, You’ve Been Away
By Gordon Hughes The other morning I was enjoying a cup of coffee at Cafe Panino Mucho Gusto, when of all things, I ran into a pal and neighbor—not from the Village, but from Chester County (where I have a horse farm). I was so surprised to see him in this foreign location, but what
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Bridges in the Sky
By Ananth Sampathkumar and Mary Chandrahasan About two decades ago, we were first introduced to skybridges. Cesar Pelli, the famed Argentine American Architect, was explaining how his firm and Thorten Tomasetti, a structural engineering behemoth, devised a clever way to erect and support the tallest skybridge in the world at the Petronas Towers in Kuala
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Clarifying My Maternal Ancestry
By Allyn Freeman Last November, I ordered a DNA kit from My Heritage, an assay that would disclose my DNA along the matrilineal line from mitochondrial samples. In effect, I would learn my mother’s lineage, and nothing about my father’s background, which is a different test. The company charged a $12 shipping and handling fee,
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June 6th — 50 Years Since RFK’s Death
On June 6, 1968, a year of intense turmoil in the U.S. and in the world, our country, still reeling from the assassination of Martin Luther King, watched in horror as Robert F. Kennedy was gunned down. RFK was not just John Kennedy’s little brother. At the time of his death he was New York’s
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14th Street Closure: MTA Talks, DOT Balks
By Arthur Z. Schwartz It was apparent to anyone attending the “Town Hall” meeting held at the New School on May 9 that the L Train shutdown, that we’re dealing with two very different approaches to the notion of public input. On the one hand, the MTA/NYC Transit Authority, and its new President, Andy Byford,
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Panic Attack First Aid Kit
By Christina Raccuia Fear overwhelms us all sometimes. We feel like we’re going to die. It’s an overwhelming feeling of impending doom and we don’t know what to do except to run, as these feelings can take over. However, as crazy as this may sound the best thing to do is to stay and face
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Like a Dancer’s Brow: Buddhists and Brahmins Debate the Self
By James Marks A Five-Session Course: Thursdays, 6pm to 7:30, May 31, June 7, 14, 21, 28 Presented in the third floor Mae West Community Room of Jefferson Market Library. All classes are free and open to the public. Online registration is required. Around 2,500 years ago, during a time of bustling intellectual and spiritual
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Is Class War in the Village About to Begin over Senior Housing?
The fierce battle between the squatting Moms of Soho vs. seniors seeking affordable housing in CB2 has moved to the next step. The Mayor seems to be the only politician who supported the seniors in the battle over one of the only available pieces of land in CB2. Council-member Chin had the land designated for
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Hudson River Park Hits 20: How the Pier 40 Fight Brought Us Hudson River Park
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Friends of Hudson River Park will soon be holding its 20th Anniversary Fundraiser with a minimum price of $2000 per ticket. The Friends Board is made up almost entirely of very wealthy people: bankers, developers, commercial lawyers. But Hudson River Park had a very humble birth. It was born of volunteer
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Mt. Sinai’s Plan for Our Community
By Penny Mintz On May 22, 2018, members of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel (CCBI) met with two staff members from the office of City Council member Keith Powers. The CCBI members were there to inform Powers about the concerns of the community regarding the threatened closure of Beth Israel Hospital and ask
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LPC: New Rules Promote Secrecy
By Andrew Berman The NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) has proposed a broad set of changes to its rules governing how applications for changes to landmarked properties and properties in historic districts are decided. The proposal would take many such applications out of the public review and approval process. Now, these applications come before local
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Then & Now: Rhinelander Row
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Rhinelander Row is the eleven homes of three-storied, wooden-balconies built by landowner William Rhinelander in 1848, also known as “Cottage Row,” on the West side of Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets in the West Village. A New York Times article from 1937 said of Rhinelander Row, “With
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The Washington Square Music Festival: Celebrating 60 Years of Excellence
By Peggy Friedman, Executive Director Sixty years of free music concerts is an anniversary worth celebrating! On Tuesday June 5 at 8 pm the Washington Square Music Festival opens its 60th season of presenting free classical and world music concerts in the park. Back in the ‘50s—when our newly-founded Festival wasn’t yet an annual tradition—there
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A Village Summer Without Helen Ann Lally — and YNO
By Paul Critchlow Summer has finally arrived in the West Village, but for many residents, no season will be the same without Helen Ann Lally. The petite, effervescent proprietor of Your Neighborhood Office (YNO), the business services center at 332 Bleecker Street for nearly 25 years, closed on March 31. Many local retail stores have
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Don’t Just Sit There, Resist – Part III: How Will Dems F_ _k It Up This Time?
By Alec Pruchnicki Do not divide your forces in the face of a superior enemy — Military axiom Although the Republicans completely control many state governments and almost the entire federal system, Democrats are giddy with the possibility of a big “blue wave” sweeping this away because of numerous victories in special elections. They should
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Come for the Art, Stay for the Apartment
By Katie Keith When Leslie Lalehzar overheard a woman inquiring why all the galleries in Chelsea were closed, she kindly informed her it was because it was Sunday, and all the galleries are closed on Sundays. But, she told the woman, she happened to have the keys to a very special “gallery,” one hosting a
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West Village Houses Rally for Preservation
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP The WestView News April, 2017 issue began a series on West Village Houses, an affordable housing cooperative under the Mitchell-Lama rental and the Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) cooperative Programs during its first three decades of existence. Here is an update on the developments of the West Village Houses
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Ruth Berk, Village Cabaret Singer and Owner, Dies at 94
Funeral – Sunday June 10 – 11AM – Greenwich Village Funeral Home Ruth Berk, who would have turned 95 in August, passed this morning at Beth Israel Hospital. The cause of death was heart failure, complicated by a stroke. Berk was a long time Village cultural figure. After an early career as an opera singer,
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The Spirit of WestView
By Barry Benepe I wrote my first article for WestView just over ten years ago in March 2008. It explored the need to calm traffic around Union Square Park, one of our city’s most crowded historic public places. Thirty years earlier, I had prepared a plan called Three Parks for Community Board Five, of which,
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Lady in the Black Bag
Anybody who lives near Charles Street is familiar with a large, black bag forever hooked onto the door of the Charles Street Synagogue. But not everybody knows that it has, for years, contained a living person who is profoundly captured by mental illness that demands “living” in a black bag. I called the police, and
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No Plants for Kiddies
One of the charming innovations introduced by Charles Street Association President, Margie Dienstag, was to invite the block’s children to plant, but this year the supply disappeared before the kiddies could plant. Margie reminds homeowners that the plants are reserved for street display and should not be planted in rear gardens. —George Capsis Dear CSA
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Grand Jury Should Investigate World Trade Center Explosions On 9/11
By Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry According to its report, the 9/11 Commission had a “sweeping” mandate to investigate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was supposed to provide the fullest possible account of the events surrounding 9/11, and to identify lessons learned. But no matter how noble its purpose, the Commission was
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Does a Conspiracy Theory Hide a Conspiracy?
By George Capsis Dusty won’t even look at the headlines of the Times let alone read it. She scans the alternate media on her iPhone while occasionally glancing up at the CBS six o’clock news. So, it is not too surprising that she is deeply submerged in a theory that it was more than a handful of
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Larcenous Landlords Use the Law to Oust Tenants
By George Capsis Oh wow. On March 22nd the Times did a massive article (like 4 pages) on the emerging breed of amoral landlords that use rent regulations and an indifferent overworked bureaucracy to oust rent regulated tenants. Most tenants get hooked by failing to pay their rent but a new breed of heartless, larcenous
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New Models for Senior Share Living in the Village
By The Compassionate Caregiver What if we all could have the opportunity to live the last years of our lives in peace, comfort and tranquility, and to die surrounded by loved ones in a safe and familiar place? Soon there will be more seniors on the planet than there ever have ever been in history.
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Sounds of the Great Religions
By George Capsis The dramatic, almost theatrical interior space of St. Veronica invites imaginative uses and we came up with The Sounds of the Great Religions, a survey of great musical moments from the world’s great religions. Having been exposed to the Greek Orthodox church (my father was Greek, my mother a Lutheran German), I
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Sullivan’s Only Manhattan Masterpiece
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Louis Sullivan’s 1897 Bayard-Condict Building was New York’s first fully steel-framed skyscraper, overcoming official suspicions. A Pioneering Creation for America Louis Henri Sullivan (1856-1924) was already an internationally-acclaimed architectural pioneer of the modern skyscraper when the Bayard-Condict Building was built from 1897 to 99 at 65 Bleecker Street. The
