By Arthur Z. Schwartz Vija Vetra, a Latvian dancer, is the oldest resident of Westbeth. She is 97 years old. Yet she still travels around the world to perform, at least before COVID shut the world down. When we last wrote about Vija in WestView we described how she had been cheated out of her
By Arthur Z. Schwartz October saw more revelations about the extent to which public housing residents, especially children were being exposed to lead. And what we learned may be the tip of the iceberg. This an enormous problem: approximately 600,000 people live in NYC Housing Authority buildings; jus less than 8% of City residents, one
By Arthur Schwartz Back in mid-June, with NYC still in lockdown, and with crowds of demonstrators marching down 14th Street and smashing windows, Bill de Blasio stood on the corner of 7th Avenue and 14th Street and declared the 14th Street Pilot Project, which was supposed to last 18 months, a “great success,” and he
By Joan Klyhn Joan’s Shanghai is a memoir of a childhood in Shanghai in the ‘30’s and ’40s of the 20th century. I am primarily writing it for myself, extending it to my friends, and now to the many people who have shown themselves fascinated with this period in the past. The Kitchen During the
By Robert Kroll, co-op super and woodworker Close your eyes and try to envision the worst neighbor you’ve ever had in a co-op tenement. Recall the sounds, the smells, the early morning and late evening sights, the garbage bags in the hallways, and, mostly, the words, the slurs, the curses, the slanders, the incessant complaints.
By Tamara Lashchyk This pandemic has been hard on us all. Our lives have been severely disrupted as we deal with it, each in our own way. Indeed, many have even found a silver lining: reuniting with families, strengthening relationships, and deepening intimacies. As candidate for the NY State Assembly in New York District 66,
How the city conspired with billionaire Aaron Sosnick to withhold information from the East Village community Gregg Singer is the owner of the former P.S. 64 building near Tompkins Square Park. For years, he has been attempting to redevelop the property into college dormitories for students in the East Village. What should have been a
By Arabella Oz With the arrival of fall, a new melody of anxiety drifts in. What is it? Actually, the word anxiety has grown obsolete in the world of 2020—covering too much ground to be useful. There’s the kind attached to the fear of getting the virus, or maybe more specifically, getting a loved one
By Roberta Curley Would you enjoy visiting an iconic Greenwich Village neighborhood? Would rummaging through a cache of treasures suit you? What about entering a thrift shop to scout out its latest donations? Would snaring a bargain lift your spirits? If such pursuits tickle your fancy, you’re a likely candidate for THRIFTING. The West Village
By Robert Heide A slight, shy, sensitive young man named Harris Glenn Milstead from Baltimore, had a loving mother named Frances who doted on him and wondered what might become of her boy as an adult, thinking, could he make it in the ‘real’ world? She needn’t have worried or pondered on his future. Under
By Jeff Hodges In 1973, when I was in college, I rented an apartment on East 7th street between Avenues C and D in Alphabet City. Like most of my decisions in those days, this one was based on a combination of arrogance and stupidity: I had seen a film called The Street of the
By Michael Astor Guy Wiggins, a third generation painter who traveled the world as a soldier, scholar and diplomat before devoting himself to an art career that lasted nearly half a century, has died at 100. The cause was cancer. He was the son of a famous American Impressionist, Guy C. Wiggins and grandson of
By Hannah Reimann October 22, 2020 The eagles have flown to warmer climes to hunt, the pogies are no longer splashing in the cove, a delightful loon with his spotted coat has been visiting for the past week and the leaves of the deciduous trees and bushes are changing color every day. The heron is
By Melissa Lim 2020 for me would read something like this; January, February, Corona, December. I relocated here from London in June 2019, so just over a year ago, to the corner of Perry/Hudson in the West Village, never thinking I would live America. Who knew then that I picked the most strange of times
By Eric Uhlfelder One reason our country is in such turmoil is because our leaders, starting with but not limited to the president, do not have the capacity or desire for thoughtful, intelligent oratory that can positively shape the arc of events. So many seem to know only how to further divide and exacerbate our
By Anthony Paradiso During any other year Villagers would be preparing to line up to take part in the Village Halloween Parade. But this year, that long-standing tradition of marching through the Village will not take place due to the pandemic. Many may know that the Halloween Parade is woven deep into the fabric of
By Alec Pruchnicki, MD Mary Trump, the President’s niece, recently described her uncle as the most dangerous man alive. She may have been too kind. Because of his position, he might be the most dangerous person who ever lived. This is not because he has killed more people than anyone else, at least not yet.
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Way back in May 2020 I had my tried-and-true bike stolen out from under me, so to speak. I was one of those die-hard bikers that felt that anything with a motor should be regulated and licensed, and kept off the bikeways, despite friends who for years had extolled
By Donna Schaper Father James Martin, a liberal Jesuit priest, closed the Democratic convention with a prayer in which he asked God to “Open our hearts to those most in need.” On his list was “the unborn child in the womb.” Cardinal Timothy Dolan opened the Republican convention praying for many things, including “the innocent
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. Timothy Ray Brown was reported as the first person cured of AIDS. His case provided clinical proof that AIDS can indeed be cured and gives people living with HIV/AIDS hope. For many researchers like myself, Timothy sparked our imaginations in our search for a global cure. The first time I met
By Anastasia Kaliabakos As November 3rd descends upon the United States, Americans are growing ever more aware of the importance of voting and democracy in our society today. In the spirit of learning about why our elective system functions the way it does, it is worthwhile to understand the intricacies of one of the most
By Erik Bottcher 2020 will be remembered as a year that delivered a seemingly endless parade of nightmares. There is no shortage of reasons to feel despondent and demoralized. During this most terrible of years, one thing that has given me hope is the life of my Grandmother, Irene Harriet Brimlow. She passed away on
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Barry Diller’s “Little Island” aka Pier 55, aka Diller’s Island, is scheduled to open next spring 2021, after 7 years of work. Massive PR efforts are being mounted in the effort to gain community support, after completely shutting out the community from its initial planning, and “back room” deals
By Frank Quinn After an eight-month hiatus due to the pandemic, the 6th Precinct Community Council convened a virtual meeting on October 21st. Newly installed Commanding Officer Stephen Spataro and other officers answered a number of written questions submitted by the public, including regarding two recent high-profile incidents. On Sunday, October 18th a person was
By George Capsis The always smiling and articulate City Council Speaker (who I thought was next in line to become the mayor) announced on Thursday, September 24th, that he would drop his run for mayor. This came as a surprise to me because whenever I offered his name in an article I would suggest with
By Stanley Wlodyka Jiménez Hello WestView readers! Local papers have long been charged with championing community first and foremost. As one of the last few, truly independent local newspapers in the country, WestView News is proud to back this effort to preserve the first AIDS memorial in NYC and the only one in a church
By Robert Heide 2020 is the 50th anniversary of the famed Cockettes, who made an acid drenched splash in San Francisco while living commune style shortly after the Summer of Love in the Haight-Ashbury, with their thrift shop vintage, fabulously collaged and assemblaged outfits barely covering their nudity with a profundity of accessories, including bakelite
By Fr. Graeme Napier Orsino in Twelfth Night commands his minstrels: If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die. wishing that his lovesickness would perish. In this time of the pandemic, of course, the opposite has happened for music-lovers: the
By Brian J Pape, AIA A map that captures a moment, as all maps do, but in a simple and fun way, highlighting some historical structures, is part of the Brooklyn Historical Society Library’s new digital collection. Do you think you know Greenwich Village? Ask yourself if you can identify the locations on the map
By Joan Klyhn “Joan’s Shanghai” is a memoir of a childhood in Shanghai in the ‘30’s and ‘40s of the 20th century. I am writing it primarily for myself, extending it to my friends, and now to the many people who have shown themselves fascinated with this period in the past. Home I was
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP 1896 witnessed a new building inaugurated at 156-168 Bleecker Street, a full block long and wrapping the corners at 187-191 Sullivan Street and 187-201 Thompson Street, that replaced a row of formerly fashionable houses called Depauw Row. The double-height recessed limestone on the entrance and lobby features a modillioned
By Stanley Wlodyka Jiménez Vija Vetra, choreographer, dancer, Westbeth Icon, proudly striding—with an impossibly straight back mind you—towards 98 years of age February next year, an Aquarian soul just like many of the best American presidents, wants you to know that there was an error in last month’s article about her. “It comes from the
By Kambiz Shekdar The Village Halloween Parade is a symbol of New York City. In 2018 the parade’s theme was “I am Robot.” In 2019 it was “Wild Things.” This year’s theme was to be: “BIG LOVE! BIG EMBRACE!” Alas, 2020 is not the year of the Big Embrace; the parade is canceled, but it
By Jeff Hodges When our daughter Rebecca was born in the 1980s, my wife Emily and I were living on Charles Street. The Village was still home to a generation of aging bohemians and vestigial Italians and Irish. There was no question but that our Becky was going to thrive, even if it meant growing
By Roger Paradiso On January 28th President Trump was briefed by Robert O’Brien, his fourth national security advisor, who said, “This will be the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency” (referring to the pandemic, from Bob Woodward’s book Rage). As autumn starts to come to the Village, we see more people walking
By Frank Quinn Assembly member Deborah Glick and State Senator Brad Hoylman have introduced legislation to ban the use of facial recognition technology by police departments regardless of its current use as a crime-fighting tool. Last year former NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill published an article titled “How Facial Recognition Makes You Safer.” He described the
By Alec Pruchnicki, MD “A billion here, a billion there, and before you know it, you’re talking real money.” —Attributed to Senator Everett Dirksen. Former Mayor Mike Bloomberg recently pledged $100 million for Democratic election efforts in the swing state of Florida. That is a lot of money for one state. Very rough estimates indicate
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Our founding fathers established our post office and the decennial census as vital instruments for the benefit of our citizens and government. Throughout wars and economic turmoil the census has been taken, to help us know what this country has become and where our resources may need to be
