By Robert Heide The first time I met Horton Foote was at a Christmas party in Greenwich Village, at an old-time apartment building on Washington Square North, hosted annually by actress and Berghof Studio teacher Rochelle Oliver. Attendees included Uta Hagen and Matthew Broderick, who both lived in apartments upstairs. Horton Foote came with his
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Movie Review: The Report
By Roger Paradiso Adam Driver plays Daniel Jones, a staffer for the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) chaired by Senator Diane Feinstein, played by Annette Benning. She is asked to create a report on the FBI and CIA’s Detention and Interrogation program created during President Bush’s War on Terror. The Report is a reckoning
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The Bus Stop Cafe
By Gordon Hughes Immigration is such a hot topic today. I guess this is an issue that has always faced us as a nation going back to the Know Nothings of the 1830’s, 40’s and 50’s. There have been those that see immigrants as a threat to our country, and those that see them as
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My Friend Wegmans
By Nancy Davidoff Kelton As a Village resident who does not own a car, I plan to make my first shopping expedition to the Brooklyn Wegmans when I rent one at the end of January to attend a family holiday party on Long Island. I am more excited about the ride home and stopping at
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The West 13th Street Alliance’s Upcoming Community Events for 2020
By the West 13th Street Alliance The West 13th Street Alliance is pleased to announce its initial 2020 Community Events offerings. On Thursday, January 30th from 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Lenox Health GV (200 West 13th Street) we are proud to invite the New York Aquarium’s Director of Communications John K. Delaney for a lecture called
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The Jefferson Market Library Presents: Anne Bronte: A Woman of Courage
By Miriam Canfield In celebration of the Bicentennial Birthday of Anne Brontë, The New York Public Library’s Jefferson Market branch will present a staged reading highlighting her life and writings on January 24 and 25. Anne Bronte: A Woman of Courage, is sponsored by Frank Collerius, Library Manager of The Jefferson Market Library, in collaboration
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Westbeth Winter Exhibit Heat Zone
Winter is a cold, grey, often depressing season to endure. Westbeth’s Winter Exhibit was a hot, eclectic mix of visual arts media that heated you up with pleasurable aesthetic experiences in four rooms of painting, sculpture, photography and multi-media art! As an open group show of Westbeth visual artists, it presented diverse works that were
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Want More in the Roaring Twenties?
By Stanley Wlodyka Perhaps start by acknowledging that abundance is present in the most unexpected ways. Unexpected because it’s disguised as something else, something unwanted and sometimes discarded. But even that is by design: it sits there watching the multitudes pass by, waiting for the one who recognizes its hidden value. 55 Bethune Street was
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“Every Winter was a Valley Forge”
By Catherine Revland This is the third article in a series, You Must Remember This, about World War II and its relevance to our times. “To POTUS: The scene has darkened swiftly…The weight may be more than we can bear” (intercepted cable from Churchill to FDR, read by the German High Command, 1941). “The Fuhrer
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Clarkson Towers Promises Affordable and Senior Units
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Patient visits doctor and asks, “How am I doing?” Doc: “I have good news and bad news.” Patient: “What’s the good news?” Doc: “Your knee surgery went very well.” Patient: “Yeah. What’s the bad news?” Doc: “You have lung cancer.” We have good news and bad news about the new
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Off the Beat Sports: Sky Rink’s All Stars Team Third in Nation
By Anthony Paradiso In 1969, the twin-rink ice arena called Sky Rink opened its doors to the public at Pier 61. It is one of the three major facilities at Chelsea Piers that has an entire pier to itself. It was renovated in 1995 and is the only indoor ice arena in Chelsea, and the
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Bird of the Year 2019
By Keith Michael We are standing under the canopy of a cloudy winter sky on the corner where the 14th traditional presentation of the Annual West Village Bird of the Year Awards, “The Millies,” is held. This tourist-confounding intersection of West 4th and West 12th Streets is where a rosy-hued House Finch was heard and
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My Date with Jimi Hendrix and Mrs. Maisel
By Gy Mirano Wondering around one of my favorite New York neighborhoods, the West Village, I found the Music Inn. There’s nothing like getting lost in the historic cinematic streets, and being welcomed by period facades where classic New York jazz clubs, trendy boutiques, surviving mom and pop stores, and some of the most fun
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Engineers Pledge $45,000 Reward for Refuting WTC7 University of Alaska Study
By Brian J Pape, AIA On the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 disaster, structural engineer Ibrahim Soudy, Ph.D., pledged $10,000 to any qualified American professional structural engineer, physicist, or physical science engineer to refute successfully the University of Alaska study “A Structural Reevaluation of the Collapse of World Trade Center 7,” which would be decided
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Expert ORTHOPAEDIC INSIGHTS Lenox Health Greenwich Village: Understanding the Difference Between Sprains and Strains
Service Line: Orthopaedics Thought Leader: Dr. Daniel Seidman A strain and sprain can look and feel similar. No matter how many times you roll, bend or twist your ankle, it can be hard to tell the difference between the two. If you think you have a minor or moderate sprain or strain, you can treat
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Let’s Get Real About Aging
By Gail Evans On December 3rd I met with 85-year-old George Held in his West Village apartment to interview him about aging. He taught in the English Department at Queens College for 35 years and was a Fulbright lecturer in Czechoslovakia under Soviet rule. Held is also a prolific poet, editor, translator, essayist and book
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Silvernest and OATS Celebrate and Improve Aging
As part of WestView News’ ongoing efforts to improve the lives of seniors in the West Village and to create community for all ages in our neighborhood, I interviewed Wendi Burkhardt, CEO of Silvernest, a national online home sharing service, and Thomas Kamber who created the celebrated Senior Planet and OATS (Older Adults Technology Services).
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Disappearing Diamonds? Diemut Strebe’s Redemption of Vanity at NYSE
“I’m wearing a 20-carat diamond on my necklace. What, you can’t see it? Believe me, it’s gorgeous!” Imagine if all our jewelry was invisible. What would it be worth? Artist Diemut Strebe wanted to find out the answer to this question. What is the intrinsic value of an object? Of a work of art?
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CAP Beauty, Farm to People and Farm Vegetable Program for Seniors
CAP Beauty, NEW YORK FLAGSHIP + SPA 238 West 10 Street, New York, NY 10014 (212) 227-1088 A facial at CAP Beauty is a full-sensory experience leaving one feeling extremely relaxed, nurtured and looking great. Esthetician/healer Crystal Greene provided me with a deep facial massage and treatments from CAP Beauty’s select arsenal of all-natural and
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Make 2020 the Year to Cure AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D., and Drew Davis Thank you to all those who joined Research Foundation to Cure AIDS (RFTCA) at the Free From AIDS Gala on World AIDS Day 2019. We put forward an unforgettable night for supporters of a cure and we’d be honored if you, too, would team up with us. If
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Safe Streets for Walking
By Barry Benepe “A city should be built to the convenience and satisfaction of those that live in it and to the great surprise of strangers,” so said a sixteenth century architect. “We have to improve the experience of all who walk around our city,” echoed City Council President Corey Johnson who initiated and shepherded
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“ACT UP! Fight Back! Fight AIDS!”
By Stanley Wlodyka Last month marked the 30th anniversary of an unprecedented event, one that saw worlds collide. Organized by AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), approximately 4,500 people gathered outside St. Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue one Sunday in December of 1989. They were there to protest the Catholic Church’s response to the
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Amazing Deal for Beginners at Integral Yoga Institute
By Chandra/Jo Sgammato I am so passionate about sharing the benefits of Yoga. Learning to stretch the body, breathe deeply, relax fully, and meditate peacefully are skills available to everyone, in every body, at every age and level of fitness. Yoga transformed my life in a way that no accomplishment, career milestone, or material achievement
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Westbeth Super-Senior Scammed—Don’t Fall for Social Security Fraud
By Arthur Z. Schwartz A 97-year-old Westbeth resident (name withheld for privacy), who we will call Val, an active dancer who still performs internationally, got victimized by a “Social Security” scam which has sucked in thousands of people all over the U.S. What happened to her is instructive to us all. In early December she
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Sellout at Pier 40 and St. John’s Terminal!
By Arthur Schwartz An eight-story (or higher) office tower on Pier 40? A million-square-foot Google hub across the street? In case you blinked, that’s what the West Village is in for at the western border of West Houston Street. And what are our elected leaders doing about it? NOTHING? First, some background. Back in 1996
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Mount Sinai’s ER Is a War Zone
By Penny Mintz Not too long ago, a nurse came into the emergency room of Beth Israel Hospital as a patient seeking emergency care. This nurse is employed in the ER of the main Mount Sinai hospital on East 98th Street. When asked why she had not gone to the Mount Sinai ER she said,
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Crooked Lawyer Encounters Lawyer Victim
I got an anxious call from Gretel Ramirez, the very nice lady who, with her brother, operates the friendly Sandwich Shoppe on Greenwich Avenue, saying that she had been subjected to what seemed to be some kind of fraud and would I come by and talk to her. She showed me a sheaf of very legal-looking
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Privilege in the Village
By Emily Roemer What is privilege as it pertains to a village, you may ask? Let me explain. By definition, “vil·lage priv·i·lege” is a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to inhabitants of a particular set of streets in lower Manhattan. Sure, a glass of wine might be double (or triple) the
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La Petite Ecole, a Bilingual “Art-de-Vivre” Preschool in the Village
By Alexis Lloyd Frenchmen in New York, and Frenchwomen for that matter, usually avoid the company of other French people in New York. We want to become New Yorkers. This often leads to romance with Americans, which leads to the birth of New Yorker babies carrying two passports (or more). But every year, the
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Diller’s Little Island Announced
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Diller Island, aka Pier 55, has a new name—“Little Island”— announced by a November 13th press release and cartoonish banners at the construction site. Almost five years ago, when WestView News coined the name “Diller Island” to describe the 2.7 acres of giant offshore tilting concrete mushrooms from 12th to 14th
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Survivors of the Lost Village: James Drougas
By Roger Paradiso James Drougas always loved books. “When I was 12 years old, I used to visit a small book shop on Main Street in Patchogue, Long Island and decided early I wanted to make a career of it.” “I am trying to be a space that offers unknown treasures at irresistible prices that
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Disney World Comes to Hudson Square
By Brian J. Pape, AIA The Walt Disney Company has presented quite a straightforward background building for its new New York headquarters at so-called 4 Hudson Square, aka 137 Varick Street. The design breaks up the massive potential of 1.2 million square feet into two towers—each with a 22-story height limit, over a shared 9-story
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How to Sell: Act as the Buyer
By George Capsis Every once in a while I get a young voice on the phone that wants to know if I want to buy a building or sell mine. I sympathetically offer them from my own youthful experience that there is nothing worse than doing a “cold call.” But recently I got a call
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The Battle for Better Bus Service Still Not Won
By Barry Benepe Two additional encounters with the 14th Street SBS bus are also worth recounting followed by some reflections on DOT transportation policy or lack thereof. First, to understand terms, SBS refers to the equipment, not to the routes. The former buses, which loaded at the front with a metro card, have been taken
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Airbnb tenant discovers NYCHA roach trap
By George Capsis Last month WestView ran a long article about the city inviting real estate developers to bid on building brand new apartment buildings on the NYCHAFulton House campus between 16 and 19th street and 9th Avenue and letting them rent out 70% of the apartments to people willing to pay market rate but offering 30%
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Then&Now: Westbeth
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP The Bell Laboratories Buildings, from 1898–1966, headquarters of Bell Telephone Laboratories, was also one of the world’s most important industrial research centers and home to many early technological inventions including the condenser microphone, automatic telephone panel and crossbar switches, the first experimental “talking pictures” (1923), black and white and color TV, video telephones, radar, the vacuum tube, the transistor, medical equipment,
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Latest Westbeth War: The Gallery
By J. Taylor Basker Westbeth has been mired in controversy since its first rent strike in the 70’s and the attempt to turn it into a co-op in the 80’s, which created divisions among its residents that still persist. The latest fight is over the Gallery, which was given to Westbeth artists when a resident
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Beth Israel Petitions Delivered to Governor
By Penny Mintz On Monday, November 18th, State Assembly Member Harvey Epstein and members of a coalition of community and city-wide organizations conducted a press conference outside of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office building before delivering petitions signed by nearly 1,000 people. The coalition members and the petition signers are alarmed about the closure of
