By Frank Collerius For 50 years, the Jefferson Market Library has been a staple of the Greenwich Village community, offering traditional library services and innovative programs such as Jefferson Market University, popular storytime programs, and exhibitions that celebrate the history of our neighborhood. The building—originally a courthouse well known for its role in notable criminal
-
-
Five Cosmopolitan Artists at Westbeth Gallery in April
By Jane Heil Usyk “Worlds Seen and Unseen” is the name of this show featuring five well-traveled women who have been practicing their art for many years. It opens Friday, March 29th, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., and will run from March 29th through April 20th, 2019. The hours of operation are 12:00 p.m. to 6:00
-
Greenwich Village Staple Collaborates with NYC’s Music Venue Darlings to Feature Emerging Artists
See them Up-Close and Personal thanks to the New York Presenters Consortium A staple of the downtown new music scene since 2015, the Uncharted Concert Series at Greenwich House Music School (GHMS) has emerged as one of New York’s most exciting and unpredictable live concert series, and it’s right here in Greenwich Village. This year
-
Gary Sherball’s “Two Suspects” an Unexpected Joy
By Joel Gordon Judge Gary Sherball came to 69 Charles and sat and talked about the upcoming reading of his play with music at the Bitter End. He implored several times “come, come, and bring people.” I failed to put it in my calender and only recalled it when our photographer Joel Gordon called from
-
Both Sides Now: Celebrating the Legacy of Joni Mitchell
By Cal Smith In Celebration of Joni Mitchell’s 75th birthday, the 50th anniversary of Woodstock, and in continuation of her ongoing seven-year celebration of the music of Joni Mitchell, West Village resident Hannah Reimann will present concert performances of Mitchell’s music, entitled Both Sides Now, from April 22th through May 4th as part of Fort
-
9/11—My Survival and Memories of Mysterious Visitors
By J. Taylor Basker April is my birthday month. I have an opportunity to celebrate another year of life due to my third graders in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, to whom I am very grateful. I should have been killed on 9/11 while working with Fiduciary Trust in the South Tower on the 95th floor, trapped ten
-
The View from the Kitchen
By Isa Benveniste My kitchen is small. After all, I live in a Greenwich Village apartment—but not very small, as I can comfortably fit in a table where I have breakfast and other meals and where I can do prep and roll out pastry dough. I always do these things standing up, for no other
-
A New Book of Dogs, Cats, Horses and Other Animals
By Robert Heide A new book arrived in my mailbox entitled Love Can Be with a color cover photograph of a big dog staring out a window, ostensibly waiting for his master. The subtitle of the book is A Literary Collection about Our Animals and is edited by Louisa McCune and Teresa Miller, a Quality
-
#HelloHudsonYards
By Maria Hadjidemetriou At last you have arrived. You greeted us with art, music and performances, but most of all you greeted us with innovation, imagination and that everything is possible in New York City. It started Thursday eve, the opening of the mall to all… well to 13,000 invited guests. It was a night
-
Hudson Yards Wants to Grab My Photograph’s Rights
By Joel Gordon The “Vessel,” a public structure of interconnected stairways, is the centerpiece of Hudson Yards. It is a free public art sculpture space, but climbing it comes with a high cost. In layman’s terms, a photographer retains copyright ownership; but the photos taken of, and on, the Vessel belongs to the company in perpetuity and with no
-
Karen’s Quirky Style
The National Arts Club celebrated Jo Weldon’s new book, Fierce: The History of Leopard Print, in March, with a leopard-spotted event that had stylish New Yorkers turning out in truck-loads of faux pelts adorning every imaginable garment from boots to hats. Touted as a “neutral,” leopard prints might have been invented as nature’s camo, but
-
Mademoiselle Mirabelle Brings Ooh La La to Bleecker Street
By Karen Rempel Mademoiselle Mirabelle alighted on Bleecker Street in mid-January, with a Parisian cocktail party to say “bienvenue” to her new neighbors. The store is owner Nicole Nicholson’s second location. The mother store, Boutique Mirabelle, at 1310 Madison Avenue, has become so successful after 30 years that it practically runs itself. Ready for a
-
Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso – A woman’s touch is always a signal. If the passage from life to death is as painless as the passage from waking to sleeping, we have little to fear. Congress: From oversight committees to overlook committees. The shadows of snow. The inevitable orneriness of the inert. There’s a silent click in
-
Our Lifetime in The Village
By Carol and Richard Quigley, as told to Brian J. Pape, AIA This is the story of Carol and Richard Quigley (CQ and RQ), life-long residents of Greenwich Village. Part of the “Baby Boomer” generation, they grew up during the economic and cultural changes of the 1950s and ’60s right here in the West Village.
-
Reminiscence
By Judy K. Gilbert I met my husband sixty years ago on a transatlantic crossing. We were on the steamship SS Liberté, both of us off to Europe, but for very different reasons. Elliott had finally amassed enough money to take his first European trip, and I had received a scholarship for intensive study of piano
-
Alert: Mad Anti-Immigrant Paint-Thrower on the Loose in the Village
In March on Washington Street near Westbeth someone threw red paint over the sign in my car rear window that said “Welcome Refugees and Immigrants—Arab-American Center, Brooklyn.” In January, same street, someone threw white paint over my Bernie Sanders Bumper Sticker. In December in Westbeth someone slashed the poster on my door with a picture of
-
Caffe Reggio: 92-year-old Café in the Heart of the West Village
By Anthony Paradiso Caffe Reggio is a 92-year-old coffee shop nestled right in the heart of the West Village at 119 MacDougal Street between Thompson and Minetta Lane. I walked down from Sixth Avenue and walked over to MacDougal Street, where I came across a coffee shop that looked different from the rest. You can’t
-
Restoration Hardware Transforms Historic Market District Wagon Shed
By Martica Sawin No doubt many West Villagers received, along with the Saturday, March 16th, New York Times, a glossy 360-page publication whose cover featured the former wagon shed in the Gansevoort Market Historic District. This was once the location of Pastis—across from the Gansevoort Hotel—and more recently, an empty site fronted by a thin brick facade
-
New York City: A Tale of Two Cities – Billionaire’s Row and Habitat’s Habitat
By Siggy Raible Last week I spent some time visiting with a good friend; she’s 96 years strong, lives alone in her rent-stabilized apartment in Grammercy Park and loves having company. We got to talking about life in New York City; more specifically Manhattan. (When I was growing up in Brooklyn, Manhattan was The City.)
-
Israel-Palestine
By Carol Yost When Israel became a nation in 1948, just a few years after the unspeakable Holocaust was finally over, it seemed to many like a great new beginning. Thousands of Jews and Christians thought it would be a blessing after everything the European Jewish survivors had experienced, though nothing could bring back the
-
Frank Romano: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
By J. Taylor Basker Frank Romano, part-time resident of Greenwich Village, peace activist and professor of law in France, was arrested and deported from Israel recently. He is on a team of lawyers preparing a complaint for the ICC (International Criminal Court) accusing Netanyahu and Lieberman of criminal violation of the rights of Bedouins whose
-
Should Abner Be Deported?
By Stanley Wlodyka In the waiting area of the offices of Judson Memorial Church by Washington Square Park, a boy of around three or four sits on the floor, diligently creating a work of art with crayons for the wall behind him, which is filled with children’s drawings of houses, animals, families, and other happy
-
If I Were Pope
By Donna Schaper I would pray, papally, about what it means to be a Christian. I would take all of my fears of fraud with me. I would ask about the end game—and whether revenge or punishment ever got anybody, anywhere, closer to Jesus. I know the punishmentalists and literalists love to “get back” and
-
Keeping Ancient Greek and Latin Alive
By Anastasia Kaliabakos Latin and Greek are dying. These beautiful languages, once studied by the most elite and forward-thinking scholars, have been pushed into the background in schools across the globe in favor of “more useful” modern languages; however, it is of vital importance to maintain, if not increase, the world’s passion for classics. Knowing
-
Two by Two
By Keith Michael Honking and braying, a Canada Goose family flies across the promenade in front of us onto the lawn. Millie seems nonplussed as the geese immediately get industrious at their grass maintenance routine. Corgis are herding dogs, but maybe the geese are already orderly enough that Millie doesn’t feel the need to intervene,
-
DOT Finally Comes to the Table!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Flash: After nearly a year of refusing to have face to face negotiations with the 14th Street Coalition, which has led the Greenwich Village Community response to plans to shut 14th Street down to all but buses during the now cancelled L Train shutdown, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) leadership
-
Congestion Pricing & Access-a-Ride: Tech Breakthroughs
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Have you adjusted to the “Sharing Economy” yet? In NYC, the Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) is supposed to control the ride-hail world, but what has happened? Well, this has been a year, or decade, of turmoil in the ride-hail/ride-share world. The TLC oversaw 143,674 for-hire vehicles in 2015,
-
Food Scrap Collection
By Ede Rothaus As one of the most environmentally aware neighborhoods in New York City, the West Village continues to further its efforts to ‘reuse reduce recycle.’ A strong example of this is our local food scrap and curbside organics collection program. Funded by the New York City Council (and its Speaker, Corey Johnson) for
-
Jackson Square Park Reopens After Extensive Renovation
By Michael D. Minichiello On April 2nd at 11:00 a.m., City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and others will preside over a newly renovated Jackson Square Park, the triangle formed by Horatio Street and Eighth and Greenwich Avenues. Among other events at the ceremony, three new pin oaks will be planted to join the older ones
-
MTA Taking the Piss on L-Train
By Stanley Wlodyka MTA employees were caught urinating in public while conducting work on the L Train on 14th Street near Third Avenue on Sunday, March 10th. They created a makeshift porta potty by hanging a piece of white cloth over the open rear doors of a work truck. MTA employees would disappear behind the
-
Hey Mt. Sinai: What’s the Plan?
By Penny Mintz At several public meetings in 2016 and 2017, Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel announced its plan to shutter Beth Israel Hospital and replace it with scattered out-patient services and a new 70-bed hospital in a two-story building on East 13th Street. It took steps toward this goal with the piecemeal closure of four hospital
-
Corey Johnson’s Vision for City May Need Glasses
By J. Taylor Basker Corey Johnson, City Council Leader, delivered his State of the City speech presenting his proposal ‘A Case for Municipal Control and a Comprehensive Transportation Vision for the Five Boroughs’ telling us what every New Yorker already knows. “Smart, well-developed transportation policy can significantly improve economic conditions and enhance public safety and
-
Do Not Legalize Sex Work!
By Carol Yost Two op eds about the current state of affairs in the field of sex work appeared recently, a week apart, in the Daily News. The one published March 1, 2019, by Melanie Thompson, a sex trafficking survivor, was given the title “Hell no to legal prostitution.” On March 8, 2019, the op
-
All We Can Afford Is Memories
By George Capsis Perhaps nothing has so suddenly dramatized the loss of the “old” Village as the sale of the building in which the beloved White Horse Tavern has sat unchanged since 1880. Generations and generations of young and not so young people have eased their way into a chair or booth there to sip
-
Rage, Rage Against Croman
By Cynthia Chaffee and Mary Ann Miller Whenever a New York restaurant closes, look under the nearest rock and you’ll usually find Steve Croman, the notorious landlord who just spent several months in jail—not at Rikers where he was supposed to go, but at the Manhattan correctional center, a.k.a. “The Tombs.” Add to the mix Eytan
-
Adult Protective Services—Don’t Ignore Them
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Last month I wrote about a woman referred to my office by WestView who, besides being terrorized by her landlord, had been contacted by Adult Protective Services (APS) and was now more scared of APS putting her in a nursing home than she was of her landlord. APS, which is part
-
A West Village Generational Story: Dr. Charles Dorato
By Allyn Freeman Consider the many stories fictional or fact about the West Village in novels, short stories, magazines and newspaper articles. Remember those involving tales written about the bohemian lives of Village artists and writers. Recall the narrations of Village nightlife with anecdotes about jazz clubs, watering holes, and potluck parties in walk up
-
Empty Nest
By Christina Raccuia The “empty nest” refers to the physical and psychological change in the family when a child leaves home or goes away to college. For about 18 years, we as parents have invested ourselves in the emotionally consuming process of raising a family—and suddenly one day the children leave home. As the nest
