By Dusty Berke On April 9th a PRNewswire press release went out to over 3,000 mainstream media announcing that a nonprofit organization of over 30 attorneys along with many 9/11 Family members were going to file a formal Petition the next day with the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York demanding a
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Jim Fouratt’s HAVE YOU HEARD?
AUGUST 2018 Let’s start with some GOOD NEWS: Cynthia Nixon will be the Working Families Party’s candidate for State Assembly, competing for the seat with Deborah Glick, who has held the office for 25 years. While everyone I know tells me they are voting for Nixon in the Democratic Primary in September, when Nixon is
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“The Glory of God is a Human Being Fully Alive.”
By Fr. Graeme Napier Thus, down the ages, sings St. Irenaeus, the second-century bishop from the little Aegean sea town of Smyrna who had heard the preaching of the soon-to-be-martyred Polycarp—a disciple of John the gospel-maker, to whom St. John’s in the Village is dedicated. Before I went to Oxford to study mathematics and philosophy
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Celebrating Mae West at the Jefferson Market Library
By Michele Gouveia “When I’m good, I’m very good, but when I’m bad, I’m better.” —Mae West With her double entendres, voluptuous figure, and distinct Brooklyn accent, Mae West became one of the most famous and imitated women of the 20th century. This year marks the 125th anniversary of her birth, and to celebrate the
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Vacation!
By Christina Winholt Do you want to take your vacation twice? How about a dozen times? Is it possible to relive your vacation as many times as you would like if you practice being in the moment while you are laying by the pool, hiking your favorite mountain, or seeing the sights? One of the
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Notes from Away: Maine’s Test Case
By Tom Lamia After having his nose and jaw broken by his drunken father, an 11-year-old boy ran from his Lewiston, Maine home never to return. Living on the streets, with French as his first language and not attending school, he survived, but with memories, one supposes, that were not charitable towards all. Of his
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West Village Original: Catherine Revland
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is writer and author Catherine Revland, born in 1940 in Fort Ransom, North Dakota and raised in Fargo. Formally educated and trained as a writer, with over 40 years experience writing for a variety of print and online media, she is also a regular contributor to
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Tech And Creative Hub Developments Around Greenwich Village
By Ananth Sampathkumar, with Brian J. Pape July 10th was a big news day for two important developments around Greenwich Village. The first breaking story was about the new Tech Hub being proposed at 124 East 14 Street (between Irving Place and 3rd Avenue). Back in February 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio unveiled the new
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West Village for Kids
By Yalini Anne Sampathkumar, 9 The West Village has lots of fun things to offer for kids all ages. Here are a few good places to visit with kids. Jefferson Market Library: Jefferson Market is a wonderful library. It has lots of activities like book signings, learning about animals, crafts, and games every Friday. On
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Oh, Baby
By Keith Michael August is when a wave of baby birds appears in the trees, on the park lawns, and from the windowsills. Recently fledged, their metronomic chirps to “Feed me, feed me” are a familiar sound of summer. My corgi Millie’s metronomic bark to “Feed me, feed me” is, likewise, a familiar sound of
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IN AND OUT
July is usually a slow month, but this year there was lots of activity. In particular, the Village has become more of an Asian food hub with the opening of three Chinese restaurants and one Japanese ramen bar; and another Japanese restaurant is in the works. Open TOP OPENINGS Junzi Kitchen (170 Bleecker Street at
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Don’t Just Sit There, Resist—Part IV: Take the House!
By Alec Pruchnicki If you think President Trump’s performance in Helsinki was great, and the direction of the nation is just peachy, this article is not for you. This is for people who consider Trump a danger to the country and the world, and are desperately looking for a way to resist. There is a
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Class War in Greenwich Village: Mini Versailles or Senior Housing with a Garden?
By Jim Fouratt Recently, when I called attention to the possibility of “class war” over a city-owned lot on Elizabeth Street, I was half joking. In 2012, when Councilwoman Chin was being pressured by both Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn to approve the massive NYU expansion in her district, Chin finally relented, after
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The Value of Knowing Nothing
By George A. Davidson A few years after graduating in the class of 1967, I returned to Columbia Law School to judge a moot court along with Professor Willis L.M. Reese. After the argument, Reese told me that it had been his privilege to work with two brilliant men in his life, Austin Wakeman Scott,
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The West Village
By Lorraine Gibney Every person who has walked through the West Village understands that this place is unique. My family arrived in New York during the time of the Revolutionary War. Fortunately, much of our history during the 1800s was documented by my first cousin James Riordan Sr. Needless to say, the West Village has
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Developments at Hudson River Park – Celebrating 25 Years of Piers
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP On May 30, 2003, the first completed section of Hudson River Park (HRP), which began in 1999, was officially opened to the public in the West Greenwich Village portion from Pier 45 to Pier 51; and Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) is celebrating, even while it struggles to meet
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The Impracticable Life of NYC’s Street Vendors
By Milad Momeni New Yorkers. We love the hustler. We venerate the feisty businessperson who lays it all down for their dream. Nevertheless, as the city becomes more gentrified and the police omnipresent, the amount of available space for poor people who work for themselves is slowly diminishing. This tendency is even more visible if
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CB3 Resolution Aids Beth Israel’s Demise
By Penny Mintz July was a very busy month for getting people to sign an order to get candidates on the ballot for the Democratic primary on September 13th. So it was a slow month for the work of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel (CCSBI), a 12-member organization of community groups that have
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Comment: You Can’t Stop a Problem Unless You Admit to It
On July 14th, I received a two-page letter via the US mail. The following was just one small part: “The reason I am writing this is as follows: I have a friend who has an acquaintance on the Greenwich House Advisory Board of Directors. According to her, Greenwich House plans to close its 50 year
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Honesty as a Business: A Prophetic Coincidence
By George Capsis Oh, wow, I read in the July 22nd Sunday Times that Exxon discovered a gushing oil reservoir off the coast of Guyana, and that the Independent one time colony of the Dutch and British made up of former African slaves and indentured Indian workers, with a population of only 800,000, will inevitably
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Penny Mintz Takes on Governor Cuomo In Disguise
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Over the last few months, WestView readers have been kept abreast of the efforts to keep Beth Israel Hospital open thanks to the reporting done by Penny Mintz, a 40 year resident of West 11th Street. Penny has been the Chair of the Coalition to Save Beth Israel Hospital, a group
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Saving Humberto
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Humberto Gonzalez Bernal has lived at 88 Horatio Street, in a 250 square foot studio, since 1957, shortly after, at the age of 26, he arrived in the US from Cuba, a country then living under the brutal US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. He always harbored a dream of returning to Cuba,
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Open Letter to Roy Leavitt, Executive Director of Greenwich House
Roy—When I asked you why you needed $180,000, and were you in a financial hole, and what were you going to do with the $180,000, you gave me: “The funds allocated will cover leasing expenses for the agency’s administrative operations instead of using the facilities currently occupied senior center.” You should have been more direct
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City Awards WestView $5000
Erik Botcher, the Chief of Staff for City Council Speaker, Corey Johnson, called George Capsis, the publisher of WestView News, to say the City had awarded the paper an unprecedented grant of $5000 to support its enormously popular Free Concerts for Seniors program. “You ought to let people know the City supports you,” offered a
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Battle on Barrow Street—A Victory for Organized Villagers
By Jane Heil Usyk Well! It has been quite a week; several meetings, two demonstrations, petition signing, and who knows what next week. Here is how it played out: on Monday, July 9th, I went to the senior center, Greenwich House, at 27 Barrow Street to see “The Big Knife,” one of the many excellent
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Two Village Institutions Show There’s More That Unites Us Than Divides Us
By Joe Salas A pen-pal program between members at Greenwich House’s Center on the Square Senior Center and the kindergarten and first graders at Village Community School (VCS) has shown that despite decades of differences, life in the Village can still be a uniting factor. Joan Silinsh was born in Mexico City and briefly lived
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West Village Original: Vincent Livelli
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is Vincent Livelli, born in Brooklyn in 1920, baptized at St. Anthony’s on Sullivan Street, and raised in Greenwich Village. A former professional dancer, he held jobs as cruise director on ships for over 20 years where he pioneered the growth of on-ship entertainment. Despite being
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Farewell to the Queen of Pasta
By Jane Heil Usyk Just got out of Perazzo’s, where Mrs. Raffetto was lying in state. It was the center of Village life today; half the Village came in while we were there on Monday. We all said she was lucky to have died the way she did; as her son Andrew said, she was
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Theater Review: Conflict – When Words and Honor Mattered
By Eric Uhlfelder Are we totally responsible for our lot in life? Or can circumstances be so extreme as to make a mess of the strongest wills? Who is lucky enough to be forgiven; who is fortunate enough to get a second chance? Where does lasting sustenance come from? These are just several of the
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Celebrating Tom O’Horgan at La MaMa E.T.C.
By John Gilman On Saturday June 16 LaMaMa E.T.C. celebrated the life and career of the late Tom O’Horgan at the Ellen Stewart Theatre at 66 East 4th Street. O’Horgan was famous for his direction of Hair on Broadway as well as Jesus Christ Superstar and Lenny. The acclaimed musical Hair had a book and
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Broadway Babes Bette & Bernadette: The Saga of Hello Dolly and Big Bucks Broadway
By Robert Heide Bette Midler returns in Hello Dolly on July 17th in one of the best musicals ever to grace Broadway. Midler won the best actress Tony Award in June, 2017 for her right-on performance as Dolly Levi, a role originally portrayed by the incredible Carol Channing when the musical first opened in January
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World Premiere Screening – American Tap
American Tap Directed by Mark Wilkinson Film Society of Lincoln Center/ Dance on Camera 46 Friday July 20 8:45 pm Walter Reade Theater 165 West 65th Street Make America Great Again? This slogan has left most of us pondering “When exactly was that?” It is, in fact, a catch-all phrase designed to coerce the listener
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WestView News Celebrates Women’s Scientific Accomplishments— Part II: Ada Lovelace
By John Early Cautioned about her father’s “most strange and dreadful history,” Ada, Countess Lovelace “declared that she could relate to her father’s defiance of authority.” Referring to his “misused genius,” she wrote to her mother, “If he has transmitted to me any portion of that genius, I would use it to bring out great
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Doc Suture’s Ghosts
By James Lincoln Collier Ordinarily, I don’t like to bother Doc Suture about simple illnesses like the sniffles or a sunburn, but the six-year-old was whooping like a crane, so I turned up at Doc Suture’s office. He gave the child a cursory glance. “These things go away in time,” he said. “I’m awfully busy
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La Nacional, Celebrating Little Spain
By Eleanor Cole On June 15th, in anticipation of its 150th anniversary, La Nacional-Spanish Benevolent Society will inaugurate its community restaurant. The last surviving remnant of the once vibrant community known as Little Spain, La Nacional was the cultural, charitable and spiritual center for the Spanish and Hispanic community. The renovation, funded almost entirely by
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Through the Eyes of A Tourist
By Ananth Sampathkumar, Partner NDNY Architecture + Design The American Institute of Architects held its annual convention at the Javits Center in June. Over 25,000 architects, design professionals, manufacturers and trade representatives from all over America, and some from around the world, descended on the city for two days to take in everything that New
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But for The Grace of God
By Lawrence J. Phelan, Captain, Infantry A grey watery dawn was breaking over the bleak buildings of the Brooklyn Army Base when I reported there for a new and unaccustomed duty. I was taking a soldier home—a soldier now incapable of finding his own way, incapable of speech, incapable of action. A soldier who had
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A Tribute to Two Soldiers
By Stephanie Phelan At the start of the U.S. fighting in WWII, my uncle, Larry Phelan, served as a lieutenant in the army’s famous First Infantry Division. During the invasion of Sicily, in July of 1943, his unit was overrun by Germans and he became a prisoner of war. A letter to my aunt from
