Erik Larson’s new book intimately explores Churchill and Britain during the Blitz By Eric Uhlfelder BOOK REVIEW: THE SPLENDID & THE VILE Eric Larson’s remarkable account of Winston Churchill’s first year as Britain’s Prime Minister when Germany unleashed the Luftwaffe against England in 1940 is a read to be savored. The Splendid and Vile, Larson’s
By Barry Benepe In a previous issue of WestView News, I reviewed Council Speaker Corey Johnson’s Comprehensive Transportation Plan in which he placed emphasis on making streets more pedestrian-friendly. In a future article I will expand on this under a vision called Livable Streets. Meanwhile, I would like to comment on an interim proposal forwarded
By Eve Zanni Rom Ferri was born into a loving, musical family; the youngest of 5 children in New Jersey. His father was an opera singer who sang at La Scala in Milano and whose also appreciated Louis Armstrong’s singing. 2 of Rom’s uncles played guitar, mandolin and banjo in some of the major big
By Bruce Poli West Village author David Carter, renowned for his detailed, truth-telling history Stonewall: the Riots that Sparked the Gay Revolution (St. Martin’s Press, 2004) endured years of criticism and challenge to his decade-long researched book on the Stonewall Rebellion—its forelife, life and fallout. Raised in rural Jesup, GA, Carter—who moved to Greenwich Village
By Joe Bongiovanni Let’s begin our study of money with this question—because everywhere, inquiring minds want to know—what is money? What serves as money isn’t derived from either a natural or a man-made material of any kind, and its study is virtually absent from our entire education system. Like Political Economy and Civics. The most
By Sue Peters In response to the shutdown of the economy, Congress passed the CARES Act. To date, Congress has appropriated $670 billion in funds to aid small businesses with Small Business Administration (SBA) loans. Also in the CARES Act, Congress appropriated $454 billion in funds for larger businesses, states, and municipalities. These funds, however,
By Karen Rempel It’s time for marriage counselling, not divorce. Defunding the NYPD is not the answer, but education and dialogue is. The police have been getting a lot of negative press; and it is justified, no question. The tragic murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin and the resulting unprecedented worldwide
Many thanks to the generous donors who contributed raffle items, and to all the subscribers and donors who support WestView News with your wrinkled green love. And the winners are: SJP by Sarah Jessica Parker Shoes from the Evergreen line ERIN MINTUN Hunter, NY Limited Edition Harvey Milk Stolichnaya Vodka and Custom Cocktail by
By Brian J Pape, AIA Even before the ‘soft’ re-opening of many enterprises in mid June, Pier 45 & 46 at Christopher Street to Perry Street had become a beehive of activity seldom seen before, more than the usual runners and walkers. During the pandemic closure of non-essential businesses, one industry category has discovered a
George Floyd Echoed in Pride Parade By George Capsis On the very hot humid Sunday of June 28th, Dusty offered me a seat right in front of the Stonewall Inn to watch the hour long informal Pride parade which was heavily intermixed with the Black Lives Matter messages. Walking home to Charles Street, I was
By Karen Rempel Proud marchers fill Seventh Avenue during New York’s World Pride Parade 2019, led by the Research Foundation to Cure AIDS’s founder, Kambiz Shekdar. Photo by Ismael Ramirez. Last year’s NYC Pride March was truly epic, with over 5 million spectators and participants. You may recall WestView News’s spectacular 4-page pull-out coverage,
2019 / Stonewall 50 / World Pride Swann Galleries—four Pride photographs, one sold in The Pride Sale, the first-ever Pride auction at Swann Galleries one of the three top NYC auction houses. One Photograph in NY Historic Society’s Stonewall 50 exhibition Five Pride photographs appear in Generation Woodstock ABC TVs episode of the series 1969
By Jake Fishbein When I started working from home on March 11th, I didn’t think I’d still be working from home today. I imagined being quarantined for a couple weeks, maybe a month, and then returning to seeing my friends, hosting workshops in person, and visiting my parents in New Mexico with relative ease. Instead,
By Spencer Wolff On July 27, 2009 a group of some sixty refugees, armed with rocks and makeshift weapons, assaulted the UN refugee bureau (UNHCR) in Rabat, Morocco. Windows were shattered, guards and police injured, security cameras smashed to the ground. Eventually the Moroccan army was forced to intervene. Those of us in the building
By Randee Mia Berman Was planning a trip to Verona But now we’re trounced by Corona We’re all in a panic We’re getting quite manic Next year in Barcelona? The virus wickedly spreadin’ So where in the world is this headin’? Some stay quite calm Like we ‘re in a sitcom; Others feel it’s like
Of course we don’t “need” WestView News, and if, like the several other vanished Village newspapers, it evaporated tonight there might be just a momentary regret at not being able to check the In and Out column to once again remind ourselves that our Village memories are disappearing faster than they can become a memory.
By Calogero Salvo During this reclusive period, my mind has been flying to other moments of my life where, similar to the current experiences, I felt fear. The fear I lived during the AIDS pandemic in the early 80’s when I was a young man was extraordinary. I thought death was imminent. My life and
By Anthony Paradiso and Roger Paradiso George called me and complained, “we are trapped in our homes and we are clicking faster and faster through those 150 channels with increasing speed. If I could just see a really nice film from beginning to end the way I did in the Del Mar on 137th Street
By Nancy Davidoff Kelton I am 72 and was born and raised in Buffalo. Since college, I have lived in Manhattan. I am a writer. I work at home and talk to myself. My husband, Jonathan, now works at home. I have to talk to him. Other than that, I have not much changed my
By Hannah Reimann, Woon Yung Chung & Shen Xiaowen Asia Pacific Workstation Business Development Manager at HP in Seoul, Korea, Woon Yung Chung, provided WestView News with an interesting interview, shedding light on the unique situation we are facing on the planet at this time, the Coronavirus Pandemic. As many people know, Korea saw its
By Keith Michael On the last day of March, compatriot West Village bird watcher Andrew Rubenfeld and I got together (well, socially-distanced “together”) to walk along the promenade in Hudson River Park to look for birds and talk about his beguiling fresh collection of more than two centuries of American writing about birds which illuminates
By Brian J Pape, AIA When the city DOB shut down construction in March, only a few “Essential Construction” projects were exempt. In the Village area, while street work has continued, there didn’t seem to be any “essential” building sites, so it was very quiet for several weeks. While most commercial buildings, such as the
By Gordon Gilbert whatever lies ahead we awake opening our eyes to a new day & see ahead the many paths we still can take the choices ours to make I choose a path of love not hate an active love that will contend for what is good & right & while I still can
By Robert Heide It was Edward Albee who first introduced me to Terrence McNally in 1958. A lifelong friend, I was stunned when I heard of Terrence’s death March 24 at the age of 81, from complications of the coronavirus. Living in Florida with his husband Tom Kirdahy, he had overcome cancer but was suffering
By Brian J Pape, AIA From almost every vantage point in the West Village, the 46-story former Trump Soho Hotel (now, the Dominick) tower at 246 Spring Street looms over the other buildings like a sore thumb. Like Boston’s Hancock Building on Copley Square, the sheer reflective glass facades overpower the historic character of the
By Roberta Curley It took four weeks of sheltering in place, for the coronavirus pandemic to make me smile. I was thankful to still be alive and for the first time in my life, I grabbed a glimpse of clarity as to my life’s desires and plans. I scrubbed my blinds, deep-cleaned my bathroom, realized
By Donna Schaper For years, when I was a young chaplain, I brought groups of students to New York City on what we called the “urban plunges.” Today they would be called urban discoveries or immersions, or something less active and more contemplative. “Plunging” was often a required experience for students, particularly those from rural
By Joe Bongiovanni Hang in there for just a moment, Villagers, this is actually a good news story. And I promise to provide the answer to your question, “What the heck is parity economics?” (at least in part). But first, why is parity economics important to the pandemic population—meaning, everybody today— Villagers and Iowans alike?
During a recent Zoom contributors meeting (usually held in the publisher’s ample kitchen, or in good weather, his backyard) Editor George Capsis noted the Art Deco, Coca-Cola signs, and Mickey Mouse memorabilia and requested a photo to grace the pages of the May edition of WestView News. Robert Heide (pictured here in his kitchenette) and
26 NYU Swimmers and Divers Were Headed to NCAA Championships By Anthony Paradiso Students and student athletes were eagerly awaiting the coming of spring at college campuses throughout the country. At New York University, which has many dorms and campus buildings around Washington Square Park, five varsity spring sports teams were preparing for the warm
By Nancy Davidoff Kelton It takes a village to raise a child. It took me forever to appreciate my mother. Now years after her death, I can embrace her spirit and legacy. In 2000, I brought my then beau, a well-dressed CEO with a fine coat of polish—a card-carrying mother-pleaser—to the nursing home to meet
By Carol London Ilona Royce-Smithkin lived above The Beatrice Inn on West 12th Street for fifty years and celebrated her 100th birthday on March 27th from her balcony in Provincetown, sung to by many loving friends below. She painted the first portrait of Tennessee Williams, had a documentary about her life created several years ago,
By Bennett Kremen In the mid 1950s, when just seventeen, I took a midnight bus from Chicago through the cornfields of Indiana and the mountains of Pennsylvania into the sudden, wondrous shock of Manhattan. But even more wondrous was discovering, that very night, a strange, surreal yet extraordinarily real experiment with life itself, pulsating through
By Frank Quinn Crime across the city is trending downward over the last month, due to the coronavirus outbreak, and the West Village is experiencing a similar trend with one troubling exception—burglaries are up considerably. The most recent 28-day period for which statistics are available shows burglaries in the West Village have increased by 138
By Catherine Revland The final article in the series “You Must Remember This,” about World War II and its relevance to our time. This month marks the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, and although I was only four years old at the time I can still recall the church bells, shouts of joy,
By Anastasia Kaliabakos In 430 B.C., a devastating plague ravaged Athens. This disease is said to have originated in Sub-Saharan Africa, south of modern-day Ethiopia. After crossing through Egypt, Libya, and Persia, the illness finally made its way to Athens, Greece—specifically, the city’s port, known as Piraeus. The famous Greek historian and Athenian General, Thucydides,
By Daniel Shaviro Jewish immigrant families from a century ago, such as my grandparents on both sides, often had a distinct set of intellectual and artistic values. Suppose that, of two siblings born to a similar family, one had turned out to be Bill Gates, and the other had become the third violinist at the
By Robert Kroll We’re sheltering-in-place, aka SIPing, in Northern California. We were there on a business trip in early March, and two days later Governor Newsom shut down the nine Bay Area counties. Governor Cuomo announced that in “two weeks things are going to get bad…and two weeks after that they are going to get
