By W. Russell Neuman I know I should, but I don’t pay a lot of attention to price tags in stores. I should also keep track of sale items and I don’t do that either. But when I picked up a jar of Hellmann’s Mayonnaise at a chain grocery store/supermarket in the West Village recently,
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Local Residents Challenge Democratic Candidates at Village Forum
Oh wow! The election for Mayor and other sundry City offices is coming up fast—on September 12th. And, although there has been some disenchantment with Bill de Blasio, no for-real opposition candidate has emerged. At a recent meet-the-candidate rally at the LGBT Center on 13th Street, the only sparks were over the Mayor’s insistence to
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Getting to Know the American Tap Dance Foundation
By Kelly Bayer What do you get when you mix African tribal dance and an Irish jig? Tap dance—America’s traditional dance form. If you’ve ever wanted to give it a try, get your kids involved, or even just watch the pros have at it, the American Tap Dance Foundation (ATDF) is a fantastic resource for
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Blue Money: A Scathing Debut Memoir by Janet Capron
By Andreea Ioana Pantor The controversial new memoir Blue Money is about to hit bookstores on June 20th. For its author, Janet Capron, prostitution was a defiant retort, an exotic adventure that didn’t impede her ongoing search for love amid the ruined landscape of drugs and rock ‘n’ roll in the streets of 1970s New
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Trump and the Saudi Connection
By Gary Tomei Trump recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and told the Saudis that they are our friends, even though they espouse a type of Islam, known as Wahhabism, which essentially preaches hatred of America and promotes Jihadism. Trump made this connection even though the Saudis are, in fact, the leading promoters of terrorism in
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A Food Tour of London’s East End—in the West Village
By Caroline Benveniste Recently, while in London, we (my husband and I and about 10 other people) took a wonderful East End food tour. This was not really a surprise, as we’d previously gone on an Eating Europe’s tour in Amsterdam, which was equally brilliant. I didn’t know much about the East End, which turns
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7th Avenue South to Get Bike Lane, But Residents Demand More Pedestrian Safety
By Andrew Buemi In 1811, the City of New York adopted an urban design plan that became famous for its logical, navigable grid system. While it has helped preserve the character of the West Village, it has also contributed to unintended consequences that continue to reverberate as the City evolves. The Commissioners’ Plan of 1811
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The Village is Alive and Well (on West 4th & Bank Streets)!
By Claude-Noëlle In the Spring of 1987, two recent college graduates, who had brought wares from Provence to the brocantes of NYC for more than a year, decided to open a little store on the corner of West 4th and Bank Streets in the West Village. The space had just been renovated, and when a
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Who’s Coaching Your Kids?
By Paul Caccamo It’s a challenge to raise kids in the West Village, which is why we need to take a much closer look at some of the adults with the greatest influence on them. One group, in particular, is their coaches. I’ve lived in the West Village for 20 years and have focused my
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West Village Houses: The Saga Continues
By Brian J. Pape, AIA In the April and May issues of WestView News, I reviewed the history of West Village Houses (WVH), beginning with their 1960s inception as residences to replace dilapidated industrial buildings along the elevated railroad on Washington Street. The railroad had erected the elevated tracks, starting slowly in 1929, due to
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The Broadway Musical Trail—So-So Shows with One Exception
By Robert Heide Two shows which recently opened on Broadway, Bandstand at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre at 242 West 45th Street and Anastasia at the Broadhurst Theatre at 235 West 44th Street, are just so-so. Both are around the corner from Hello Dolly! at 225 West 44th Street on Shubert Alley at the Sam
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A Restoration Without Shortcuts
By Anne Olshansky In 2015, Joe Ienco purchased the West Village landmark building at 35 Perry Street. As an experienced property owner and landlord, he had plans to renovate and restore its original beauty and character. Being a West Village resident for the past 30 years and a Village history aficionado, Joe dove enthusiastically into
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One Guy’s Story and a National Epidemic
By M. Zakir Sabry, MD “There was always a moment of inertia.” That was the best way that Guy could explain his every movement prior to having weight-loss surgery. As he so eloquently put it, “Every time I moved, there was a pause of a second or two and, then my large hanging skin and
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Bread and Roses
By Keen Berger Affordable housing is a top priority. Every community needs housing that is truly affordable. Yes and yes. I agree completely with both statements. I state this at the outset to prevent critics of the Elizabeth Street Garden (including Mayor de Blasio and Councilmember Chin) from implying that they are noble, and fighting
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Kill the Zombie Park Already Part I: Build Housing
By Alec Pruchnicki It should be dead, but somehow it’s still alive. Advocates continue fighting to keep the Elizabeth Street Garden entirely open space rather than a site for housing. Since WestView News first examined this issue in its articles: “Selfishness One, Housing Zero” (May 2016) and “Parks Are Good, Housing is Better” (November 2016),
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Using State and City Law to Fight Bad Landlords
By Joseph Turco, Esq. The battle between landlords and tenants is epic. It’s like a jungle, where the landlord predator can smell weakness from a mile away. In my April 2017 article in WestView News, “Landlords: From Best to Worst (and So Much in Between),” I wrote about a longtime West Village tenant, Lydia Martinez.
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Carnegie Concert to Honor Sylvia Olden Lee
By Dennis Speed The Foundation for the Revival of Classical Culture is presenting a concert at Carnegie Hall, in collaboration with the Schiller Institute, New York Chorus, and Harlem Opera Theater on June 29, 2017 at 7:30 p.m., to honor the 100th birthday of the extraordinary musician and vocal coach, Sylvia Olden Lee. Performers will
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Are We Alone? Ruminations About Extraterrestrial Life (Part One)
By Josef Eisinger In these troubled times, it is enlightening and consoling to ponder our place in the larger scheme of things. We are today privileged to have gained a realistic perspective of our place in the universe thanks to the great progress scientists have made in the past century. Their observations of the universe
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Signs of the Times: “Store For Rent”
By Allyn Freeman A walking tour of the West Village offers the sight of flowers that bloom in the spring but also the distressing proliferation of empty stores displaying “For Rent” or “For Lease” signs. Not in recent memory have there been so many vacant retail establishments in the neighborhood. A first consideration is to
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A Brief Note on the Diller Island Decision
By Clive I. Morrick On the front page of the April WestView issue, Publisher George Capsis joyfully reported the cancelation of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit to build the proposed Pier 55 “Diller Island.” This note briefly explains (with much simplification) the legal decision. In this case, the federal court confirmed that it
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Valid Anxiety in West Village Residents About Heart Attack Care
“There are clear deficiencies in our health care system. It fails the test of providing universal coverage but beyond that, the major problem is the extremely high cost. It is cost ineffective—prohibitively so. I personally attribute much of this enormous expense to waste, fraud, and to the unchecked cost of drugs and medical devices.” It
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Mt. Sinai To Lower Manhattan: DROP DEAD!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz The best way to learn about the state of our health care is to get sick, or to be responsible for the care of a loved one, and experience it first hand. I had a heart attack in January and learned firsthand how important the survival of Beth Israel is. But,
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“Each Day Catches Fire”: Revisiting the Latvian Poet Imants Ziedonis
By Bitite Vinklers I first met Imants Ziedonis in New York, in 1978, at a reading he gave at Columbia University during his first visit to the United States. The room was packed, and there was excitement and anticipation in the air. Not only was Ziedonis one of Latvia’s most prominent poets, but Latvia
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Rolling With the Derby
By Eduardo Cavalcanti Having recently moved from a city that offered little cultural diversity, I made a resolution to explore as much of New York as I could once I settled in. Before long, I had signed up for museum memberships in all five boroughs, newsletters, walking tours, and lectures on arcane topics. That’s how
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A Foundation for New York Art Dealing From the 19th Century
By Agnès Penot Last year, while reading “The Art of Power,” an article on Larry Gagosian published in the WSJ Magazine, I was astonished at how much a 21st century gallerist’s profile echoes that of another superstar art dealer of the 19th century: Adolphe Goupil. A closer look at Goupil’s story reveals that his marketing
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Villager Heaps Scorn on Verizon
By Ellis Nassour Verizon has put over 70 West Village residents into nightmare mode. The interruption of phone/internet service from ‘The Company that Simply Doesn’t Care About the Village’ began on March 26th and hasn’t been resolved. In my building on Horatio Street, there are five units without service, including a unit with a resident
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Jessica Berk Gets $500K
By Jessica Berk In what may be the longest landlord-tenant battle in the City, and certainly the most contentious, my mother, Ruth, and I obtained half a million dollars and 18 months to vacate our two-bedroom terrace apartment at 95 Christopher Street. However, in no way is the battle over, because I have retained the right
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West Village Houses: What’s Next?
By Brian J. Pape, AIA In the April 2017 issue of WestView News, I introduced West Village Houses (WVH) as a local example of affordable housing under the Mitchell-Lama Housing Program. This month, I explore the plans and policies, which impacted WVH under the Bloomberg administration as well as the future of this housing development.
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If You Walk a Mile of the Village, It Will Take You Places You Can Never Go…
By Annunziata Gianzero My eyes strain to make out the words on the flag as it curls and ripples in the North River wind. “Don’t give up the ship!” the bright blue battle flag declares. His dying friend’s last words had become Commander Perry’s anthem, inspiring him to an illustrious victory over the British in
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An Interview with Tish, A Female Impersonator
By Silvia Sanza Anyone who’s been around the Village for a while knows Tish—colorful, compelling, and a good neighbor. Tish grew up in New England to French-Canadian parents. He was the “petit garcon” which, garbled through half-French, half-English, became his nickname, Ti-boy. Tish recalls running across the field from school, dressed in a suit and
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Filming in the West Village: Balancing Diversity and Quality of Life
By Gary Tomei Annunziata Gianzero’s article in the July 2016 issue of WestView, “Diversity Matters” and the three subsequent articles written by her, contain some valid arguments for the idea that films, and TV series, should be shot in NYC. However, those contentions are, more or less, the same points made by real estate developers
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“Just Show Up”
By Jacqueline Taylor Basker “Just show up” was the final plea of the Reverend Chloe Breyer at “Building Bridges,” a Christian-Muslim Interfaith Dialogue held on March 26th at The Church of St. Luke in the Fields in Greenwich Village, as part of their “Conversations That Matter” series. Breyer told her story of being called by
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Incisive Documentary Exposes Attack on Village Bohemia
By John Bredin First, they came for the artists, writers, and intellectuals. Then, they wiped out the mom-and-pop shops, cafes, bookstores, and theaters which gave the Village character and charm and helped make it the worldwide capital of Bohemia. They even took away, horrors of horrors, a working hospital! In return, we get a boring
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Cinema Circle in the West Village
By W. Russell Neuman Do you like movies? (Who doesn’t?) Do you like to talk about movies? Sure you do. Well, here’s your chance. Since 2015, film aficionado Christopher Pejovich has organized a “Meet-Up” through meetup.com for cinephiles in the West Village. He calls it Cinema Circle. Every month or so, Christopher picks a genre,
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Slipping Into the Hood—Seniorhood
By Roberta Curley You’re getting old when… You start craving ginger ale before bedtime AND find the burping an addictive pleasure. Your back itches and you worry it’s shingles. You’ve graduated to 3.0 for readers and there’s nowhere to leap but to prescription. Your stomach leads you everywhere like a ballooning compass. You buy shopping
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The Invisible Writer Becomes Visible: A Film By Edith Stephen
By Jacqueline Taylor Basker A dramatic Valentine’s week presentation at Westbeth relayed the love story of two extraordinary talents in Greenwich Village. Edith Stephen, dancer-turned-moviemaker extraordinaire at 98, filmed a tribute to her late husband, the writer Alan Kapelner. Kapelner (1914-1990) was a significant but overlooked author, whose talent was discovered by Maxwell Perkins, editor
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Northwell Health Hospitals Recognized by LGBTQ Advocacy Group
By Jason Molinet Northwell Health received high marks for LGBTQ inclusion in the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) Foundation’s 2017 Healthcare Equality Index, a measure of a facility’s policies and practices toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer patients, employees, and the community at large. Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan, Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Medical Center
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Investing In Early Education For Future Generations: Achieving Quality Learning with Eco Boys and Girls
By Sophia Collas and Maria Snyder On April 24th the New York Mayor’s office announced what is called the most ambitious effort in U.S. history to design and implement a universal quality educational curriculum for New York City pre-school children, and with it comes promise and responsibility. A few years ago Maria Snyder recognized that
