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West Village Gets Top Diagnostic Center
By George Capsis It was two o’clock in the morning when Maggie discovered, that with blood thinners to avoid a blockage in a newly-implanted heart stent, her nose would not stop bleeding—it flowed but it really gushed, and for the first time in our 55 years of marriage, I saw fear in her eyes. We
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Offending a Cog in the Political Machine
By Jim Fouratt, Candidate for New York District 66 State Assembly I had worked as an elections poll clerk for a number of years at the Westbeth site. I remember a stocky, redheaded woman came to my table to qualify to vote. Her name was Emily Giske. I had heard of her. I knew that
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Loving WestView
Dear Mr. Capsis, I hope you’re doing wonderfully on this beautiful summer day! I’ve meant to write you this for a long time but reading the August issue of the WestView News made it an urgent matter for me. I was also under the assumption that you’d get laundry baskets full of fan mail and
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Turkish Commentary
Dear Mr. Capsis I read your article “Going Home to Turkey” with growing dismay. Beginning with your reference to Turks’ origins as “marauding” tribes whose (now paraphrasing) “only civilization could be carried in their saddlebags,” to progressively offensive comments that sound like they came from Donald Trump’s tweets, I feel compelled to write my first
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More Lost Supermarkets
Our article in the August issue reported on the loss of 15 supermarkets in the West Village over the last forty years or so. Here are a few more reported by our astute readers… When I moved to the Village in 1992, there was a supermarket on the north side of 14th Street between 8th
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The West Village’s Most-Recently Married Couple
The West Village’s Most-Recently Married Couple: In a private ceremony at City Hall, Mr. Percy Mori wed his beautiful bride, Cristina Perez. Cristina holds a Masters Degree in Law and was born and raised in historical Toledo, Spain—the inspiration for Cervante’s Don Quixote. They will have a religious ceremony this December at a cathedral in
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MIA SAYS
MIA SAYS: I find that asking with an affectionate rub for an affectionate pat makes us both feel good. Photo by Maggie Berkvist.
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Northwell Health Imaging at Lenox Health Greenwich Village Opens
Northwell Health Imaging at Lenox Health Greenwich Village opened its brand new state-of-the-art, 13,000-square-foot imaging center on August 2, 2016 with a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Patients will now have access to a full spectrum of non-emergency radiology services. Northwell Health’s Imaging Program, the first radiology practice in New York State designated by the American College of
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VID Stays Active During the Summer
On Thursday, August 18th, the Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting at St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. Club president Nadine Hoffman reported on a variety of Democratic Party political activities, including State Committee and Judicial Delegate races. (Judicial delegates help to select candidates running for a variety of judgeships.) Tony Hoffman gave an
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Mulry Square Project
On August 15, 2016, Artists Who Care’s (AWC’s), 9/11 Tiles for America Project, honored the finished Mulry Square Project, by celebrating the sixth anniversary of the Love Bench, and the return of the Tiles for America. Over 600 neighbors, tourists, and passersby joined Paul McClure, Dusty Berke, and numerous AWC volunteers, assisting guests in rehanging
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Maggie B’s Photo of the Month
HE’S FOREVER BLOWING BUBBLES, luring a stream of delighted youngsters of all ages in Washington Square Park to try their luck at catching the ‘pretty bubbles in the air.’ Photo and text by Maggie Berkvist.
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Lolo’s Birthday
Save the date of Saturday, October 15th at 4pm. Hellen’s cockatoo Lolo Chocon is about to celebrate 21 years with us humans. So come enjoy park musicians and entertainers at LOLO’s birthday bash! (More to follow next month.)
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Cuomo’s Ego Is Boss
By George Capsis I have to caution myself not to call a City press office after reading a press release like yesterday’s from the Mayor’s Office that boasted that they were getting homeless people into NYCHA, “vacant” apartments, which is much cheaper than putting them in privately-run shelters. I have to caution myself because I
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The Peculiar History of a “Floating” Pier 57
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Everyone knows that steel, stone, and concrete will sink in water, unless of course they are shaped like a boat. We’ve been building steel ships for centuries, so we are accustomed to multi-story cruise ships floating on the Hudson, but concrete? Not so much. Many piers that float have been
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Jackson Square Alliance Expands Its Role and Mission
By Michael D. Minichiello When walking around the northern reaches of the West Village this spring and summer, one couldn’t help but notice flowers blooming everywhere. They were planted along the sidewalks of 13th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues, along Horatio Street, in the triangles at 8th Avenue and Horatio, and a block south
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A Tour of Lenox Health Greenwich Village’s New Northwell Health Imaging Center
By Caroline Benveniste George and I visited the Lenox Health Greenwich Village facility on August 25th, about a month after the opening of their new imaging center—Northwell Health Imaging. We met with Alex Hellinger, the Executive Director of the facility. I had met with Alex earlier this year when Lenox Health Greenwich Village was nominated
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St. John’s/Pier 40 Development Plan Hearing—An All Day Affair
By Jim Fouratt The public hearing of the City Planning Commission regarding the St. John’s/Pier 40 proposal was a day-long experience. Arriving at 9:45 for a 10 a.m. hearing, I was #69 on the public roster. Sitting there I listened and learned that authors of the Air Rights Bill had chosen not to appear and
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No, I Did Not Visit Tokyo Disneyland
By George Capsis “This is the Chase Bank and we have reason to believe that someone has acquired your bank account number and is attempting to charge against it.” Oh, wow, this is the second time this has happened to me and I froze—how much did they take and thought this is going to be
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Thumb On the Scale? 11 Jane St. Developer Invited to Re-Rebut Community Concerns!
By Robert Widmann Contrary to indications, and with only nine hours notice, absent the weekend, the Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), at 10:00 AM Tuesday, July 26th, held a follow-up hearing to that held on June 21st. This time it succeeded in shaking itself loose of the 100-plus neighbors, community members, and opponents to the development
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Epidemiology— We are the Canary
By Mark Green (sceincefromaway.com) Hoosick Falls is a lovely town in upstate New York near the Vermont border and famous as the home of a remarkable painter: Grandma Moses. Recently, it became famous again, for the discovery that a chemical associated with the production of non-stick cookware, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), is at a dangerously high
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IN AND OUT
This month saw many openings and a few closings. Jeans Unlimited (492 Avenue of the Americas) is NOT closing after all and there is still no sign of Brooklyn Fare (The Archive, 666 Greenwich Street), which was originally supposed to open in March or April and then according to the Villager, had a firm opening
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New York Post Media Chase
By Robert Heide On August 4, 2016 a double-page feature article by Michael Riedel with Hana R. Alberts appeared in the New York Post headlined, “HEY, COME ON IN & STAY AWHILE.” The sub-heading below an assortment of photos read: “NEW YORKERS WHO HAVEN’T MOVED IN 50 YEARS.” Two very large blow-ups of myself and
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The HUB is Back! Shuttered Neighborhood Fixture Hudson Urban Bicycles Returns
By Sophie Gruetzner It was a bright summer morning in the Village when I stepped out of my house on 11th Street to find a flyer on my bike, tied to the handlebar with an old fashioned rubber band. I recognized the vintage design with the image of a distinguished gentleman pushing his European-style
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Are You Mocking Me?
By Keith Michael “Are corgis naturally fat?” Millie and I squint into the late-afternoon September sun at our inquisitor—nonplussed. Well, Millie is actually sitting and looking up with a smile as though the question was: “Would you like a treat?” There you have it. Corgis seem to inspire repartee on the street, and, quite frankly,
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Europe is Looking for a Strong Global U.S. Position
By Winfried Gruetzner, Hamburg Doesn’t it give you, like me, the creeps when you look at a photo of Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the front page of the WELT, one of Germany’s three leading newspapers? Putin and Erdogan demonstrate power, incalculable and dangerous. And where is a western antipode?! Donald Trump even
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“Live Life” Imagery Coming to Westbeth
By Mary Bahr “I want to change the world through art,” photographer Anne de Carbuccia tells me over our lunch on a recent August day. “If you can move just one person to take action, you have already begun to change the world.” She is unabashedly direct and intensely focused—qualities that are also evident in
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Groups Find a New Way to Leave a Mark in Greenwich Village
By Joe Salas For generations, people have been flocking to Greenwich Village’s winding Federalist streets to leave their own mark on the storied neighborhood. Today, the Village is bursting at the edges with landmarks, big and small, young and old, from obscure oddities like Hess’s Triangle, to bars and clubs that started social movements and
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LGBT Community Center Highlights Outsider Artists with HIV
By Leslie Adatto AIDS began its tsunami of devastation in 1981 in our West Village neighborhood. Thirty-five years later, also in our neighborhood, is one of the first significant art installations featuring long-term survivors and prematurely lost artists of diverse genders and races. They depict their experiences of the gay, lesbian, transgender and queer lifestyle using
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Caruso’s Quips —By Charles Caruso
Everyone knows but no one cares. A sneer is a sign of a broken heart. Getting to work on time makes the day so long. The penalty for disloyalty is loneliness. Balloons make people happy but no one knows why. Summertime and the living is queasy. If a man and a woman are smiling and
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Joy’s Top 5 Nutrition Tips for Seniors
By Joy Pape 1. Eat the right amount. You may wonder what that is. It differs for everyone. The right amount has to do with the energy you take in and how it relates to the energy you expend. Eating too much for you causes weight gain, which can increase your risk for other problems.
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Face the Fear and It Will Disappear (Part One)
By Christina Winholt Raccuia Anxiety is often driven by anticipation. Try not to indulge thoughts about what could happen. Allow your thoughts to focus on what you are doing now or where you are now. Stay out of the past and out of the future. If you “stay in the now,” your anxiety level will
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Asking Secularism Out for a Date (Part One)
By Reverend Donna Schaper “Attractive, well-placed Reverend seeks equally comfortable secularist for non-violent communication, partnership, (d) alliance.” I could publish this ad in the New York Review of Books or write this essay. At 285 dollars per column inch, I figure I get more value for my buck here. The ad could continue, now that
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Andy Warhol’s Chelsea Girls at the Jefferson Market Library
By Matt Whitman By September 1966, the U.S. involvement in Vietnam had escalated to over 200,000 soldiers. Bob Dylan had “gone electric” at Newport more than a year earlier and was nowhere to be found in Greenwich Village. “Acid” had not yet been made illegal and had gained popularity a few thousand miles away on
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Go with Glick
By Keen Berger, Democratic District Leader, 66A As District Leader of the Village, I confess that I am a political junkie, obsessed with national, state, and local government. Like many readers of WestView, I fear Trump and have doubts about many state leaders. I write now because I do not expect everyone to have followed
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Taking a Film Festival to the Next Level
By Richard Eric Weigle Having lived in Greenwich Village for 43 years and having been The Grove Street Block Association President for 15 years, one could say that I am a proud Villager. My husband, Michael Anastasio, and I are also documentary film producers, so anything concerning “The Arts” and Greenwich Village, is of real
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How a German Fell in Love with New York— and Made the West Village Her (Most Likely Forever) Home
By Sophie Gruetzner It was the summer of 1999. Not only was it the last summer of the century but also the hottest summer in New York City in years. “The Big Apple is finally coming out of the oven,” read the headline of a prominent city newspaper when temperatures dropped below 100 degrees. It
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Ristorante Rafele
By Caroline Benveniste Ristorante Rafele has all the things you want in a neighborhood restaurant—good food, a convivial atmosphere, and a friendly staff. On a warm summer evening, we ordered a number of dishes from the large, mostly Southern Italian menu. The arancini were oozing perfection, the fried artichokes were as good as anything I’ve
