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What if Nobody Taught us Failure
Eighty years ago, I stood over my toy block building on the floor of the Kindergarten class of PS 192 in the south wing of the sprawling Hebrew Orphan Asylum at 137th Street waiting for Miss Tweety who, as I expected, ohh-ed and ahh-ed at the product of my imagination and placed a yellow slip [...]
Full StoryThe Mayor vs. The Horses
Mayor Bill de Blasio wants to ban the 68 horse and carriages from Central Park where they have been carrying paying passengers since 1858. He is doing this at the behest of New York Class (NY CLASS), founded by developer Steve Nislick, former CEO of Edison Properties. Edison once obtained former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s support [...]
Full StoryLearning from the Corporate World
As the new head of CECP, I am blessed to lead a non-profit organization founded by legendary actor (and salad dressing maker) Paul Newman and several New York business executives 15 years ago with the belief what “Corporate America can (and should) be a force for good in society.” Since then, CECP has now grown [...]
Full StoryAmericans Are Just Like Us
“Russia gave Crimea to the Ukraine 60 years ago,” I caught on WNYC from a commentator with just a trace of a Russian accent. I showed off my new knowledge to my 22-year-old Russian Jewish barber Feruz Zayniev who, along with his family, received political asylum on fleeing Uzbekistan when that very new nation threw [...]
Full StoryPARIS MY LOVE
I am always glad to be back in Paris for all the usual reasons; but there is one aspect of the City of Light and its citizens that I am especially charmed by. That is the belief by Parisians that they are the world’s most civilized people, who know better than anyone else about nearly [...]
Full StoryHow I Came to Publish My Mother’s Last Novel, Best Time for Love
Flash back to Bayview Hospital, St. Petersburg Florida in August, 2005—and I do, I often do. My mother, the author, Jill Stern, is sitting up briefly in her critical-care chair, which is a vertical hospital bed. She is wired to monitors, her strawberry blond hair a little matted after eight days in critical care, otherwise [...]
Full StoryYemeni Food: An Introduction
SnackBar Yemeni cuisine has a long uninterrupted history, as the foods and dishes that you will find in Yemen today are very similar to what their nomadic ancestors ate thousands of years ago. While there are select traces of North African and Mediterranean influence deposited by trade and invasion through the ages, Yemeni cuisine remains [...]
Full StoryChange is the most static characteristic of New York City
. It’s not uncommon to have a flourishing business one day then come upon a store front shuttered with yesterday’s newspaper the very next. You may recall the Denton’s of ‘ino on Bedford St closing their doors just this past year. Yet nothing left the wine culture of NYC with a palate stuck in a [...]
Full StoryScience from Away: Epigenetics and “Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics.”
By Mark M. Green (sciencefromaway.com) “What is the fate of personally acquired characteristics? Do they die with individuals or do they extend – at times at least – beyond the boundaries of the individual’s life into the life of succeeding generations?” This question appears in The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, by Paul Kammerer of the [...]
Full StoryWho in their right mind would make a film about land use?
Not me. I was just looking for the Jumble in the Daily News one day when I came across a photo of a sad guy standing in front of a Zipper. This insane carnival contraption was my favorite as a kid. Now the operator and his beloved ride were leaving Coney Island forever. My heart [...]
Full StoryJim Fouratt’s Reel Deal Movies That Matter
April 2014 Well,spring is here and movie festivals are popping up all over New York City like daffodils in Central Park. The Tribeca Film Festival is the biggie (see separate article),but most weeks, there is a smaller festival somewhere in NYC. LET’S GO TO THE MOVIES FINDING VIVIAN MAIERdir John Maloof and Charlie Siskel Imagine [...]
Full StoryNew Pizza Invasion on Hudson
Pizza on Hudson Street is about as old as the Village but I recently dined at two new pizza restaurants within a few blocks of each other that share a similar evolution. Both places take great pride in what they do and pizza is elevated to real dinning out food with many expected and less [...]
Full StoryThe Legacy of James Marston Fitch
“Among my many fond recollections of Jim Fitch is the memory of him in all his dignity—which at the age of sixty was impressive—standing on a chair during a rally against the Lower Manhattan Expressway. He was happily stunning his rapt and motley audience by telling them that the district which the highway would demolish [...]
Full StorySunset Two-step
Doing a Texas two-step along the Hudson River Park promenadewhile trying to keep the Erie Lackawanna tower centered on the fireball of the setting sunwith my camera – lungestep (to the left), together (with the right); step, together; step, together – it seems incredible that Helios’ chariot moves so fast. Of course, the sun gallops [...]
Full StoryHealth News
Sometimes, everything you thought you knew may be wrong. Be open to new and sometimes old remedies for your health. EatFat? Since the ‘80s, the mantra has been to eat low fat, no-fat. Fat has been deemed the enemy. Do you know that fat is a necessary nutrient? Do you know that since the low-fat [...]
Full StoryDavid Santos is a very regular guy
He grew up in working class suburban New Jersey. He became passionate about food as a kid in a Portuguese immigrant family where food was a focus including gardening, raising animals, and family bonding over food. I reviewed Louro last year, which I thought was great, where he is the chef on 10th Street near [...]
Full StoryPoliticians Know the Problem, but What is Their Solution?
Before St. Vincent’s Hospital closed, many community activists and local politicians objected. Afterwards, every politician representing the community, with the notable exception of Mayor Bloomberg, decried its loss. This same scenario seems to be playing out in Brooklyn hospitals, especially the Long Island College Hospital (LICH). Politicians realized that the closing of hospitals effects communities [...]
Full StoryVID March Meeting
On Thursday March 13, the Village Independent Democrats met at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 83 Christopher Street. It started with reports from Keen Berger, Democratic Party District Leader, and Alan Shulkin, State Democratic Committee member on a variety of city and state legislative issues. It was followed by a presentation and book signing by John [...]
Full StoryThe Easter Maybe Crowd
Before I tell you what I see in the Easter Maybe Crowd, I should tell you about my perch. I am minister at Judson Memorial Church on Washington Square. Judson is a post denominational, post Christian, doubt friendly, arts friendly, queer friendly, congregation of 300 people whose heart is a little bit to the left. [...]
Full StoryCommentary and Correspondence: We Need a Hospital
Dear Editor, In this op ed, two former Long Island College Hospital (LICH) doctors argue that there is no need for LICH, which as a full-service hospital (they say) is a large, cumbersome, outdated facility; instead, they insist that Brooklynites, especially lower-income residents, need little walk-in clinics to provide their care. What do the two [...]
Full StoryGoodbye St. Vincent’s, Hello Lenox Hill HealthPlex
When St. Vincent’s Hospital was closed in 2010, the fate of the O’Toole building on the West Side of Seventh Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets was unclear. Soon, the building was acquired by the North Shore/Long Island Jewish (NS/LIJ) system to set up a free-standing emergency center without a connection to an in-patient hospital. [...]
Full StoryIf You Don’t Hear From Us Don’t Expect to Hear from us
When, I, in passing mentioned to author J. E. Fishman that I had called and emailed the New York City police press office to ask permission to interview the members of the Bomb Squad in connection with his book, he smiled and said, “You never heard back from them, did you?” He was, of course [...]
Full StoryBetter Than the Pill
The most effect birth control in New York is the high rent for a one bedroom. (WNYC)
Full StoryCharles Street Association Hand Off
Real estate broker and President of the Charles Street Association, Susan Lamia, who just sold her house on Charles Street in a startling four days, asked Vice President and CSA founder George Capsis to take over and help make a smooth transition for a new generation of Charles Streeters. A general meeting is being planned [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter April 2014: Dear Editor,
Dear Editor, If I can muster a momentary bit of courage I glance at The Times obits looking for just one name that died older than I am right now; I rarely find one. Recently, I was awarded $30,000 from the city and sat thinking and thinking if there was one thing I really wanted [...]
Full StoryMcDonald’s Discounts Stop at the Bridge
In the weekly plastic sales flyer bag, I found a McDonald’s book of discount tickets – 2 fish fillet sandwiches for $3. Yum! I biked to our Waverly Place and 6th Avenue franchise and, as I presented my coupon, I eyed a stack of the same discount booklets on either side of the sales station. [...]
Full StoryPost Blasts Charles Street
The Post seems to have it in for Charles Street resident ship owner Peter Georgiopoulos and reports again with seeming delight the imminent bankruptcy of his shipping company Genco facing a $50 million principal payment this month. The March 22 issue offered an unflattering photo of Georgiopoulos, 53 with his supermodel wife Kara, formerly the [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter April 2014: Dear Editor,
Dear Editor, I just came back from talking to a worker on the St. Vincent’s site: I mentioned, that, in my opinion, he was working on a crime site based on how the property was obtained. He looked at me and said, “The owners don’t care about anything. They’re pumping contaminated water into the sewer [...]
Full StoryNomorobo.com—is it safe to start answering my phone?
I immediately registered with this free website after reading about it in The New York Times last month. Its developer, Aaron Foss, was a winner of the FTC’s Robocall Challenge last year (robocalls have skirted the FCC’s “do not call registry”). His service answers and hangs up on automated calls before the home phone rings. [...]
Full StoryThe Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival(TFF) has come of age. Birthed literally in the wreckage of 9/11, it rose like a phoenix spirit to say that NYC was alive and well if shattered and bruised mere months after the attack. Like any festival in the spotlight, it had to grow up in public. Robert De Niro,like Robert [...]
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