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Diller Builds a Monument to Indifference
PS 41 graduate, and architectural critic for The New York Times, Michael Kimmelman, thinks that One World Trade Center looks as hostile and forbidding as General MacArthur in dark glasses, (NYT 11/30/14) and that the solution to affordable housing is pre-fabricated apartments, the size of a parking space, piled up one on top of each [...]
Full StoryPier55 – A Neighborhood Park
By now, many WestView readers have read about Pier55, a spectacular new public park that we hope to open as part of Hudson River Park in 2019. But how did we get here? The story of Pier55 really dates back 40 years, when activists faced off with public officials who were determined to build Westway [...]
Full StoryPier 55: An Island Rises
On Wednesday, November 3rd, the Community Board Two Waterfront Committee heard and saw its first presentation of the design for a new Pier 55. (The Bromley Map of 1911 shows no Pier 55, the only missing pier on the island). This design is truly extraordinary in many respects. Unfortunately, in none of the many views [...]
Full StoryThe Birth Of Public Housing
Public housing was born on New York City’s Lower East Side over 70 years ago when NYCHA opened the First Houses in 1936, the first public housing development in the United States. This was a watershed event in our nation’s history and a culmination of the struggle to bring decent housing to those who could [...]
Full StoryMy First Time
Raise your glass for a New Year’s toast to a few of my birdy firsts! (And Millie, here’s a leftover corgi-cutout Christmas cookie to tide you over.) The first birds that I truly remember were a flock of Evening Grosbeaks that descended upon our rural Pennsylvania backyard feeder one endless winter in the 60s. Evening [...]
Full StoryA League of their Own: Greenwich House Girls Basketball Puts a New Spin on Intramurals
In the increasingly competitive world of youth sports, the Greenwich House Girls Basketball League stands apart. The non-competitive league, founded in 1995 by a local parent unable to find a basketball league for his ten-year-old daughter, has morphed into an intergenerational community affair by combining league play with volunteer coaching, mentorship opportunities, and strong community [...]
Full StoryTheatre Review: “A Delicate Balance”
At the curtain call on opening night of the splendid new Broadway revival of “A Delicate Balance” at the Golden Theater, the actors Glenn Close, John Lithgow, Lindsay Duncan, Martha Plimpton, Clare Higgins and Bob Balaban, following thunderous applause, began to solemnly speak to the audience in regard to the passing the day before of [...]
Full StoryJim Fouratt’s Reel Deal: Movies That Matter
As I write this column I am still reeling from the saturation of quality films that opened and closed in the last 90 days in NYC and LA in order to qualify for Oscar Season. Some will be back in the next couple of months for all of you to see. We can thank my [...]
Full StoryWest Village Original: Joe Lisi
This month’s West Village Original is actor and former policeman Joe Lisi, born in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in 1950. After a 24-year career in the New York City police department—rising to the rank of captain—Lisi went into acting full-time. He has appeared in such TV series as “Third Watch” from 2000-2005, “True Blue” and “The Sopranos,” [...]
Full StoryWhy Restaurants Make It – Or Don’t.
“What a dinner party! You should open a restaurant!” Have you ever heard this or something like it? Truth be told, very few people should open a restaurant – not your wife who throws a great dinner party, not your son who graduated from culinary school last year and not your niece who bakes “all [...]
Full StoryHorse Nonsense
Horse Nonsense (NY Times Editorial 8 December) hits the nail on the head. Like the Mayor, I love horses, but I want to keep them in the city, whereas he wants to address an unfounded cruelty allegation by banishing them to horse heaven. It would be as if he addressed the poverty problem by banning [...]
Full StoryThe West Village Community Still Exists
I am a part-time member of the local choir that laments how much the West Village has changed. To me, the jewelry-box-like storefronts along Bleecker Street and elsewhere in the West Village ring false. While each is of a scale that whispers “local” or “one-of-a kind,” behind each charming facade lurks a corporate behemoth and [...]
Full StoryConcerned about saying “No”?
Isn’t saying no directly related to early quality parent (or caregiver) and child communication? Aren’t these early years important because you have, pretty well, the youngster’s undivided attention? Can’t pre-verbal infants respond to streaming positive affirmations including some questions and other cues such as facial, voice tone, and physical contact? Aren’t these seen and heard [...]
Full Story“Stalking The Bogeyman”
Original story by David Holthouse, adapted and directed by Markus Porter. Cast: Roderick Hill, Erik Heger, Kate Levy, Murphy Guyer, John Herrera, Roxanne Hart. At New World Stages theater. While playing in a neighbor’s basement game room, a boy is raped by a teen while their parents are upstairs socializing. Is there reason for an [...]
Full StoryThe Brightness of Heaven
Review by Stanley Fine The Brightness of Heaven Play by Laura Pederson Directed by Ludovica Villar-Hauser Players; Paula Ewin, Kate Kearney-Patch, Peter Cormican, Mark Banik, Emily Batsford, Kendall Rileigh, Bill Coyne, James Michael Lambert. Fiddler; Kendra Jo Brook. Staging; Alexandra Hall. Under direction of Angelina Fiordellisi. At The Cherry Lane Theatre The brightness dims, only [...]
Full StoryRadiosexbeat’s Best in Popular Music 2014
We listened to a lot of music this year. Here are the best albums my ears have heard. Almost all can be heard on Spotify (spotify.com) on your computer or phone. If you like what you hear, please buy it. Music can be purchased on ITunes or at Other Music on 3rd Street in New [...]
Full StoryWestView Letter January 2015: Pay 2 Play: Democracy’s High Stakes
Pay 2 Play: Democracy’s High Stakes Dear Editor: Since the Supreme Court decision of Citizens United determined that the existing regulation of campaign contributions was unconstitutional, our government has evolved into an unabashed pay-to-play system. The big money flooding our political system buys access to lawmakers, and political contributors use that access to benefit their [...]
Full StorySome Notes about Grand Juries
The protests against a Staten Island Grand Jury’s decision not to indict police officer Daniel Pantaleo for any offense after the death of Eric Garner have raised questions about grand juries. So what is a grand jury and what do we know about the Staten Island hearing? If you have received mail stamped “Commissioner of [...]
Full StoryTenements are The Worst Curse Ever
The 1811 Grid. “The greatest evil which ever befell New York City was the division of the blocks into 25 feet by 100 feet. So true is this that no other disaster can for a moment be compared to it. Fires, pestilence and financial troubles are nothing in comparison, for from this division has arisen [...]
Full StoryTracking A Weight Loss Journey
I was thrilled when George Capsis reached out and asked me if I would help our new contributor, John Barrera, lose weight and allow our readers to follow his progress. Both John and I accepted the challenge from our fearless leader, George. I was especially excited because I know that by helping John lose weight [...]
Full StoryMy, What A Year – An Honor Roll!
2014 began, here in New York, with newly elected Mayor de Blasio getting sworn in at City Hall, talking about how he was going to transform NYC from two cities into one, and taking not so veiled swipes at his billionaire predecessor, and ended with Mayor de Blasio trying to figure out how to unite [...]
Full StoryAn Update on Ruth Berk
The fight by Advocates for Justice to free Ruth Berk, (a 55 year resident at 95 Christopher Street,) from a court-enforced imprisonment in a nursing home continues. We had hoped to have her home for the New Year but the State Court system has not been cooperative. We brought a Petition in Mandamus in the [...]
Full StoryMourn For The Cops, Ignore The Demagogues, Close The Divide
Like many New Yorkers, black, white and Latino, I was outraged by the fact that the cop who choked Eric Garner to death will not face a criminal trial on charges that he did something wrong which led to an innocent man’s death. Our justice system shouldn’t work that way. And like most New Yorkers, [...]
Full StoryEdwina Fontaine’s Obituary
Work continues on Edwina Fontaine’s obituary, which will have some amazing photographs. Those looking to make a contribution, friends, former students, parents of former students, and fellow artists should send their comments to aschwartz@afjlaw.com
Full StoryMadelyn Wils
Madelyn Wils was appointed President and CEO of the Hudson River Park Trust in June 2011. The Trust is a State authority in partnership with the City of New York and is responsible for developing, managing and operating the 5 mile long, 550 acre waterfront park. Until then, Madelyn was Executive vice President of Planning, [...]
Full StoryHRPT Debt Prompts Record Private Gift
I wanted to start this article with “Oh wow” but it seems I have already used that opening so Word demands another expression to describe my sudden rattling at discovering in The New York Times this morning that Barry Diller is ready to write out a check for $130 million to build an island off [...]
Full StoryGlick and Cuomo Win, Community Loses.
There was no dancing in the streets on November 4th when Deborah Glick and Andrew Cuomo were re-elected to their positions and the Christine Quinn-led, Andrew Cuomo-created Women’s Equality Party squeaked its way onto the ballot for every election for the next four years (albeit on Row G or H.) Last year we experienced excitement [...]
Full StoryA Bird in the Hand
Millie is begging for a duck breast chew, which will, thankfully, keep her quiet while I write (and re-write) this article, but will also keep her chubby (in that corgi laying-in-provisions-for-the-winter sort of way). Hardly a harbinger of holiday comfort and joy, it seems like I had contact with an inordinate number of “accidental birds” [...]
Full StoryVoices of Ascension Holds a Gala By Barbara Chacour
On November 12 the Voices of Ascension Chorus and Orchestra had a benefit performance at the Church of the Ascension followed by a reception. Incelebration of its 25th anniversary, Voices established a prize for excellence in music which was presented to Gregg Smith, founder of the Gregg Smith singers, by artistic director Dennis Keene. Chorus [...]
Full StoryBrand New Restaurants with Personality
Brand new to the neighborhood is Primo 135, somewhat like a hide-away, yet on a well beaten path at 135 Seventh Avenue South. In a location that had been a very simple unassuming place, Jerry Stevens, a new restaurateur, has put his stamp on this space and turned it into an intimate, contemporary Italian fine [...]
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