John Catsimatidis, owner of the Gristede’s supermarket chain, with his wife Margo, greet Cardinal Dolan in their Park Avenue apartment to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. Catsimatides has been invited to do a monthly column in WestView News based on his weekly radio series. When asked if he leaned right or left Catsimatidis responded—“in the middle, the truth.” WestView’s
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Drug Dealing—A Washington Square Park Industry
Oh wow, we did a short piece on large population of drug dealers in Washington Square Park last month and received some daring photos of their congregating every afternoon for what we guess is the pay off. Seems one guy is the boss and gives out the cash. It is disturbing to see how well
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An Open Letter to Corey Johnson
Corey, greetings Great news to know you’re going to be ‘getting us moving’ so to speak! And as long as you’re looking at future plans, may I put in a word on behalf of the ‘senior riders’: Do you think we could get the bus shelters back? For instance, there used to be one here
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Spring Gardening
This morning I met with my old pal Susan Sipos, of Distinctive Gardens, to inspect our co-op’s backyard garden. She comes to visit us about this time every year. We walk through several levels of the backyard and inspect the damages that have been caused by the ravages of winter. We are lucky to have
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The Community Starts on Your Block
Think about it—a city block in New York can have a larger population than a small town in Kansas, and problems can start right at your door. Yesterday, as I walked up Charles Street to West 4th Street, I discovered to my disgust that somebody had painted his name in comic book script across a
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Right Wing Graffiti in The Village
The graffiti noted in Action Not “Art” in the September issue of WestView has sparked a backlash. There has been isolated “Deport Cuomo” and “InfoWar.com” graffiti around the West Village lately. The most recent addition is on the northwest corner of Hudson and Charles Streets. A neatly-lettered sidewalk chalk marking for the right wing InfoWars
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El Chapo for President
Oh my—on TV last night it showed our Mayor, Bill de Blasio, sitting in a booth in a Greek dinner in Nebraska with the Governor. Nobody even knew who de Blasio was—not even the waitress. I mean El Chapo has more name recognition. So suddenly everybody has now become an expert and says he has
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Hoylman—Legalize Prostitution
State Senator Hoylman offers “It’s unacceptable that in 2019, New York is still incarcerating and prosecuting sex workers. What our current laws treat as a crime is, for many marginalized New Yorkers, a tenuous lifeline and a livelihood. Criminalization renders them vulnerable. It disproportionately impacts LGBTQI+ New Yorkers, immigrants, and people of color, and furthers
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Spring Can’t Come Soon Enough
Every year about this time, right after the Super Bowl (which was a snooze this year), I tell my wife this gloom and doom of winter is just awful and will be until we see the first crocuses bloom. I go into a morose state. I am just not fun to be around. And I
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Dress Code
There really is a distinct difference between West Village garb and that of the folks who live north of 14th Street. Recently, I went north to attend a birthday party for a dear friend and, on another night, for dinner at a fancy Upper East Side restaurant. That’s when it hit me—the dress code and
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Why Do I Still Do the Paper?
We were driving in an Uber to East Wiliston to my son’s house for Christmas dinner when we discovered that our 33 year-old driver used to work for Trader Joe’s and regretted quitting after he felt he had been downgraded when his job function was eliminated, but now he had a wife and tiny son
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Bruce Boyce, Artist, Gardener, and Neighbor, Dies at 76
Bruce Wesley Boyce transformed his small corner of the West Village into a destination for those in the know. Thanks to Mr. Boyce’s efforts, locals and tourists alike stop in front of the wrought iron gates at 65-67 Jane Street between Hudson and Greenwich to take photos or steal glimpses of the elaborate garden installations,
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WestView Provides Spark!
WestView has built my confidence, inspiring me and my poetic abilities. I know I would not have had the courage nor inclination to ‘compete’ with myself had George not suggested I ‘kernalize’, which I still struggle with. He ’stretches’ not only me, but everyone associated with the paper. WestView granted me, a homespun neophyte poet
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Mt. Sinai Pulls Back Beth Israel Plans
Early last month Mt. Sinai Hospital informed the judge in the ongoing lawsuit to close Beth Israel (Progressive Action of Lower Manhattan v. Mt. Sinai Hospital) that Mt. Sinai was revising its plan to build a 70 bed new hospital at the corner of 14th Street and 2nd Avenue. That plan has already been revised
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Jessica Moves
Long-time West Village fixture, Jessica Berk, moved out of 95 Christopher Street at the end of October (part of a 6 figure deal with her landlord to turn over a rent-controlled 2 bedroom apartment) and has purchased a new home: a 2-bedroom condo in Atlantic City! Her dog is about to join her as she
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A Manhattan Moment at the Post Office
Our neighborhood post office branch on Hudson Street is the focal point of community activity. It is the crossroads of our neighborhood, like the Village well in olden days. It is especially busy at Christmas time. I went in and approached the counter. The woman looked up and smiled and asked if she could help
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Film Explores Diversity from the Inside Out
A recent study by Business Insider—called by some the largest business news site on the internet—identified the ten most serious problems according to millennials. They include: lack of economic opportunity; safety, security and general wellbeing; education; food and water security; government accountability and transparency; poverty; inequality in terms of income as well as race and
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Jane Street Garden Fence Finally Installed: Fence Me In (Not Out)
Who remembers the old cowboy ballad, Don’t Fence Me In? Thanks to a generous grant provided to the Parks Department by City Council Speaker Corey Johnson at the request of the Jane Street Block Association, the high rickety chain-link fence has been replaced by an attractive lower steel picket fence similar to the one surrounding Abingdon
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The Cher Show with Stephanie Block
This is not a review of The Cher Show. In all transparency, I am lucky enough to be a part, a very small part, of the team that is bringing this show to Broadway. The show had a very nice run in Chicago this past summer. If you were lucky enough to see it there
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Mimi Shoup Miller
It is with great sorrow that I announce the passing of a life-long Villager, a member of our Bell Committee and my dear friend for 50 years. Mimi Shoup Miller was a committed supporter; if she believed in you, she gave generously—her enthusiasm and her time, and she was known fondly as “the Mayor of Greenwich
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The West Village’s Historic Lintels
Lintels, did you ever notice our West Village Lintels? You might ask, what are lintels? Well they should not be confused with lentils as in your soup. No, they are, according to Webster’s Dictionary, “the horizontal piece over a door or window”. Well, I never really did notice these lintels until our historic 1853 co-op
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Does Rudin Want Your Fruit Vendor to Move?
As you walk around the streets of the West Village, you see more and more closed storefronts standing empty indefinitely. Not many businesses can say that they have been open in this neighborhood since 1991, but the Fruit Cart Vendor on the corner of 12th Street and 7th Avenue can. The third owner of the
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Autumn in the Village
Autumn in New York. I love the song, and love that time of the year, especially in the West Village. The many pocket parks that have popped up in the last few years go through a major replanting, as do the stoops of the brownstones. Restaurants change their flower boxes and there is a flurry
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La Propreté de Paris
Mary Chandrahasan wrote an inspired piece in the September issue of WestView on Designing Waste Strategies for NYC. She did overlook, however, that the City does not collect commercial and industrial wastes such as food, medicine, drug, hospital and chemical wastes. Those are collected privately. Where do they go? China has recently rejected recycled plastic wastes from
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Left—Right or Wrong?
When I was a kid growing up, I thought being left-handed made me special. I couldn’t have said how I was special. In most things I was an ordinary kid of the time. I played sports adequately, but I was no star. I played in school marching bands, again adequately, but I was no Louis
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The Villager Sold to Brooklyn Publisher
In a joint announcement the current owners of The Villager, Les and Jenn Goodstien, announced the sale of the nearly century old Village newspaper to Schneps Communications, “the largest publisher of community papers” in the New York area with headquarters in Brooklyn. The new owners print 300,000 copies of their several publications each week and
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Greenwich Village: What’s in the Name?
By Brian J. Pape, AIA Greenwich is a fairly common place name, a city in CT, a village in upper NY, NJ, RI, and of course, Greenwich England. Place-names typically have meanings that were significant to the settlers of a locality. When talking about place names, there is a specific term, toponymy, whereas “the etymology
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Charles Street Makes History
On Wednesday, September 26, at 7 pm, the Charles Street Block Association is going to reveal and talk about the HISTORY KIOSK, a multi-sided street display case that will give tourists historic information, including names and biographies of historic and noted persons that have lived in the immediate area. The prototype is being offered by
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Historic MeatPacking District Development
Amazingly, since we last reported on the Gansevoort Market Historic District (Nov. 2017 issue), we see the Meat Packing District quickly becoming one of Manhattan’s “Silicon Alley” districts populated by high tech companies; not just Google/Alphabet, Apple, Samsung, Tesla, and the Chinese giant, Alibaba, but many, many others. Tech companies are drawn to the “cool”
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Preview of IFC Coming Attraction
Opening on October 5th at the IFC Center on 6th Avenue (at West 3rd Street) will be another hot documentary film directed by Matt Tyrnauer (I wrote about his documentary, Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, on page 22 of this issue) on the legendary discotheque Studio 54 where sex, drugs, and Donna Summer
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Great Theatre From Home
I have been involved in An American In Paris from the very start. This musical, its cast, production team, as well as the producers, have been one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. From the opening night in Paris at Theatre du Chatelet, to opening night here in New York at the Palace,
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Return to Sender
I don’t know, but I think the post office is slipping a bit these days I keep getting mail addressed to somebody or a corporation at 69 Charlton Street and, of course, I live at 69 Charles Street. Recently, two letters were misdirected to me from MOVIE PASS at 69 Charlton, and in the envelope
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Action Not “Art”
Will the graffiti writer who is covering the West Village with “Deport Trump” messages please stop? You might enjoy the chance to vent your feelings about the President—in a community that mostly dislikes him as much as you do—but this is useless and dirties the neighborhood with ugly (although heart-felt) writing. If you want to
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In Limbo at the West Village Houses
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Every year in June, West Village Houses (WVH) elects the entire board to a one-year term. This June 26th election saw several members leave and new members join the board. As our readers know, the issues facing the 420 shareholders, in the 42 buildings of WVH lining the west
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Feds To NYCDOT/MTA—Hold Up On 14th Street Plan! DOT Says—Do It Sooner!
The last month we saw lots of conflicting information released about the plans developed by the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA), to address the impact of the April 2019 shutdown of the L Train for a (“planned”) 15-month repair of the Canarsie Tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The developments
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Mayhem in Little Tijuana
On Sunday, June 24th, after the 49th Annual Gay Pride Parade in the Village at midnight, at the corner of 6th Avenue and West 4th Street, a frightening and raucous mélee broke out. A large mob of loud, boisterous people, drunk or on drugs, acted out what the police sometimes refer to as ‘wilding.’ Everyone
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Correction
A reader residing in West Village Houses pointed out a phrase in the last paragraph of June 2018 article “West Village Houses Rally for Preservation” (Pg. 6) that needs correction: “In 2002, WVH was sold under the (HDFC) cooperative Programs to 380 of 420 tenants for about $150,000; the Program included a 25% “flip tax”
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Advocates Stop Mitchell Donian’s Eviction
Mitchell Donian, 87 years old, called George Capsis on May 30, extremely upset. After living at 204-210 West 10th Street for 60 years, his landlord, Village Rose LLC, an absentee landlord, was threatening him with eviction because his apartment was cluttered. George said: “call Arthur, he will help you.” So Mitch, who I have known
