By Roberto Novo Little by little, the West Village is losing its soul but thanks to Roberto Novo, owner of Roberto Novo Salon, and his mascots, Machito and Matilda, the West Village is still holding onto a bit of its life and charm. Part of the magic is seeing Roberto pulling his wagon with his
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The Shame of Donald Trump
By Arthur Z. Schwartz I was in Toronto when the photograph of the Syrian child, Aylan Kurdi, who washed up on the shore of Greece, was published in the newspapers. His family was headed for Canada, and the delay caused by Canadian Government red tape caused an immense outcry and hand wringing. The first fifteen
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A Note on the Death of Herman Gerson
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Herman Gerson, father of former City Council Member Alan Gerson, died on August 19 at 103. He is someone whom we should all remember. Herman helped build the Village Independent Democrats in the 1960s when it challenged the political dynasty of Carmine DeSapio and Tammany Hall. In the 1970s he was
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Jefferson Market Garden Honors Leaders in Urban Greening
The Brooke Astor Award for Outstanding Contributions to Urban Gardens was established by Jefferson Market Garden to honor leaders and visionaries who make our city more livable and beautiful by encouraging and creating welcoming environmentally friendly places for us all to enjoy. In 2010 the Garden bestowed the Brooke Astor Award to world-renowned landscape designer
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“Lotus Hawk” Book Signing at Lima’s Taste
By WestView Editors Harriette “Lotus Hawk” Mandeville, author of the inspirational book OPENING: Prayers and Meditations and Guiding Prayers for Everyday will be holding a book signing and reception at Lima’s Taste on September 27 from 4 to 6 pm. There will also be a performance of the Meditative Crystal Singing Bowl. Harriette Mandeville is
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VID Stays Active During the Summer
By Alec Pruchnicki On Thursday August 13th, the Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. Club president Nadine Hoffman and district leader Keen Berger reported on a variety of local political issues along with updates on Democratic Party endorsements and issues. Tony Hoffman reported on petitioning
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A Humble Correction
I reported last month that after my arrest, Maya Angelou retweeted a copy of my article in WestView because I had mentioned that while in a cell, I read “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” That was a major typo that I didn’t catch. The article was retweeted by Maya Angelou’s estate. Maya Angelou
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Update on My Arrest
by Arthur Z. Schwartz There have been a few developments on the legal front concerning my arrest back in mid-July. Attorney General Schneiderman turned over the five cameras to the District Attorney. I understand why his staff had to do that, but then I was told that they weren’t going to get involved because they
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The Press Holds a Mirror up to Cuomo
By George Capsis The ultimate and fatal flaw in women is their emotions and in men it is their egos. A woman sees “truth” through her emotions and a man through his ego, and the larger his ego the more reality is distorted. Cuomo apparently has a very big ego—I mean BIG—and hence Cuomo’s
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Bump in the West Village
By George Capsis I returned from the weekend to see an enormous BUMP sign painted in white just outside my desk window. Soon after, a real, live, Department of Transportation bump appeared on the road. Curious, I asked Jose Bayona of the DOT Press office how it got there. Here is what he said:
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You Don’t Pay Me Enough to Think
By George Capsis As I reached the kitchen counter to make morning coffee for our French guests, Isabelle and Kumiko, I glanced through the garden door and viewed with alarm that the glass table outside had shattered into the proverbial thousand pieces— glass glittered on the gray slate ground. This is the second time—the
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July VID Meeting Brings New Proposals
On Thursday, July 9th, the Village Independent Democrats met in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. Club Vice President Linda Jacobson substituted for several absent club members and gave the President’s report about a variety of club activities, small business preservation initiatives and legislation, and election preparation for November. Keen Berger, Democratic party district
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Landlord Spying on 92-Year-Old Ruth Berk
In one of the most bizarre episodes in local, and maybe even Citywide landlord-tenant conflagrations, it was discovered this past month that the landlord at 95 Christopher Street has been spying on his ninety-two-year-old rent-controlled tenant, Ruth Berk. Ruth, who got back to her apartment in January after an 11-month stay in a
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June VID Meeting
By Alec Pruchnicki On Thursday June 4th, the Village Independent Democrats ( VID ) held their monthly meeting in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. It started with reports from club president Nadine Hoffman and Democratic party district leader Keen Berger on a variety of local and state political issues including the selection
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A Fond Farewell
As retired Sixth Precinct Commanding Officer Inspector Elisa Cokkinos walked out of the precinct for the last time, she was greeted by salutes and enthusiastic applause from the men and women in blue, who lined the entire block along West 10th Street. She spent the last two of her twenty-five years on
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No Safe Walkway
St. Luke’s Construction Wall Endangers Pedestrian Safety Pedestrians cannot walk safely along the north side of Barrow Street between Hudson and Greenwich Streets. In April, a construction wall erected on property owned by St. Luke’s Church enclosed about one-hundred feet of the sidewalk, but no pedestrian walkway has been provided along the Barrow
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You Can’t Be Just a Little Dishonest
By George Capsis In 1959, Manhattan Borough President, Hulan Jack, the first African American to hold a major political office in New York City made the Times when he allowed a real estate developer friend, Sidney Unger to pay a bill for $4,400 for the renovation of Jack’s apartment. My somewhat cynical
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Johnson Holds Inaugural West Side Summit
On Saturday, May 9th, Councilmember Corey Johnson held the inaugural West Side summit at the newly renovated Civic Hall on Fifth Avenue, inviting community members from the entire West Side district to make suggestions about future legislative, policy, and budget decisions. The packed meeting of over 100 people included many Community Board 2 members from
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Prejudice
The Times reported the beating of a 21-year-old soldier of Ethiopian descent in a Tel Aviv suburb caught on video then broadcast on TV causing demonstrations directly parallel to those recently sparked here by the Ferguson incident. The Times explains that there is a prejudice against Ethiopian Jews supposedly historically related to one of the
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GVSHP Awards
By Caroline Benveniste On Wednesday, June 17th, from 6:30-8:30 PM, the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation will hold the 35th GVSHP Annual Meeting and 25th Village Awards which this year are co-sponsored by The New School. This event will take place at the Auditorium at The New School, 66 West 12th Street. The awards
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Senior Action Day Returns
Senior Action Day is returning to the West Village. Organized by the Social Services committee of Community Board 2, it will be similar to an event held last year on the same theme. At that event, several hundred local elderly residents of The Village saw information presented by over thirty healthcare providers, local businesses with
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Chinese Buy the Waldorf
A Chinese company just bought the Waldorf Astoria hotel for $1.95 billion. It is the highest price ever paid for a hotel at $1.4 million per room and appears to be the beginning of several similar acquisitions—the Chinese are buying New York. We had a similar shock in 1989 when the Japanese bought Rockefeller Plaza
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Shared Guilt is Innocence
United States Attorney Preet Bharara has startling white open eyes like a predatory bird excited by the sudden successful sinking of his talons into a startled prey. He even recites the charges with an irrepressible smile of triumph. So it is no surprise that the attorneys for Assemblyman Sheldon Silver argued Bharara’s caws of exhilaration
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Teachout Speaks Out
Alec Pruchnicki On Thursday April 9th, Zephyr Teachout returned to Greenwich Village and the Village Independent Democrats, one of several political clubs that endorsed her in her primary challenge to Governor Andrew Cuomo. After happily reporting that she had just been awarded tenure by the Fordham University Law School, she began a discussion of her
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Two Nice Cops
Locking my bike before walking into Staples on 6th Avenue and 8th, I became aware of two smiling young police officers talking to an elderly man with a shock of disheveled white hair as he sat on the curb, obviously unable to get up. By the time I exited Staples, they had him standing, an
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GVSHP’s Business of the Month
West Villagers have great affection for their local cafes, florists, wine shops, watch repairers, frame shops, chocolatiers, dress shops and more. These are some of the independent businesses that have been nominated so far in the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation’s new program, Business of the Month. Anyone can nominate a favorite small business
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90th Birthday Celebration For Village Preservationist Albert S. Bennett
He was born July 25, 1925. He moved to Morton Street on September 1, 1955. And now—nearly 90 years after the first big event and 60 years after the second—Albert Bennett’s friends and neighbors in the Morton Street Block Association decided it was time to celebrate. The MSBA honored Albert at a gala party on
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Teachout and Berman at Speak at VID
On Thursday April 9th, the Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting at St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. As usual, the meeting started with updates by club president Nadine Hoffman and Democratic district leaders Keen Berger and Arthur Schwartz on a variety of city and state political developments, followed by questions from the members.
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Briefly Noted
Cuomo’s Ego Flys the State Why did Cuomo make a thirty-six hour round trip to Cuba? Certainly not to trigger trade with a country where the annual income is not much more than $300 and where he was greeted with signs “Socialism or Death” and shouts of “USA go home!” No, Cuomo is listening to
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No Poor Tenants in the Pool
Right now it is perfectly legal for a developer who has received millions in tax abatements in return for providing some “affordable” apartments to ban those lower income tenants from the house gym or pool. Developers can even provide a separate entrance so the regular tenants will not even have to be aware that they
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March VID Meeting
On March 12th the Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. President Nadine Hoffman and District Leader Keen Berger gave reports on a variety of local political issues, including the appointment of Buxton Midyette as a State Committee representative. Club member Sharon Woolums reported on a recent forum
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Briefly Noted: Westview Scoops the Times?
Arthur Schwartz reports that a noteworthy Times writer was ready to report about the life and death of former NYC Ballet member Edwina Fontaine and her struggle to survive the Dewitt Nursing Home, as well as the efforts of former opera and cabaret singer Ruth Berk to escape being “imprisoned” in Dewitt by a state
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Briefly Noted – VID: Johnson Details First Year
The Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting on Thursday, February 12 at St. John’s Lutheran Church on Christopher Street. There were reports on a variety of local and state political developments by district leaders Keen Berger and Arthur Schwartz. City Council member Cory Johnson gave a detailed account of his first year in office.
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Update on the Whereabouts of Mrs. Green
Residents around Abingdon Square are no longer amused by the cheerful “Mrs. Green’s Is Coming Soon!” announcement on the hoarding around 99 Bank Street. More than a year has gone by since the construction of this temporary structure, and the deteriorating plywood covered with layers of flayed advertising posters has become a neighborhood eyesore. WestView
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January VID Meeting
On Thursday, January 8, the Village IndependentDemocrats (VID) held theirmonthly meeting. There were brief reportsfrom newly elected president Nadine Hoffmanand Democratic district leader KeenBerger. This was followed by elections forclub positions and a new executive board. Frieda Bradlow and Ellen Peterson were elected as co-treasurers, Kathy Slawinski as recording secretary, and Ed Yutkowitz and Jonathan
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BRIEFLY NOTED
Our Lady of Pompeii Kicks Out the Elderly Greenwich House, has been put on notice that its lease for the occupation of the basement at Our Lady of Pompeii, where lunches have been served to the elderly since 1973, will not be renewed. Greenwich House, which took over the Caring Community’s three Senior Centers at
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Terrence McNally
After graduating from Columbia University, Terrence McNally moved in with playwright Edward Albee who lived on 10th Street in the Village between 6th and 5th Avenues. His first play And Things That Go Bump In The Night starring Eileen Heckart was dismissed by all of the daily critics. Today, McNally adds up 20 plays on
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El Faro Closed!?
Tucked away on the northeast corner of Greenwich and Horatio Streets, El Faro has been a neighborhood fixture for 85 years. For decades it was an unpretentious local favorite, before becoming a ‘gourmet destination’ after the New York Times’ Craig Claiborne gave it a rave review in the late sixties, and then reverting, more recently,
