By Frank Quinn and Bob Cooley Ray McGuire and his two brothers didn’t have much growing up. “I never knew my father. He never acknowledged me, a sorrow I share with far too many.” His mother worked as a social worker, his grandfather in a factory during the week and as a janitor on weekends.
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The Great Race: Vaccines vs Mutants
The Great Race: Vaccines vs Mutants By Alec Pruchnicki, MD It is hard to predict the future, but with COVID it is even more difficult. There is a race going on between the factors that will improve our situation and other factors that can make it a lot worse, and right now it’s a toss-up
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The End of Graffiti?
By George Capsis I hate graffiti and perhaps that is why WestView News has done several front page articles on the subject. With the pandemic and the closing of offices we now have an ever-ready young crowd that poured into Washington Square during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations and then marched down Broadway, spray cans
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A Mayoral Candidate With Significant New York City Experience
By Frank Quinn From 2014 to 2020 Kathryn Garcia was the 43rd Commissioner of the largest sanitation department in the world. Before that she was Chief Operating Officer of the NYC Department of Environmental Protection, and an interim Chair of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). She grew up in Brooklyn as an adopted
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WestView News Interviews District 3 City Council Candidates
By Frank Quinn and Bob Cooley The New York City Democratic Primary is June 22, 2021. Six candidates will compete for the District 3 city council office currently held by Corey Johnson who is term-limited. WestView News interviewed all six candidates and our short-form videos can be viewed below. We asked the candidates for succinct
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Corey Johnson Bounces Back
By George Capsis Oh wow, it was only just a short while ago I read with despair that Corey Johnson was dropping out of the race for mayor because of an extended bout of depression, and then, bang, on February 18th I read in the Times that he is thinking very seriously about running for
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The Architecture of Outdoor Dining: Restaurants Get Design Corps Help
By Brian J. Pape, AIA It seemed like the city began to change overnight, evoking comparisons to Paris or Rome, with so many sidewalk cafes opening up in response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. NYC was one of the first cities to severely limit gatherings to restrict virus spreading, harkening back to previous pandemics
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COVID Vaccines—Where is the Leadership?
By Arthur Schwartz On January 14, at 2:30 a.m., I got a needle full of the Moderna vaccine stuck into my arm. It wasn’t easy to get that done. As soon as I heard that Governor Cuomo had opened the vaccine to people over 65, I got on the internet trying to make an appointment.
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Lenox Health Greenwich Village to Ramp Up Local Vaccinations
By Bob Cooley “Tomorrow, I will lay out our vaccination plan to correct course and meet our goal of 100 million shots at the end of my first 100 days as president,” stated President-Elect Joe Biden in his January 14 address. Lenox Health Greenwich Village is racing to finish a new vaccination unit that will significantly aid in
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NYC COVID-19 Vaccine Finder
The City of New York has published a COVID-19 Vaccine Finder here. The Finder does not work with Internet Explorer, so you’ll need to use a different web browser. Wear Your Mask You will not be admitted to the site without one. Do I need to take precautions even after I’m vaccinated? Yes! Even after you
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City Winery Opens on Pier 57 Amidst Shutdown
By Brian J Pape, AIA The new flagship location for City Winery, designed by Brooklyn-based Christopher Warnick Architecture, has opened on Pier 57 near West 15th Street. Unfortunately, the pandemic shutdown of indoor dining means it is mostly off-limits to the public, except for the main entry with a wine shop and the winery itself.
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Working to Save West Village Restaurants
By Maggie Berkvist Back in early December, a number of us signed a petition to Senators Schumer and Maloney at saverestaurants.com/take-action/ However, it was pretty clear, even before the stimulus package was passed, that it was not going to begin to cover the financial needs of our area’s bars and restaurants. Which is why—since they
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2020—The Return of the Depression?
By George Capsis If you go online right now you can find half a dozen articles on the precipitous drop in the New York City real-estate market brought about by the pandemic. In reading them I encounter terms that are very familiar to me, which I discovered when apartment-hunting with my mother during the depths
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The Day the Village Stood Still: “Gimme Shelter”
By Roger Paradiso “It becomes a choice of risking your life or your business. In most cases people are risking their lives to keep their businesses from failing.” —Vittorio, La Lanterna di Vittorio on MacDougal Street “Ooh, a storm is threatening My very life today If I don’t get some shelter Oh yeah, I’m gonna
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Candidates Debate for Corey Johnson’s Seat
By Penny Mintz “All politics is local,” Tip O’Neill once said. That was one thing he got right. The impact of government on our daily life—police, sanitation, education, fire protection, the licensing of businesses, safety regulations, mass transit—is determined almost entirely at the city and state levels. Local government could not be more important. So,
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Graffiti in the ‘Hood: An Interview With the NYPD 6th Precinct
By Brian Pape AIA Graffiti is nothing new to New York City, or other cities around the world. But we wanted to know more about the recent activity in the West Village that we reported last month. WestView News followed up by asking the 6th Precinct of the New York Police Department to help us
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The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittney Ryan: The Making of a Classic
In the Author’s Own Words “My intent was to write a story that would become a true legend, so it was important for me to present Holly Claus’s story as a legend, a fantasy that would become part of the culture…a tradition…a classic…I want Holly’s story to endure for generations.” -Brittney Ryan, storyteller-author. There
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Obscene Graffiti Scars Village
By George Capsis In 1917 the City ruthlessly cut through the handsome historic townhouses of the Village to run the 7th Avenue subway through it and left ugly towering blackened backyard raw brick walls. A few months ago, after the Black Lives Matter incident, huge crude nonsensical graffiti messages appeared like “MAGIC TRICK” with the
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Village Voters Show Enthusiasm, Patience, Hope in First Day of Early Voting
By Bob Cooley In what leaders and many citizens have called “a fight for the soul of our nation,”West Villagers and New Yorkers turned out in massive numbers during the initial day of first-ever early presidential voting in the state. 1,211 West Village residents turned out to cast their early vote at the community space
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Crowdfunding Campaign Update
Dear readers, neighbors, friends, and supporters, We asked you to help because our beloved local newspaper is in danger of folding forever. You answered with a surge of donations, messages, and even ad requests! George and the folks at WestView News are overwhelmed by your love and support for the paper. You donated over $17,000
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Deborah Glick Hasn’t Debated Her Opponent
By Frank Quinn As we reported last month, WestView News invited both candidates for the District 66 State Assembly seat to debate the issues with us. The challenger, Tamara Lashchyk, accepted our invitation but the incumbent, Deborah Glick, did not. As a result, instead of a debate we are providing an interview with Tamara Lashchyk.
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New York Spirit! Villagers Are Saving WestView News
Dear readers, neighbors, friends, and supporters, We asked you to help because our beloved local newspaper is in danger of folding forever. You answered with a surge of donations, messages, and even ad requests! George and the folks at WestView News are overwhelmed by your love and support for the paper. We’ve raised almost $15,000
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Goodnight Newsroom
The office where the New York Daily News Produced Itself Has Permanently Closed After 101 years By Amanda Mikelberg I’d been given a company thermos, when I started as an overnight web producer in the New York Daily News newsroom at 4 New York Plaza in 2011, that is now an artifact from a lost
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Help Save the Voice of the West Village
Dear readers, neighbors, friends, and supporters, We are asking for your help because our beloved local newspaper is in danger of folding forever. With ad revenues sinking as our local businesses struggle to survive in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, WestView News can no longer make payroll and pay printing costs. We have distributed
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Historic Maps of Manhattan: 1865
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Last month’s WestView News articles about NYC’s Gansevoort Market Waterfront and the 1811 Street Grid stirred several responses from readers, who sent their map copies or suggestions of archives of maps, for which we are grateful. I was asked to provide a follow-up with maps (of which there are
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NYU Langone Health Opens New Outpatient Center in Greenwich Village
By Deborah Haffeman Greenwich Village has a new healthcare provider in town. NYU Langone Health has opened a multispecialty outpatient care center, located at 555 LaGuardia Place, for adult and pediatric patients. NYU Langone Medical Associates—Washington Square spans approximately 10,000 square feet, which includes 26 exam rooms and a dedicated pediatric floor. Village residents can
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Turkish President Recreates Ancient Conquest
By George Capsis I was a bit surprised at my own shock and, yes, anger when I read in the New York Times that the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced that the Turkish government would again take over the 1,500-year-old Hagia Sophia—also called Church of the Holy Wisdom—and use it as a mosque. Turkish newspapers showed crowds cheering at regaining something they
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Publisher’s Apology to Our Readers
Dear Readers of WestView News, I received three letters from our treasured readers regarding the poem “Code Blue.” I apologize to our community for offending and frightening some of you by publishing this poem. I am sorry to say that the poem slipped through the cracks three times, and was placed in the paper because
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1811 Street Grid Conceived in West Village
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED AP Ironically, the plan for the geometric and regular Manhattan street grid was conceived within the very irregular and eccentric streets of the West Village, at 329 Bleecker Street, corner of Christopher Street, in the office of John Randal Jr., who was 20 years old when he began his
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Defund the Police—Movement or Folly?
By Frank Quinn On May 14th the City Council published its report on Mayor de Blasio’s FY21 Executive Budget, announcing that “the NYPD budget has increased a minimal .07 percent.” On June 12th Council Speaker Corey Johnson joined seven other council members calling for a $1 billon cut to the NYPD budget. The eight members released
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Pandemic, Pride and Prejudice Shape a Cause
By Kambiz Shekdar We are witnessing an awakening against ancient and profound prejudices as the world issues a collective outcry of #BLACKLIVESMATTER. The call is reverberating across the LGBTQ community and is pouring out as a single voice denouncing all prejudice. George Capsis, the publisher of this paper recounts a telling story: in 1967, he joined
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Village Residents Join in City-Wide Protests for Historic Social Change
By Bob Cooley What started as a reaction to the murder of George Floyd, an African American man killed by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, quickly became the tipping point for residents, students, and activists of all ages and races who were protesting the long history of systemic inequality and police brutality against African Americans,
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“Why We Occupy City Hall”: Calls for a Billion Dollar Reallocation of NYPD Funding
By Drew Davis The City Hall Occupation as of Friday, June 26, at the Brooklyn Bridge City Hall 456 subway stop. The vast majority of protestors were masked and socially distanced. Between June 23rd and 24th, City Hall Park transformed from a quiet green space into an occupation for racial justice. I headed in to
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Cops That Hear Are Cheaper
By George Capsis I read with a flick of surprise that Cory Johnson—now city council speaker and a pretty good bet as our next mayor—had joined with seven other council members in support of a bill to cut $1 billion from the police budget. A day or two later I got an email from somebody who wanted to
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Still Off the Table: Dinner With My Father Amid COVID-19
Barbara Thau and her father Roland Thau at Sevilla in the West Village. Photo taken by a waiter at Sevilla. By Barbara Thau I dreamed that I was on the Second Avenue bus headed downtown to meet my 86-year-old father for dinner. At least I was trying to get on the bus. It was evening. It
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Reality Check—COVID: Into the Middle Innings
By Jesse Robert Lovejoy For a starting pitcher, the most dangerous inning is the first. He isn’t really warmed up, and he doesn’t know what’s working that day. If his fastball has life and his command is good, he can settle in, begin to mix in the curve, and cruise the first two times through
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The Day the Village Stood Still: Mayday
By Roger Paradiso I remember they used to play this con game, Three-card Monte. They played it over by the subway kiosk on Sixth Avenue and West 4th Street. You just need a cardboard box. Pull out the cards, shuffle the deck, and play Three-card Monte. Nobody ever won that game, right? I don’t know
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Pride in the Time of Corona
By Chauncey Dandridge One of the things heavily lamented by members of the LGBTQ community currently, is that this will be the first time in fifty years that there will actually be no organized Pride March conjured up to light up The Big Apple in rainbow colors. Considering that last year, New York City celebrated
