Hello George: Just reading your article about Maison Kayser closing, and $70K per year doesn’t seem that bad for a corner location on Bleecker. Did you mean $70K per month? —Jack Howard Editors Note: Yes. The rumored rent was $70K per month. Keep us honest— WestView welcomes letters of correction.
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More Trouble for Jessica at the 6th
Dear George, It started as just another day in the neighborhood but ended in the E.R. For our local cops, it’s easier to shoo the fly, rather than remove the garbage. Residents in Distress has been there cleaning the streets since we began. Recently, you all read about my latest false arrest. I’ve continued to
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Adventures with Adri & Oli
Dear Editors: Adri & Oli are NYC’S most recent power-duo! You can catch the two singer-songwriters serving the community with an undeniable zest for life and music. They believe in sharing deeply personal experiences to inspire others, provide hope and create unity. Adri & Oli met December of 2016. Olivia had recently finished undergoing chemotherapy
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In: Cross Street Praise
Dear Editors: I love Ms. Benveniste’s useful and interesting “In and Out” page, but I especially wanted to thank her for including cross streets in the addresses she gives (“west of Sixth Avenue,” “between Bleecker and Bedford,” etc.) That makes it so much easier to get an idea of where a store is located. So
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Doesn’t Belong In WestView
George, Bigoted opinions (Mayhem in Little Tijuana, July 2018) should not be allowed space on the pages of WestView News. In his “Briefly Noted” letter, a Mr. Gilman calls the corner of 6th Avenue and West 4th “Little Tijuana,” “because of the crowds and the porn shops and Papaya Dog… Young men and women, sometimes
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Praise for Captain Phelan
Good Morning Dad, I just read the article about lieutenant Hanson written by Captain Phelan. It was exquisitely written and perhaps one of the top 5 articles I have read since WestView’s inception. Articles like this contribute to the greatness of America. Please applaud Captain Phelan for me. —Doric Capsis
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Transportation Trouble
Dear Editors: In the March 2018 issue of WestView News, a letter writer lamented the bike lanes that have been added to city streets and implied this is unfair to cars and drivers and is “inefficient.” The idea that cars are more efficient than bicycles is not based in reality. OK, a gas powered machine
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Open Letter to Roy Leavitt, Executive Director of Greenwich House
Roy—When I asked you why you needed $180,000, and were you in a financial hole, and what were you going to do with the $180,000, you gave me: “The funds allocated will cover leasing expenses for the agency’s administrative operations instead of using the facilities currently occupied senior center.” You should have been more direct
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A Much Needed Voice
Dear George, As an active user of the Judith C. White Senior Center at Greenwich House 27 Barrow Street I am writing to thank you and the West Village Community on behalf of your support in keeping the Center open. Without your “voice” we would have been silenced. Silent is what we are to The
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9/11
Dear Editors, Thank you WestView News for having the fortitude to publish the article about the 9-11 report and the facts about the case! The fact that we question what the government tells us does not make us bad Americans, it make us good Americans. If the good people of Germany had questioned what Hitler
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A Conspiracy Theorist Reads WestView
Dear George, You have done well by God, by publishing this article about 9/11/01. He will bless you in the months to come. Do not doubt this. If you have any qualms or concern, seek Federal Protection. You are guarded for your First Amendment right and God will see you through. Great work! Keep up
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Save the Stones
Dear Editor: On Gansevoort Street, between Hudson and Greenwich streets, the original 150-year-old paving stones are being replaced by crudely cut multi-colored stones with a band of black stones running down the middle. The Meat Market district is a historic district and the original cobble stones should have been retained. I have seen in the
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A Positive View of West Village Houses
I’m kind of sick of the bad press afforded to West Village Houses. That is why I want to set some basic things straight, both as a long time resident at WV Houses, and as a residential real estate broker. The 40, five-story walk-up buildings are located on six sites: Bank Street to its North
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“Ugly” Buildings Sometimes Age Well
Dear Editor: Researching for the Then & Now: Rhinelander Row feature (WestView’s June 2018 issue), stirred up memories for me. Fresh out of architecture school at Urbana Illinois, I was challenged to cope with big city life on a shoestring budget when I moved across from 30 7th Avenue, the 1962-64 Maritime Union Building (its
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More View Points Needed
Mr. Capsis, You told me in my last email that you would not write another article about the West Village Houses until you knew the whole story. Yet, you go and write another BS article about the complex. You only interviewed people who want to stay in the complex and not one person who wants
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George is On To Something
Dear George, We just spoke on the phone. I read the article on younger, physically more capable people helping older people who need help while sharing one home. I love this idea! I helped my grandma in the process of dying to the extent that I could since I had a young child and was
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Devoted Subscriber Dilemma
George, I am an enthusiastic long term subscriber to WestView News and, as a “paper-trained” elder, look forward to reading it cover to cover, usually on transit trips or bench-sitting in better weather. My one ongoing complaint is the lateness of the delivery, which always makes a portion of the wonderful Calendar Section outdated. Today
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Inspiring History
Dear Editor, The May issue, with the articles on Louis Sullivan’s work (page 29) for the Bayard-Condict Building, ca. 1897, included a reference to 58 Bleecker Street as the oldest remaining structure in NOHO, built in 1822 as the James Roosevelt Home. Thanks to a plaque-unveiling ceremony at this address on May 14th by the
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Not a Pretty Picture
Dear Mr Capsis, For decades, I have resided in the West Village and was blessed to have called St. Vincent’s my employer for three decades. During this span of time, I have seen the Church of the Village grow and change hands. It is now a total eyesore to the community. Seeing your picture just
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Where’s the Real Story?
To the Editors: There appears to have been a breach in WestView News security, and a major article was hijacked and replaced with another. I was looking forward to reading the article by Arthur Schwartz in support of Cynthia Nixon, which would explain her political history and proposals for her fight with Governor Cuomo. But,
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Music! Free As The Air We Breathe
Dear George: You may understand—by the comment I made at St. Veronica—why I’d be ambivalent about how to fund concerts there and what sort of music to offer. Because the purity of emotion generated by that chamber, by what happened, under those precise circumstances (in Dec. & May—we missed others), was so intense and uplifting
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A Thank You to George
Dear Mr. Capsis, I wrote to you last in December/January regarding the gentrification of the West Village via new developments like the one on Leroy Street. I wrote, sadly, about the fact that the Village is fast becoming unaffordable for most old-time residents of the Village. I now write to you to “thank you” for
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Unique Chelsea Art Show
Dear Mr. Capsis, Something which you might like to know about is an oddball happening of art and real estate that is currently taking place in Chelsea. It has been organized by Leslie Lalehzar, a long time West Village resident, who is both an artist and a real estate agent associated with Sotheby’s International. Having
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Consider Co-housing
Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger is an
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The Planets Aligned
Hi George, I have to share with you something that happened shortly after my article came out in the WestView News. As I mentioned in the article, I have an Internet radio show called “Food for Thought”. We had been promised by the station owner for many months that our photo (the one that was
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Deal with St. Luke’s
Dear Editor, My, my, two full pages of an Open Letter ‘Advertorial’ from a reader, David D. Turner, March 2018 issue. Such a notable deviation from the usual content! Part of the diversity we desire? Being somewhat familiar with the controversy surrounding the development of the St. Luke in the Fields property, I read the
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St. Luke’s Deserves Outcry
Dear Editors: I’m writing regarding David D. Turner’s advertorial of February 27th. There’s been almost no other visible public outcry about what St. Luke’s has done in yielding their parking lot for a new residential tower. It was a betrayal of a community they’ve long served, both passively, by preserving green space and open space,
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Consider Co-housing
Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger
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WestView Matching Service
Dear George, Thank you for all you do for our community, for the newspaper, and for the concert series at St.Veronica’s. I love your idea about senior share housing. And I wonder too if something might begin before an actual housing situation is created. Many of our public high schools ask students to put in
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Paper Trail
Feb. 23, 2018 Twisp, Washington Dear George, I always enjoy getting the WestView News in our mailbox here on the other side of the country. We put it on our coffee table beside our local Methow Valley News in front of the wood stove, which, these very cold days, always has a fire flaming away.
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Artists, Property Rights and the Law
Dear Editor, I am thankful for the article The 5Pointz Decision, March 2018, by Catherine Revland, because it offers a comprehensive distillation of a very controversial legal matter. Part Two is promised for the April 2018 issue. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) has been litigated in a jury trial for the first
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A Real Community
George, I wanted to write a quick thank you for your work in putting out WestView News. The people can have their Journal or their ‘Gray Lady,’ but I’ll take the stack of papers with the dark beige font. I particularly enjoy “Then & Now,” the pieces on local politics, and “In and Out.” I
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Congestion in New York City
The following letter was published in response to the Crain’s New York Business article “Traffic Congestion Costs Metro Economy $20 Billion a Year: Study,” dated January 18, 2018. The letter has been edited by WestView News. I enjoyed your article on congestion in New York City. What a crisis, but unfortunately, it is deliberately created.
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Reflecting on American Ideals
Dear Editors, While I have to agree with Anne Olshansky that most New Yorkers still extend a welcome to immigrants, after reading her article “Emma Lazarus’ ‘The New Colossus’: A Timely Reminder of American Ideals” in the February 2018 issue of WestView, I looked back at a letter I had written to the New York
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Go For It, God
Senior share housing is a great idea, George! I hope you can get the wheels in motion, especially in that excellent location! I had to chuckle, too…finding our minds running on the same track. In my case, I was wondering whether—if and when one of them became available—I could possibly afford to pay the rent
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I’ll Tell You What’s Wrong With Your Paper
Mr. Capsis, I respectfully submit the letter below for your “Correspondence, Commentary, and Corrections” section. In “Do We Really Need Newspapers?” from the February 2018 issue of WestView News, George Capsis deplores how “people are simply not looking at a newspaper any longer, and certainly not a community paper.” According to Mr. Capsis, the iPhone
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High Marks for WestView
Dear George, I can’t believe my poem and I got so lucky. It’s an honor to be published by you. You’re beyond professional. I continually marvel at how you alert the public to so much information which startles/teaches us monthly. I’m sure it’s a massive group effort, but you’ve got it sewn up. Regarding the
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The Truth About Rent Control
Dear WestView News, Your February 2018 article “The Rent is Due—$127.61 Please” is one of the most misleading articles I have ever read on rent control, and probably a plant by a landlord association. Professor Neuman obviously doesn’t know how rent control works, or has ulterior motives. It is different from rent stabilization and is
