I’m speaking for Friends of the Earth, an environmental group with a 45 year history of work to stop over-development in the Hudson River from Battery Park City North to West 59th Street, New York water and land now controlled by Hudson River Park Trust authority (HRPT). The authority controls 60 acres of NY land
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Litigation Over 14th Street Changes and SBS Bus Changes Coming Soon
As WestView goes to press, two lawsuits are about to be filed by my office addressed to the efforts of DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg to needlessly reshape our community. At first, she used the proposed L Train shutdown as an excuse. Now she wants to champion “fast bus service on the M14D and the M14A.”
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Save the Bus Stop!
Hi George: I’ve just sent off the following letter to elected officials and others regarding the M14A service: What is the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s purpose with regard to Bus Transportation? Is it to get the riding public from one convenient location to another or is it to move the buses from one location to another
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Bookbook Closing
Bookbook at 266 Bleecker Street will be closing its doors this May. We have been doing this for 35 years and it’s time for a road trip. In 1984, we opened our first bookstore, Biography Bookshop at 400 Bleecker Street on the corner of Bleecker and 11th Streets in what was, then, a historic West
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Dylan Thomas
In the front-page article about the sale of the building where the White Horse Tavern is, reference is made to Dylan Thomas and his having “his last drinks there and later died at St. Vincent’s.” He may well have had his last drink in New York there, but not his last drink. The truth of
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Croman/WhiteHorse
While it is easy to “Rage, Rage Against Croman,” (April 2019) and all the other horrible landlords and haughty millionaires who are buying up our beloved neighborhood and changing its very character, we have to acknowledge that these people are not Viking raiders who swoop down on unsuspecting property owners and take over their buildings
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Judson Church History
Dear George, Roger Paradiso’s article about Judson Church (April 2019 issue) tells a lot, but has huge holes in it. He doesn’t mention the protean gifts of Rev. Al Carmines, who Rev. Howard Moody (also not mentioned) hired to start a theater in the church. Rev. Carmines brought in large numbers of people who got
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Bike Lanes
Dear WestView: It is disheartening to read opinions from bike advocates (Dear Bike Lane Complainers/14th Street, WestView News April 2019) who preach from their moral high ground. Car ownership is “indulgent/gas-guzzling,” etc. “The Village was never meant for private car ownership…” Really? So let me understand this. People who pay taxes, permits, registrations, fees, etc.,
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Lenox Hill Hospital Revitalization Plan
The following letter comes from a doctor and very carefully avoids the fact that the Lenox Hill Hospital expansion is on the east side in the 80’s. As a West Village newspaper we have been campaigning for more medical facilities in the West Village, like a Cath Lab. —Editors To the Editor: I write this
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The Forum on Lenox Health Greenwich Village Facility
On April 29, the CB2 (Community Board for Manhattan District 2) and Susanna Aaron, Chair of the Social Services Committee, organized a special forum: Five years after the opening of Manhattan’s first stand-alone emergency room, how is our community engaging with Northwell’s Lenox Health Greenwich Village facility? There was a full house in the classroom
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Israel-Palestine
Dear editors: Hate has no place here. An article on Israel-Palestine in the April issue is a political diatribe one expects from the alt-right or alt-left media, not WestView News. I get the writer’s blog almost daily, and know that is her prejudice, and I might feel sorry for whatever happened to turn her to
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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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Fruit Vendor
Dear George, I am referencing WestView’s November 8, 2018 article ”Does Rudin Want Your Fruit Vendor to Move?” and am not sure if you have noticed that with the start of Spring the Fruit Cart Vendor in front of the Aids Memorial Park has returned. This is the view from my north facing windows. As a vendor
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14th Street
The 14th Street Coalition (I recently saw it referred to as the “14th Street Coalition for Parking”) would have us all believe that the new bike lanes on 12th and 13th Street are ruining the neighborhood, and that they are standing up in opposition on behalf of “the community.” My apartment faces 12th Street and
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Dear Bike Lane Complainers
The next time you step into your automobile, you might stop to think about the amount of space your car wastes in this already-congested city and consider the damage you and your indulgent, gas-guzzling car are doing to the environment. You might also then consider if, given those factors, you are in any position to complain about
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Drug Dealing in Washington Square Park
George, I appreciate your coverage of the drug dealings in WSP. Perhaps it was overlooked that dealing and usage does occur in the SW corner by the chess tables, which is adjacent to the childrens’ playground (“the mounds”) which is also directly across from the rest rooms. There is little if any activity on the
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Landmarking Bureaucracy
Dear George, Are homeowners of Greenwich Village now being targeted by the Department of Housing and Preservation Development (HPD)? As of September 2018, a certificate of non-harassment is now required by the Department of Building (DOB) before being able to file for renovation permits and approve plans. If your home/building falls under this designation you
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Man’s Best Friend
Dear George Capsis, My neighborhood a few nights ago reminded me of being in a pre-election period, a time when candidates fill the streets with signs displaying their photos, their name, their party affiliation, and the date of the elections. But these signs were different from election paraphernalia. They were carefully, lovingly made. Tall, they were
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Enough with the Bike Lanes!
There has been a continual reduction in street parking on lower Fifth Avenue. Within the last two years over 40 parking spaces have been lost to bike lanes, or simply converted to no parking zones (example—the west side of Fifth Avenue between 8th and 9th Streets). Street parking can exist with bike lanes, yet the
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No More Gas Stations
I really feel for my fellow Villagers with their SUVs and Merc’s having only one gas station left—the one on 8th Avenue. I remember when Houston Street was lined with stations, from Lafayette Street to Avenue C. In the early ‘70s I waited on Houston Street with a hundred other vehicles during the oil embargo just
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“The Last One Left”
Hi George, This letter is in response to Brian Pape’s Then & Now article “The Last One Left,” WestView Feb. 2019 issue. Although we could not find the Esso station on Google, Richard knows it existed as he lived across the street. It was on the corner of West 10th Street & Hudson. The owner’s
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Google Calling?
To Anonymous: Our editors appreciate our readers’ letters, including the “Defense of Google” letter from Anonymous (Feb. 2019 issue), regarding the January 2019 article “Why Do Google and Hi-Tech Firms Expand in the Lower Westside?” Through your letter, we learned much about Google employment and their interior spaces and programs, beyond what could be covered
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Housing Solution
Dear WestView: After writing over a half dozen articles on the need for housing on Elizabeth Street based on facts and figures, I’ve finally come across a more obvious argument right here in the pages of WestView. On page 17 of the February issue there is an article by an elderly person desperately trying to
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Bring Back Our Hospital
Dear George, The gamut with its nuances (ER in hospitals, stand-alone ERs, Emergency Centers, Urgent Care Centers, etc., and more, probably more, on the horizon), only adds to the confusion. The expression clear-as-mud comes to mind. Trying to ascertain what is what, several months ago I went to Northwell and asked if someone were stabbed,
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Letter to George Capsis: WestView News
Dear George, It seems you and the WestView News are being punished by Northwell Health Greenwich Village (LHGV) for stating the fact that its facility is a glorified “urgent care center.” Mr. Alex Hellinger as Executive Director of Lenox Health Greenwich Village writes in a letter which you printed in February’s issue that you should
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Corey asks Subway Riders to Fund Race to Mayor
I’m writing to share some exciting news: I am thinking about running for Mayor of New York City. It’s a big decision, I know, but I love this City and am committed to making it a better place for all. As much as I love New York, we are capable of so much more. And
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Letter to Assemblymembers
Dear Assembly Speaker Carl B. Heastie and Assemblymember Richard N. Gottfried, I am glad to learn that reproductive rights bills have passed. However, I’m very surprised to learn something about the reproductive rights legislation I had never imagined—namely that it covers abortion only within 24 weeks, and only for fetal nonviability or serious risk to
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Hero of the Month
George, I have noticed a trend in TV-speak about which no one informed me. Typical. No one even sent me an email. Or anything. People being interviewed now say, for whatever reason(s) I have not yet been able to fathom, to begin responding, “So (blah blah)”. That being the case, I must jump onto the bandwagon for fear
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In Defense of Google
Dear Editors: I don’t agree with the sentiment that Google employees work online (WestView, January 2019) and on the phone and therefore don’t need a large office space—that is totally out of touch. Google is a premier global employer and offers jobs to thousands of people in New York that leave an impressive and lasting
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Northwell
George, I just read your “Somebody Just Shot My Neighbor” article in the January issue. As the editor of this paper, the person who wrote this story, someone who has been well informed on numerous occasions about exactly what Lenox Health is, someone as well that has visited the site on multiple occasions and have
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An Open Letter To Speaker Johnson
As we have argued since the first announcement of the L Train tunnel repair plans, thanks to innovative, out of the box thinking by Governor Cuomo and his team of experts, there is a much more intelligent method for the Canarsie Tunnel repairs that keeps the L train running and that does not disrupt the
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9/11 Bus
Dear George, I was sorry to learn that the 9/11 Tiles for America bus is actually a permanent thing! I kept hoping it would move. The 9/11 tiles should be displayed in a more dignified way, preferably outdoors as they were originally, and, ideally, somewhere near the new World Trade Center complex itself. For the
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More than a Coat of Paint and a New Stove
George, your statement, “My guess—her studio apartment with a coat of paint and a new stove would get $3,000” (“If Only God Had Money,” George Capsis, WestView News, January, 2019), was based on old business principles, but not accurate about housing. There are many things, worn out and practically worthless, that you could spiff up
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Buyer Beware
Dear WestView News: Andrew Cook’s letter in January should encourage everyone to do some research before they need health care—i.e., locate the nearest facilities their providers cover, know their hours, and find out if they are an urgent care center or an emergency department (which costs more). I recently came close to being misled; in
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Jerusalem: No Winners
Hello George, I just want to thank you and WestView for publishing the article “Jerusalem: No Winners.” This article presents a viewpoint that most Americans will not see in the mainstream press. And that is one that suggests that there is an appalling, ongoing and illegal situation in Gaza of which many Israelis and most
