By Charles Caruso New York is the only city where you can see Dada at MoMA. Spring is a promise summer doesn’t keep. Dogs are not as stupid as cats think. The biggest pest is the right-on-time guest. Where were the Three Wise Men when he needed them? Sunrise doesn’t start the day. Coffee does.
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Karen’s Quirky Style
By Karen Rempel For me, having fun with fashion is about finding pieces I love at the most unexpected moments, and then combining them with old favorites to come up with an entirely new, unique look. I call this “Karen’s Quirky Style” because you won’t find these ensembles in Vogue, they don’t cost a mint,
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks: ‘Tis the Season for Comings and Goings
—And all the signs that “Summer Is Icumen In”!
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IN AND OUT
This month we noticed a higher number of openings than during the colder months. A long-time Village bookstore returned, while another closed. Openings outnumbered closings on Bleecker Street, something that did not go unnoticed in a March 2019 article in The Commercial Observer which stated: “Bleecker Street retail has gone through several rapid changes in
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Drink Your Tea
By Keith Michael Millie’s bounding “corgi kibble dance” inspired by a small handful of kibble tossed onto the floor is just the distraction needed for her while I sneak out the door. I’m on my way to the Hudson River Park Trust offices at Pier 40 for a meeting planning another summer of Sunday morning
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My Favorite Restaurant
We’re asking readers of WestView to submit a description of their favorite neighborhood restaurant. The review we select for publication receives a FREE one year subscription to WestView News. Please submit your local favorite to: westviewarticles@gmail.com GRAND PRIZE WINNER Roberta Curley Recommends: TAVERN ON JANE Jane and Leroy Streets When I crave unique, inventively prepared fresh
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New Intergenerational Housing Ideas
By Brian J. Pape George Capsis asked me to please find the nonprofit company he saw in a TV presentation about “shared” apartments designed for unrelated individuals who are living collectively on either side of a shared kitchen and bath because this was like senior share apartments he wrote about in an earlier edition. A
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THEN AND NOW: The New School for Social Research Celebrates 100 Years!
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP For the first decade of its existence, beginning in 1919, the New School for Social Research and Alvin Saunders Johnson (1874-1971), a co-founder and leader of the institution from 1922 through 1945, operated out of six renovated brownstones on West 23rd Street. Johnson and others had been on the
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Karen’s Quirky Style
The National Arts Club celebrated Jo Weldon’s new book, Fierce: The History of Leopard Print, in March, with a leopard-spotted event that had stylish New Yorkers turning out in truck-loads of faux pelts adorning every imaginable garment from boots to hats. Touted as a “neutral,” leopard prints might have been invented as nature’s camo, but
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso – A woman’s touch is always a signal. If the passage from life to death is as painless as the passage from waking to sleeping, we have little to fear. Congress: From oversight committees to overlook committees. The shadows of snow. The inevitable orneriness of the inert. There’s a silent click in
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
The Signs are All Around—At Last! All photos by Maggie Berkvist.
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Notes From Away: Spring Break
By Tom Lamia It’s mid-March in South Bristol, Maine. The flora and fauna have not yet shown themselves to be into the resurrection-of-life phase of the calendar year. Well, let me qualify that—this morning two deer were seen foraging on the far side of the ice and snow encrusted pond that lies behind my house.
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IN AND OUT
The title of this month’s In & Out could be “Delayed Gratification.” There were just two openings, a number of closings, but lots of projects in the works. There continues to be increased activity in the Bedford/Downing/Carmine area, and a couple of Korean restaurants are coming, replacing Do Hwa which closed last month. Open Chama
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Remembrances of the Lost Village: Judson Memorial Church
By Roger Paradiso On a cold and brisk October day in the Village, I made my way through Washington Square Park passing many fellow strangers. I wondered if they knew? I wondered if they knew that Judson Church and the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) were going back in time to celebrate the greatest cultural
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My Favorite Restaurant
We asked and you answered! We received many responses to our query for your favorite neighborhood restaurants. Our first winner is Dee Vitale Henle, who enjoys EN Japanese Brasserie. The winner receives a FREE one year subscription to WestView News. Please submit your local favorite to: westviewarticles@gmail.com GRAND PRIZE WINNER Dee Vitale Henle Recommends EN
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Then&Now: Washington Square Park Fountain
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP In support of the many events taking place in April—Jane’s Walk, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation house tours, the 50th anniversary of the landmarking of most of the Greenwich Village District on April 29, 1969—we return to our beautiful Washington Square Park (WSP). The changes here, when considered
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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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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso No one should have guns but the police and army. Anyone found with a gun should be sent to Arizona for an extended stay in the sun and sand. The color blue is reason enough to be alive. A writer wants fame and fortune and beautiful women, but what he really wants
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
LAST CALL When the show opened last November, New York Times Art Critic Holland Cotter urged “MEET WARHOL, AGAIN, IN THIS BRILLIANT WHITNEY SHOW,” adding “the sweeping retrospective shows a personal side of the Pop master … and reasserts his power for a new generation.” And in the February 15th Times Weekend section, in a
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West Village Original: Marshall W. Mason
By Michael D. Minichiello This month’s West Village Original is director Marshall W. Mason, born in Amarillo, Texas in 1940. Mason co-founded the Circle Repertory Company in New York and was artistic director for 18 years. He directed such plays as The Hot L Baltimore, Fifth of July, Talley’s Folly, As Is, and Burn This. Nominated five
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Theater Book Review: The Transcendent Years
By Robert Heide The title of Marshall W. Mason’s remarkable new book entitled The Transcendent Years—The Circle Repertory Company & The 1960s for which he was the artistic director for eighteen years is his homage to Harold Clurman’s Group Theater book The Fervent Years. Marshall Mason won a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement and
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IN AND OUT
This month we saw mostly closings, something that often happens in the winter, with five on Bleecker Street alone. Hopefully next month we will have happier news to report. Open North Fork (122 Christopher Street and Bedford Street). This farm-to-table restaurant opened in the old Croman-owned Lima’s Taste space. I spoke with the Chef, Chris,
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Notes From Away: Winter Break
By Tom Lamia I write from Toluca Lake, California, long-time residence of Bob Hope and other early Hollywood notables. The weather is, of course, shockingly good; the sun blinding through the windshield as one drives east in the morning rush or west in the evening. One of my daughters lives here and is giving me
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Then&Now: Weehawken Street Historic District
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP As I look across Christopher Street from my living room window I see the Weehawken Street Historic District buildings and think of the changes that took place in the past. Utility workers are digging pipe trenches in the street into the 200-year-old landfill at the river’s former shoreline.
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Health Notes
By Penny Mintz Beth Israel Members of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel met at Assemblyman Harvey Epstein’s office on February 7, 2019, to discuss the newest development in the ongoing Beth Israel saga. As an active member of PALM (Progressive Action of Lower Manhattan), Harvey Epstein had been instrumental in the creation of
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Jim Fouratt’s Reel Deal: Movies that Matter
As I write this I am into day two of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City Utah. I have been coming to Sundance since the early ’90s. It is my favorite film festival in the world. Yes, we are fortunate to have had in New York City two major film festivals—the much loved and
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West Village Images by Joel Gordon: Art Illusions and Fantasies
Photographic series of digital computer art, illusions or fantasy featuring close up details taken from architecture and design elements of buildings. Other examples can be found on my website www.joelgordon.com. Photo credit © Joel Gordon 2019—All rights reserved.
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso It’s impossible to carry a pizza home with dignity. Tom Brady is Jack Kennedy. He’s a winner, rich and famous, Irish from New England, handsome with a beautiful wife. The truest test of friends is how they act when you’re broke. There’s so much walking in Hemingway’s Paris memoir that it could
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Understand the Essentials of Eczema—Your Skin Will Thank You!
By Dr. Peter Saitta Our city during the holiday season is a very special place. Streets are filled with Christmas cheer, Santa is on his sleigh, and shop windows are magnificently dressed for the occasion. But the freezing cold air and bitter winds of our famous New York winters can sting, irritate, and dry your skin, all of which
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Notes From Away – Winter Thoughts
By Tom Lamia It is cold in South Bristol, Maine. Of course, it is midwinter and this land lies east and north of all but Alaska among our states. There is snow on the ground and ice on the ponds and roads. One might say the landscape is bleak and the seascape forbidding, but not
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IN AND OUT
January was a quiet month for openings and closings. One trend we observed was that a number of shops that opened in challenging locations closed just as quickly. Chelsea Market/Gansevoort Market Update Big Mozz took over the Very Fresh Noodles spot in Chelsea Market (Very Fresh Noodles moved in to the larger space vacated by
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Then&Now: The Last One Left
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Greenwich Village has been challenged on many fronts, but the car-centric culture has been one of the biggest. You may already be aware that when the early civic leaders decided Manhattan needed a simple, logical street layout for the city to grow north of Chambers Street, The Village
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Notes From Away: War Story
By Tom Lamia I write on the day of the memorial service for George H.W. Bush. Today and during the preceding four days, many have spoken privately and publicly of the remarkable character of Bush 41. A connection between his character and the effect of his service in World War II has been noted as
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Jim Fouratt’s REEL DEAL: Movies That Matter
Best in Film 2018 I spent a lot of time watching movies this year, just as I did in the streets protesting! I see my role as a critic as sharing with you those creative works which made me feel human, helped me identify with the feelings of others and inspired me to have hope.
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
TO ALL MY FELLOW ‘CREATURES OF HABIT’: MAY YOU, AND ALL THE READERS OF WVN, HAVE A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR—maggie b All photos by Maggie Berkvist, with the exception of photo bottom right credit: Laurence Edelman.
