By Yalini Anne Sampathkumar, 9 The West Village has lots of fun things to offer for kids all ages. Here are a few good places to visit with kids. Jefferson Market Library: Jefferson Market is a wonderful library. It has lots of activities like book signings, learning about animals, crafts, and games every Friday. On
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IN AND OUT
July is usually a slow month, but this year there was lots of activity. In particular, the Village has become more of an Asian food hub with the opening of three Chinese restaurants and one Japanese ramen bar; and another Japanese restaurant is in the works. Open TOP OPENINGS Junzi Kitchen (170 Bleecker Street at
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Class War in Greenwich Village: Mini Versailles or Senior Housing with a Garden?
By Jim Fouratt Recently, when I called attention to the possibility of “class war” over a city-owned lot on Elizabeth Street, I was half joking. In 2012, when Councilwoman Chin was being pressured by both Mayor Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Quinn to approve the massive NYU expansion in her district, Chin finally relented, after
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The Impracticable Life of NYC’s Street Vendors
By Milad Momeni New Yorkers. We love the hustler. We venerate the feisty businessperson who lays it all down for their dream. Nevertheless, as the city becomes more gentrified and the police omnipresent, the amount of available space for poor people who work for themselves is slowly diminishing. This tendency is even more visible if
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West Village Images by Joel Gordon – Jefferson Market Garden Flowers
Tucked away in the shadow of the Jefferson Market Library, from April to October, this beautiful, well-kept garden oasis is open to the public. Situated on a triangular city block, this 0.4-acre garden has been under the care of community volunteers since its inception in 1974. From 1931 to 1973 the Women’s House of Detention
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Comment: You Can’t Stop a Problem Unless You Admit to It
On July 14th, I received a two-page letter via the US mail. The following was just one small part: “The reason I am writing this is as follows: I have a friend who has an acquaintance on the Greenwich House Advisory Board of Directors. According to her, Greenwich House plans to close its 50 year
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Saving Humberto
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Humberto Gonzalez Bernal has lived at 88 Horatio Street, in a 250 square foot studio, since 1957, shortly after, at the age of 26, he arrived in the US from Cuba, a country then living under the brutal US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. He always harbored a dream of returning to Cuba,
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Battle on Barrow Street—A Victory for Organized Villagers
By Jane Heil Usyk Well! It has been quite a week; several meetings, two demonstrations, petition signing, and who knows what next week. Here is how it played out: on Monday, July 9th, I went to the senior center, Greenwich House, at 27 Barrow Street to see “The Big Knife,” one of the many excellent
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If You Can’t Fix It, Lie – NYCHA gives a course in lying and even has a textbook
By George Capsis I clicked on the TV to find Mayor de Blasio, in front of a gaggle of terribly young City Council members, competently running down the council’s achievements as the session apparently came to an end. With only the slightest change in tone he slid into what was happening to the New York
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Two Village Institutions Show There’s More That Unites Us Than Divides Us
By Joe Salas A pen-pal program between members at Greenwich House’s Center on the Square Senior Center and the kindergarten and first graders at Village Community School (VCS) has shown that despite decades of differences, life in the Village can still be a uniting factor. Joan Silinsh was born in Mexico City and briefly lived
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Have You Seen My New Perambulator?
By Gordon T Hughes Jr. The other morning, I was sipping a cup of coffee at my favorite haunt, Panino Mucho Gusto Cafe, when a young mother in yoga pants opened the door and pushed her baby into the petite cafe, in a gigantic, what I would call, baby carriage. Now, the cafe is not
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Then & Now: Milkwagon and Old Houses, 8-10 Grove Street
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Abbott’s streetscapes often included horse-drawn wagons, relics of an earlier age. In this Grove Street photograph, taken the same day as several others near her Commerce Street studio, a horse-drawn wagon is her central subject. Milk distribution in New York City, dominated by two giant companies—Sheffield Farms and Borden
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Village Hard-won School to Open
By Lucy Stone As the New York City public school academic year winds down and students eagerly await summer vacation, there is one middle school that will spend the next few months gearing up for its long-awaited opening. Co-located in a former state-owned building at 75 Morton Street, the new special-education middle school, P751 and
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Spill the Tea: (Verb) to Engage in Gossip
By Stanley Wlodyka Within a minute or two of sitting down on the bench in front of Tea & Sympathy, Nicky Perry sweet-talks a miniature Chihuapoo Tzu puppy into coming her way. The precious pup drags his human, a rather serious looking fellow, along for the ride. Nicky bends down and scoops up the bundle
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Advocates Stop Mitchell Donian’s Eviction
Mitchell Donian, 87 years old, called George Capsis on May 30, extremely upset. After living at 204-210 West 10th Street for 60 years, his landlord, Village Rose LLC, an absentee landlord, was threatening him with eviction because his apartment was cluttered. George said: “call Arthur, he will help you.” So Mitch, who I have known
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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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In and Out
June was a busy month; with so many shops opening and closing, it was hard to keep up. The cuisines of the new restaurants spanned the globe: French; Italian; Moroccan; Mediterranean; Spanish; Chinese; American. The arrival (finally) of warmer weather made it a good time to grab an ice cream sandwich at Sherry B Dessert
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Maison Kayser Closes
They are picking them off higher on the vine by George Capsis Oh, wow. I got a call from Peruvian born, Nelly Godfrey, who lost her restaurant on the corner of Christopher and Bedford in a years’ long struggle with our very own king of evil landlords, Steve Croman. By the way, Croman has just
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14th Street Fight Moves Forward
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Elevators coming to 14th Street and 6th Avenue On June 18, the 14th Street Coalition and Disabled in Action announced a big win in their joint lawsuit versus the MTA, NYC Transit, and the NYC Department of Transportation: Within the next four years, four elevators will be installed on the corners
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Radical Changes from New Developments in West Village
By Brian J. Pape If you haven’t taken a walk around the West Village lately, then you are in for a shock. Block by block, foot by foot, the West Village is going through a transformation that is both rapid and radical. Hudson Yards, that city within a city just a little north of us
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Have You Heard!
June 2018 Nice to be back at WestView after the nightmare of Housing Court. After almost three years of fighting my new landlord’s attempt to evict me from my six-floor walkup in the heart of Greenwich Village, the Judge ruled against the landlord. The Court ruling said I was credible — the landlord’s witnesses were
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Giving is Ancient — The Need is New
By Graeme Napier The Open Door was a characteristic West Village response to HIV/AIDS. It was located where the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute is—in the courtyard of Saint John’s in the Village (West 11th Street at Waverly Place). At a time when men and women with AIDS (especially those who were young) were ostracized by
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So, You’ve Been Away
By Gordon Hughes The other morning I was enjoying a cup of coffee at Cafe Panino Mucho Gusto, when of all things, I ran into a pal and neighbor—not from the Village, but from Chester County (where I have a horse farm). I was so surprised to see him in this foreign location, but what
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14th Street Closure: MTA Talks, DOT Balks
By Arthur Z. Schwartz It was apparent to anyone attending the “Town Hall” meeting held at the New School on May 9 that the L Train shutdown, that we’re dealing with two very different approaches to the notion of public input. On the one hand, the MTA/NYC Transit Authority, and its new President, Andy Byford,
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In and Out
At the end of April, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets reported that Brookfield Properties was purchasing seven storefronts on Bleecker Street, all located on the three blocks between West 10th and West 11th Streets. The properties are 350, 367-369, 382-384, and 387 Bleecker Street. Some of the storefronts had shops that recently
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Is Class War in the Village About to Begin over Senior Housing?
The fierce battle between the squatting Moms of Soho vs. seniors seeking affordable housing in CB2 has moved to the next step. The Mayor seems to be the only politician who supported the seniors in the battle over one of the only available pieces of land in CB2. Council-member Chin had the land designated for
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Hudson River Park Hits 20: How the Pier 40 Fight Brought Us Hudson River Park
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Friends of Hudson River Park will soon be holding its 20th Anniversary Fundraiser with a minimum price of $2000 per ticket. The Friends Board is made up almost entirely of very wealthy people: bankers, developers, commercial lawyers. But Hudson River Park had a very humble birth. It was born of volunteer
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The Washington Square Music Festival: Celebrating 60 Years of Excellence
By Peggy Friedman, Executive Director Sixty years of free music concerts is an anniversary worth celebrating! On Tuesday June 5 at 8 pm the Washington Square Music Festival opens its 60th season of presenting free classical and world music concerts in the park. Back in the ‘50s—when our newly-founded Festival wasn’t yet an annual tradition—there
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A Village Summer Without Helen Ann Lally — and YNO
By Paul Critchlow Summer has finally arrived in the West Village, but for many residents, no season will be the same without Helen Ann Lally. The petite, effervescent proprietor of Your Neighborhood Office (YNO), the business services center at 332 Bleecker Street for nearly 25 years, closed on March 31. Many local retail stores have
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West Village Houses Rally for Preservation
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP The WestView News April, 2017 issue began a series on West Village Houses, an affordable housing cooperative under the Mitchell-Lama rental and the Housing Development Fund Corporation (HDFC) cooperative Programs during its first three decades of existence. Here is an update on the developments of the West Village Houses
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Ruth Berk, Village Cabaret Singer and Owner, Dies at 94
Funeral – Sunday June 10 – 11AM – Greenwich Village Funeral Home Ruth Berk, who would have turned 95 in August, passed this morning at Beth Israel Hospital. The cause of death was heart failure, complicated by a stroke. Berk was a long time Village cultural figure. After an early career as an opera singer,
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The Spirit of WestView
By Barry Benepe I wrote my first article for WestView just over ten years ago in March 2008. It explored the need to calm traffic around Union Square Park, one of our city’s most crowded historic public places. Thirty years earlier, I had prepared a plan called Three Parks for Community Board Five, of which,
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Lady in the Black Bag
Anybody who lives near Charles Street is familiar with a large, black bag forever hooked onto the door of the Charles Street Synagogue. But not everybody knows that it has, for years, contained a living person who is profoundly captured by mental illness that demands “living” in a black bag. I called the police, and
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No Plants for Kiddies
One of the charming innovations introduced by Charles Street Association President, Margie Dienstag, was to invite the block’s children to plant, but this year the supply disappeared before the kiddies could plant. Margie reminds homeowners that the plants are reserved for street display and should not be planted in rear gardens. —George Capsis Dear CSA
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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
