By Isa Covo When we moved to the Village over thirty years ago there were several bookstores in the area, some small and intimate, a few large. There was a largish bookstore just around the corner from where I live, where I bought my first book by Kazuo Ishiguro, (which was his first book also),
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IN AND OUT
This month saw a continued proliferation of vegan and Mediterranean spots, particularly in the Bleecker/Carmine/MacDougal corridor. Some popular bars/restaurants are opening new locations in the West Village, and some places that had been limping along for a while have finally closed. Open Top Openings Llama San 359 6th Avenue near Washington Place Villagers may
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Bringin’ It Home
By Keith Michael Millie is lying a few feet away while I’m editing photos—still catching up on my summer “takes.” Because I haven’t clicked on an image looking remotely like a bowl of kibble, Millie’s corgi gaze is equivocal. The combination of scrolling past an August shot of an Osprey from the Salt Marsh Nature
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HRPT Will Build a Full-Size Field on Gansevoort Park!
By Brian J Pape, AIA Cautious optimism filled the air as residents reconvened for the last Gansevoort Peninsula “concept phase” joint meeting of the Community Board 2 (CB2) Parks & Waterfront Committee and the Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) at the 75 Morton middle school cafeteria on September 10th. James Corner Field Operations (JCFO), the
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Then&Now: Washington & Christopher High Line
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, Architecture Editor Then: This 1940 Municipal Tax photo of 634-648 Washington Street views its intersection with Christopher Street, looking southwest. The New York Central Railroad built the St. John freight terminal and this viaduct from 1930-34, succumbing to pressure condemning the numerous pedestrian accidents while the 13-mile surface track, built in
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Villager Fires Lincoln Anderson!!
Community Newspaper Eviscerated By Arthur Schwartz For all the intrusion of the internet into how we get our news, and the availability of 24 hour per day updates, community newspapers retain a special importance. Local residents rely on community newspapers to get current information of local stories—whether it be the fight over a park, plans
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Let’s Get Real About Aging
By Gail Evans Some of us are 80 but feel 50. Our health is good, our income comfortable. We have family and friends, we’re active and optimistic. We are “aging well.” But even exemplars of healthy aging are not exempt from its cruelties. Growing old brings needs that cannot be ignored. Perhaps the realization that
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Pier 40 Construction Report
By Brian J. Pape, AIA The on-going construction and locked gates to the surrounding walkways at Pier 40 have prompted readers’ questions about what is going on. We’ve reported previously that this work is primarily for the repair and reinforcing of the hundreds of pilings that support the Pier 40 platform. Sometimes the contractor has
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Update: 14th Street Busway: Court Allows DOT Busway for Now. The Fight Isn’t Over.
By Arthur Z. Schwartz In what has become a fight between the rights of Village and Chelsea residents against a callous, uncaring City bureaucracy, an appellate court on September 27 lifted a stay which has been in place since June 26. The lifting of the stay means that starting Thursday October 3 no cars or
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Update: 14th Street Busway: “Polly’s Folly” Raises Ghost of Moses: 14th Street “Busway” Begins October 3
By Brian J Pape, AIA Somehow the city police will be expected to stop cars and trucks from travelling on 14th Street on Oct. 3, unless they can prove they are car-owning residents on those blocks or deliveries are going to those blocks. Are we to anticipate road-blocks at intersections? Everyone else will be forced
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Transportation Alternative?
Dear editors: 6,000 pedestrians are killed each year in America by motor vehicles, not including other vehicle deaths or injuries. Although most of the deaths are on rural/suburban roads, when it happens in our city, we want to protect our pedestrians. We are dealing with issues over limited urban street and sidewalk space, and the
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Chelsea’s Fulton Houses Get Gentrified
By George Capsis Any historic review of public housing in cities like Chicago or St. Louis offers images of massive controlled demolitions when the sprawling public projects, which have run out of money to make even essential repairs, have turned into leaking, rodent-infested, crumbling prisons for the poor. When it is clearly apparent that the money to fix them
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WestView Needs to Cry “Stop Thief”
We need to go online! By George Capsis Dusty got a call from an anxious landlord that offered that a retail shop tenant of hers had received a very legal looking “Summons and Complaint” document that offered that because the shop did not have a proper handicapped ramped entry they were being sued by a
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Cornelia Street Café Returns from Exile
With a star-studded performance on September 15 in the Meatpacking District. Cornelia Street Café comes home to the village! Come join in for the fun and music: September 15, 3-7 PM Gansevoort Plaza, Gansevoort Street & Little West 12th Street
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Health, Wellness & Beauty
By Hannah Reimann Several stores in the West Village cater to shoppers like me who prefer to avoid toxic ingredients, to know what they’re putting on their skin and into their bodies, to be safe from contaminants, carcinogens and to protect their health. Since products in these stores tend to have a high price point,
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
NOT ALL OF US LEAVE TOWN IN AUGUST. MANY OF US APPRECIATE THE CHANCE TO RELAX AND ENJOY PEACEFUL PLEASURES. VISITORS COME TO EXPLORE AND SOME PEOPLE FIND THERE’S STILL WORK TO BE DONE. All photos by Maggie Berkvist.
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IN AND OUT
This month saw only one opening, a couple of closings and a couple of moves, with much of the activity centered around Asian spots. As usual, the fall will bring some anticipated openings. Open Omakase Room by Maaser 321 Bleecker Street between Christopher and Grove Streets A new omakase spot has opened on Bleecker Street
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Current Events Café is Back at Jefferson Market Library
By Nancy Aravecz Jefferson Market Library’s political discussion group, Current Events Café, has resumed its monthly meetings in the branch’s newly reopened space. The popular program, which meets on the second Tuesday of every month at 6:00 p.m., was on a brief hiatus during the library’s temporary closing this past spring. A part of the
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Seventy-Six Eighth Avenue Development Revealed
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, Architecture Editor The busy southeast corner of Eighth Avenue and West 14th Street will get a substantial improvement over the previous two-story “taxpayer.” Surprisingly, the 120-foot-tall structure has shrunk two floors and 7,000 square feet from earlier designs submitted by Gene Kaufman Architect, P.C. (GKA). Seventy-six Eighth Avenue, in this
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What is the 14th Street Fight Really All About?
By Arthur Z. Schwartz From screaming headlines to picketers chanting on West 12th Street, the real issues about the West 14th Street Busway Plan, and the fight against it, are quite simple. The first is a question of community input into City planning. Despite the vitriolic assertions that the fight against the 14th Street Busway
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View From My 91st Floor Window
By Karin Batten In 2001 I had just moved to the Westbeth artist housing community, in the West Village, two months prior to the 9/11 attack. On the day of 9/11 the primaries for mayor were going on. I had just changed my district in New York City so I was re-registering to vote. I
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Senior Shares for the Village
By Hannah Reimann According to the Institute on Aging, the number of seniors across the country will grow by more than 40 million, doubling between 2015 and 2050 and the population older than 85 will come close to tripling. By 2030, more than 28 states will witness a fifth of their populations being older than
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Enraged Stalker Makes the News
By George Capsis Late in the evening of Wednesday, August 14, we received an email from a 53-year-old woman who had been punched in the face by a bare-chested African American man, at approximately 8.40 p.m. while walking her dog on 14th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues. Her complaint was that the six officers
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Chinese Intern at Westview
CHINESE INTERN AT WESTVIEW: As part of a collaboration with the Foundation for Global Education, Publisher George Capsis and Chinese intern Shen Xiaowen host 40 Chinese professors at St. John’s with Father Graeme to review Shen’s experience as an intern. “We learned more about controlled news in China than Chen learned about a free community
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Landmark Preservation Today
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, Architecture Editor The loss of the original NYC Penn Station caused citizens here to focus on the importance of our monumental buildings and special historic homes being lost. But the movement to preserve special places grew. Economic and population pressures continued to threaten our historic fabric, from Plymouth Rock to
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IN AND OUT
As usual, July was a quiet month. Two spots opened that are not what they seem, and there was also activity in French and Italian establishments. Open Top Openings L’Accolade Natural Wine and Neo Bistrot—302 Bleecker Street at Barrow Street. It seems like every wine list now touts natural wines, but this French spot which
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August Escapes
By Gordon T. Hughes II Among the things New Yorkers and Parisians have in common is summer travel. I love that about those two cities. Paris, like New York, has wonderful neighborhoods, and of course my favorite neighborhood in either city is the West Village. Most weekends you see people of all ages on Fridays with small
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Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel Applies for Drastic Changes
By Penny Mintz Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel filed an application with the State Department of Health on July 22nd, 2019. The application seeks approval for the relocation and construction of a replacement building for the Beth Israel Hospital on 16th Street and First Avenue. If this application is approved, the hospital, with an 800-bed capacity, will
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West Villagers Can Walk to the Sea
By Deborah Clearman Once again, Pier 40 is in the news, as the State Assembly has amended the Hudson River Park Act to allow office development on the pier. However, with some stipulations. Remarkably, the legislation calls for a boathouse, at least the size of the current boathouse, providing small-scale boating and water access on
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Polly’s Folly Will Be Adjudged This Month!
Disability Rights Lawsuit Against the MTA to Follow By Arthur Z. Schwartz I spent 24 years on Community Board 2. During those 24 years I interacted with numerous City and State Agencies (mostly the Parks Department and the Hudson River Park Trust), and I experienced the Community Board as a means by which the efforts
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Tenant Protection and Drastic Rent Drop Came Too Late for Cornelia Street Café
By Karen Rempel The New York State Senate Bill S6458, the “Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019,” came a few months too late to save the Cornelia Street Café. But at least the Café’s former landlord and its managing agent, the terrible duo Mark Scharfman and Mitchell Rothken, are hoist on their own
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How to Celebrate an Urban Summer
By Naomi Sternstein It’s summer in the city, in case you haven’t yet heard! The grasses beg for our picnic blankets, the flowers and expansive trees muffle the usual bustle and noise. We will do anything to be outside (recent heat advisories aside, when outdoor tables on the porch of San Ambroeus or in Hudson
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A Celebration of Pride: WorldPride NYC 2019 in the Village
By Karen Rempel Marchers and spectators from around the world brought a rainbow of color and sparkle to New York City on June 30 to celebrate and support each other at the 2019 LGBTQIA+ Pride March. NYC Pride was the official host of WorldPride NYC 2019 and Stonewall 50. These events meant unprecedented millions of people
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A Race for the Cure: The Research Foundation to Cure AIDS
By Karen Rempel Dozens of Pride Parade spectators stopped by for a photo op at the Research Foundation to Cure Aids (RFTCA) display on Seventh Avenue, near the 9/11 Memorial Tiles display. All genders and no-genders were welcomed to wear the crown and carry the torch for the cure to AIDS. RFTCA President and Founder
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WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
IT WAS A VERY PROUD DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD and everyone came out in their true colors, including the local pets – like Spencer, this jolly little pooch in the handsome cravat ….. … and these visiting youngsters in their rainbow shawls brightening up the usually low key scene in Abingdon Square. ….Not to mention
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Bleecker Flower Shop
By Salvador V. Bleecker Flower Shop opened in March 2019 as a flower studio located on Bleecker Street in the West Village in Manhattan. It was founded by two Spanish friends, Valeria Castillejo and Bebes Ferrer, who bonded over a passion for flowers, nature and artisan work. When Valeria was looking for an apartment they
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The White Horse—A Pub with Food
By David Porat Having spent a good bit of time in London and England (having visited many times over four or so decades), I have seen and tasted some very poor English food. But I have also had some very good meals in rustic pubs in unassuming, unpretentious, settings. These meals can be straightforward and
