Dear Caroline: I read your “In and Out” column with interest, as usual, in the latest WestView issue. I always welcome your news. But two things you wrote puzzle me. You ended the section by saying that, “Perhaps the West Village is just not a favorable location for vegan restaurants.” What vegan restaurant? Certainly not
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Diller Island Perspective
Dear Editors: I would like to respond to the article entitled “The Ego Fight for Diller Island,” published in the June issue of WestView News. The amendment to the Hudson River Park Act in June 2013 was not passed by Assemblymember Deborah Glick alone, but by the entire New York State Legislature by a vote
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America, The Same Country
Dear Editors: America killed Philando Castile, who had his seat belt on while his girlfriend and child were in the car, and while it was streamed live. It’s the same country that allowed racist Jeff Sessions to become the head national law enforcement officer. It’s the same country that allows a billionaire with zero experience,
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West 12th Street Water Pipe Construction…
Dear Mr. Capsis: Firstly, many, many thanks for WestView News. It is a lifeline for West Villagers. I have lived in the townhouse my father bought, since 1946. He was a doctor, who needed to be near St. Vincent’s. Currently, West 12th Street is being victimized by the City’s construction to replace water pipes. The
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Canceled Outdoor Art Exhibit
Dear Editors: Can you please tell me who to contact regarding the cancelation of the Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit’s second weekend this month (one of its two days)—an 87-year-old show replaced by a sausage and tube sock street fair? This exhibit showcases fine artists and craft artisans from around the New York metropolitan area,
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Surviving Greed and Indifference
Dear Editors: I am a big fan of your paper. While reading the May issue, I felt happy for Jessica Berk regarding her victory over the heartless people who own the building she lives in. When my husband Bernard Pollack was no longer able to walk up the four flights to our apartment, I found
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Reflecting on Gardens and Housing
Dear Editors: In writing about and photographing the gardens at the Church of St. Luke in the Fields and Jane Street, Justin Matthews touches on two gardens where I have worked as a volunteer with great joy and love for over 40 years. (See his article “Parks and Gardens of the West Village” in the
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The Jane Jacobs School?
Dear Mr. Capsis: It was very nice to speak with you. We are excited about the new school at 75 Morton Street, and understand from the principal, Jacqui Getz, that it may not be named The Jane Jacobs School. No reason was given. The decision was not 100% confirmed but it didn’t sound hopeful. Do
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VID—Democracy or Cronyism?
By Arthur Schwartz WestView has often featured reports on the most recent meetings of the Village Independent Democrats (VID), one of the City’s oldest “reform” clubs. This past May, the VID voted to endorse an array of candidates, including Bill de Blasio, Corey Johnson, and City Council hopeful Carlina Rivera in the district east of
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Notes and Perspectives from Away: Maine Sources and Methods
By Tom Lamia As I suggested last month, Maine has sent more than its share of respected political personages to the national stage—to the U.S. Senate in particular. Former Senators include: Margaret Chase Smith, Edmund Muskie, William Cohen, George Mitchell, and Olympia Snowe. They distinguished themselves and their home state by principled, effective leadership within
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso There is nothing as beautiful as a girl carrying flowers. ___ Our choice of heroes reveals everything about us. ___ Never tell a joke to a surgeon working on you. ___ Can anyone imagine Hamlet going to the bathroom? If Elsinore had a bathroom. ___ The whole world is on a Trumpoline.
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Kill The Zombie Park Already Part II: The Fake Alternative
By Alec Pruchnicki It’s much easier to think of an alternative to a controversial project than to complete the years of hard work necessary to implement that alternative. Supporters of the Elizabeth Street Garden have proposed several alternative sites for housing—the biggest one being on Hudson and Houston Streets. But, there are problems with this
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Where Did My Neighbors Go?
By Mary Alice Kellogg Invasion of the Body Snatchers resulted from author Jack Finney’s imagination, but I’m living it in real time, as individuals, couples, family units—my neighbors—are disappearing. My West Village has always been a tranquil place—save for weekends—but now our streets are strangely empty during the week. The stillness is sinister. I search
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WestView Delivers Relevant, Local News
Dear Editors: I must comment on something about which I feel most strongly: the quality and depth of WestView News’ coverage. In order to economically survive the impact that email, digital media, and video have had on their bottom lines, media outlets have been wallowing in trivia, desperately reaching out to a (perceived) newer audience.
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Praise for WestView
Dear Editors: Thanks so much for seeing merit in my “Seniorhood” piece for the May issue of WestView. It is beautifully laid out, giving it the feel of a true prose poem. I happen to have a large number of ‘oldster’ friends and most identified with the writing; they got a sort of serious chuckle
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Mobile Stroke Care Innovation
Dear Editors: Thank you for your continuing focus on health care issues in our community! A short time after attending the May 4th meeting announced by Arthur Z. Schwartz in WestView News, to discuss the crisis in our area’s health care, I went to Weill Cornell Medical Center on York Avenue to hear a talk,
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Many Thanks for My Ziedonis Article
Dear Editors: Thank you very much for my article on Ziedonis. Everything is fine, and the layout looks great. I have had quite a few compliments not only on the article, but on your paper as well, which was unfamiliar to most of my friends and acquaintances. —Bitite Vinklers P.S. Maybe you should have a
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The Cyber Hand in Your Pocket
By George Capsis I recently opened this email…“CHASE FRAUD PROTECTION SERVICES: Please tell us if you, or somebody you authorized, charged your card for: Navy Yard Gas $96.85.” On this day, the cyber crooks went right around the globe from the U.S. to China and Russia with sweeping electronic speed and the exquisite arrogance of
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Washington Square Park Designer Nabs Dual Role
By Geoffrey Croft The irony. George Vellonakis, the controversial NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks) landscape architect behind the much-vilified $30 million renovation of Washington Square Park, has recently been appointed to head the historic park. On May 15th, Vellonakis became the Washington Square Park Administrator, a City job, as well as the
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Praising George Vellonakis and Washington Square Park
By Barry Benepe With all due respect to Geoffrey Croft, I feel that we are fortunate to have George Vellonakis in charge of the design and maintenance of Washington Square Park, probably one of the most heavily utilized and historic parks in the City. Through careful and thoughtful research on the park’s original 1836 design,
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Notes and Perspectives From Away: Republican Democracy
By Tom Lamia From early January to mid-April of this year, I was in New York having a knee repaired. My surgery was on January 20th, the day that politics and governance took a new direction. Every day since has brought something new for discussion, with no one sure where it is all headed. Your
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Trump and the Saudi Connection
By Gary Tomei Trump recently traveled to Saudi Arabia and told the Saudis that they are our friends, even though they espouse a type of Islam, known as Wahhabism, which essentially preaches hatred of America and promotes Jihadism. Trump made this connection even though the Saudis are, in fact, the leading promoters of terrorism in
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso Cityscape: No curtains, ladder against a wall. Someone’s gone, someone new is coming. ___ Everyone rewrites his life into a form he can live with. ___ Immigrant’s progress: from blue collar to white collar to no collar. ___ Spring is a promise summer doesn’t keep. ___ Where Hamlet got his furs: Rosencrantz
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A Generous Contribution
Dear George: I was moved by the news in your April 2017 piece “Shall We End WestView?” that Amelia Vinal donated 10 free subscriptions to those in need. I decided to offer the same and so I donated $240 through the website, and also purchased a subscription for myself. —Eduardo Cavalcanti
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Keep WestView in the Village
Please, George, keep WestView in the West Village. If I want to know what’s going on with Trump, there are 24/7 news channels. Stay focused on the people and businesses in OUR neighborhood. —Doug Douglass Doug, You have just echoed a phrase I use very often in production meetings: “Keep WestView focused on the West
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Thanking Mr. Diller
Dear Mr. Capsis: In my opinion, the words you are seeking for Mr. Diller are “Thank you very much for the generous gift to our community and the City as a whole.” We are West Village residents and 100% behind the Pier 55 project. We honestly do not understand the small (but vocal) minority opposed.
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Countering Trump Support
Dear George: You were saintly in your patient response to poor, lonely, lashing out Mr. Gianfalla. He writes that he “survived four years of a university” but obviously never learned research skills or he would know that his claim that “[h]alf of America disagrees” with your views regarding Trump is false; the latest poll shows
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The Freedom to Criticize
Dear Editors: I have been trying to avoid responding to every letter written by ignoramus Trump supporters, but the incredible stupidity and audacity of Mark Gianfalla, who wrote to WestView excoriating the paper for its opposition to the incompetent, lying, so-called President Trump, set my blood boiling. His bold assertion that Trump is the President
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Compliments for Tom Lamia
Dear Editors: I wanted to compliment you on the addition of Tom Lamia’s Notes and Perspectives From Away column. I enjoy his writing style and his message has resonated with me. There are many in the Village who have, or continue to, split their lives with small town/rural communities. Lamia’s column is valuable for those
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Fighting Community Blight
Dear Editors: I’m a regular reader of WestView and someone who hasn’t really participated in local politics. Your newspaper has made me more aware of meaningful ways to get involved in the community. Thank you for that. I am forwarding you a note (with slight edits) that I sent our council members a few weeks
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Opposing the PeopleWay
Dear Editors: Paul Steely White’s effort to defend his indefensible proposal for the deceptively named “PeopleWay” on 14th Street, published in the April issue of WestView, ignores the desires and needs of the large majority of people who would be most directly affected. First, it is incredibly short-sighted to think that “buses, biking and walking”
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Bike Sharing Programs Highlight Need to Realign Transportation Priorities
On April 6, 2017, the New York Post reported that at least five bike sharing companies (competitors to Citi Bike) are attempting to distribute their bikes on City streets without docking stations. This had City officials up in arms and led Transportation Alternatives (a non-profit focused on improving the City’s transportation priorities) to urge the
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Valid Anxiety in West Village Residents About Heart Attack Care
“There are clear deficiencies in our health care system. It fails the test of providing universal coverage but beyond that, the major problem is the extremely high cost. It is cost ineffective—prohibitively so. I personally attribute much of this enormous expense to waste, fraud, and to the unchecked cost of drugs and medical devices.” It
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Slipping Into the Hood—Seniorhood
By Roberta Curley You’re getting old when… You start craving ginger ale before bedtime AND find the burping an addictive pleasure. Your back itches and you worry it’s shingles. You’ve graduated to 3.0 for readers and there’s nowhere to leap but to prescription. Your stomach leads you everywhere like a ballooning compass. You buy shopping
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso Everyone wants to go to Heaven but no one wants to die. ___ Sunrise doesn’t start the day. Coffee does. ___ Dogs are nicer than people—better dispositions, more loyal. ___ Mourn the victim but pity the shooter. Imagine the hell the poor devil went through before he cracked. ___ In a season
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PeopleWay Traffic Solution—Move
Some time ago, we published a photo of Charles Street taken in the 1930s where there was only one car parked—just one. Now, we have a fierce debate about banning private cars from 14th Street and reserving it for crosstown buses and bike lanes to replace the L Train. There is even talk about widening
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WestView Fan
Dear Editors: West Villagers (even some northerners and southerners) are burning up my phone lines to get a copy of the March 2017 issue of WestView. Your paper has ‘people power’ and packs a punch. I am pleased and honored to be a part of this ‘free’ (in all senses of the word) press. WestView
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Traumatized by Trump Trauma
Below, we feature an exchange between WestView reader Mark Gianfalla and Publisher George Capsis concerning the paper’s treatment of the Trump presidency. Dear Editors: I am writing as an active resident of the West Village and one (of the few) who reads WestView News when it is left in my building. I am often disturbed
