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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso Writers are at their best while writing. The rest of the time they’re just as dumb as everyone else. ___ Reducing your tip is a loss of face. ___ The one who calls is the one in need. ___ Animals are hard to like. They’re so much like people. ___ The real
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Why I am Supporting Jumaane Williams for Lieutenant Governor
By Arthur Z. Schwartz This year could be a watershed year in electoral politics, as Democrats attempt to win the House from the Republican Party, and regain hundreds of seats in State Legislature, including in New York. But there will also be a fight within the Democratic Party for who its candidates will be. Will
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Notes and Perspectives from Away: Reading the New York Times in Maine
By Tom Lamia In South Bristol, Maine, I keep up with events by watching television and reading. The New York Times online edition is a good source. It is adequate, but not fully satisfying. My God, do I miss reading the New York Times on paper. Having news of world events available from trusted sources
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One Square Inch of the Klondike
By Barbara Riddle Memories swirl in puffs through my brain. Small puffs…the shape of Quaker Puffed Rice? It’s 1955, and I am sitting at the yellow Formica table in our little kitchenette inside our two-room suite at The Marlton Hotel on West 8th Street. I could not believe my luck. My mother had managed to
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A Maxim
As a kid the only pair of scissors we had in the house rested in my mother’s sewing basket. It was always there amongst the spools of thread and sewing debris—years and years. “Can I have something to cut the plastic strap around the newspapers?” asked Tim and I gave him our best of only two
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Deal with St. Luke’s
Dear Editor, My, my, two full pages of an Open Letter ‘Advertorial’ from a reader, David D. Turner, March 2018 issue. Such a notable deviation from the usual content! Part of the diversity we desire? Being somewhat familiar with the controversy surrounding the development of the St. Luke in the Fields property, I read the
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St. Luke’s Deserves Outcry
Dear Editors: I’m writing regarding David D. Turner’s advertorial of February 27th. There’s been almost no other visible public outcry about what St. Luke’s has done in yielding their parking lot for a new residential tower. It was a betrayal of a community they’ve long served, both passively, by preserving green space and open space,
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Consider Co-housing
Dear Editor, Your February 2018 article “G-d at the Drafting Board” was thought provoking and novel. Readers can disagree with taking an active playground to build more buildings, but the real point must have been that we need a new approach to senior and affordable housing. As such, mixing the older demographic with the younger
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WestView Matching Service
Dear George, Thank you for all you do for our community, for the newspaper, and for the concert series at St.Veronica’s. I love your idea about senior share housing. And I wonder too if something might begin before an actual housing situation is created. Many of our public high schools ask students to put in
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Artists, Property Rights and the Law
Dear Editor, I am thankful for the article The 5Pointz Decision, March 2018, by Catherine Revland, because it offers a comprehensive distillation of a very controversial legal matter. Part Two is promised for the April 2018 issue. The Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990 (VARA) has been litigated in a jury trial for the first
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No More Faux-Feta
Just try telling Citarella, Zabar’s, or Murray’s Cheese to take those ‘French feta’ and ‘Danish feta’ labels off their faux-feta products. Either they won’t know what you’re talking about when you say that feta is an “EU protected designation of origin product of Greece since 2002,” or they’ll just shrug and say they can call
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A Real Community
George, I wanted to write a quick thank you for your work in putting out WestView News. The people can have their Journal or their ‘Gray Lady,’ but I’ll take the stack of papers with the dark beige font. I particularly enjoy “Then & Now,” the pieces on local politics, and “In and Out.” I
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Congestion in New York City
The following letter was published in response to the Crain’s New York Business article “Traffic Congestion Costs Metro Economy $20 Billion a Year: Study,” dated January 18, 2018. The letter has been edited by WestView News. I enjoyed your article on congestion in New York City. What a crisis, but unfortunately, it is deliberately created.
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Reflecting on American Ideals
Dear Editors, While I have to agree with Anne Olshansky that most New Yorkers still extend a welcome to immigrants, after reading her article “Emma Lazarus’ ‘The New Colossus’: A Timely Reminder of American Ideals” in the February 2018 issue of WestView, I looked back at a letter I had written to the New York
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Go For It, God
Senior share housing is a great idea, George! I hope you can get the wheels in motion, especially in that excellent location! I had to chuckle, too…finding our minds running on the same track. In my case, I was wondering whether—if and when one of them became available—I could possibly afford to pay the rent
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I’ll Tell You What’s Wrong With Your Paper
Mr. Capsis, I respectfully submit the letter below for your “Correspondence, Commentary, and Corrections” section. In “Do We Really Need Newspapers?” from the February 2018 issue of WestView News, George Capsis deplores how “people are simply not looking at a newspaper any longer, and certainly not a community paper.” According to Mr. Capsis, the iPhone
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High Marks for WestView
Dear George, I can’t believe my poem and I got so lucky. It’s an honor to be published by you. You’re beyond professional. I continually marvel at how you alert the public to so much information which startles/teaches us monthly. I’m sure it’s a massive group effort, but you’ve got it sewn up. Regarding the
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso You’re lonely when you look at a clock and it’s not as late as you’d like. ___ A great event always produces a conspiracy theory. ___ Snowflake by snowflake, the winter departs and days grow stealthily longer. ___ The ornery inertness of the inanimate. ___ Rooftops twinkling with rain. ___ As
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The Truth About Rent Control
Dear WestView News, Your February 2018 article “The Rent is Due—$127.61 Please” is one of the most misleading articles I have ever read on rent control, and probably a plant by a landlord association. Professor Neuman obviously doesn’t know how rent control works, or has ulterior motives. It is different from rent stabilization and is
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End Robo Calls
Just out of the tub, soaking soapy wet, the phone rings and I step with pain-wracked knees in fear of falling to the demanding ring ring only to discover that it is a robo call. Okay, this has to end. The only way robo calls will end is if the sender must pay a penalty
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Linking Residents in Distress and Neighborhood Community Officers
By Jessica Berk According to the New York Police Department (NYPD), the new model of policing will be the Neighborhood Community Officer (NCO), to bridge numerous gaps between us and them. This model is “built on improved communication and collaboration between local police officers and community residents.” That’s their press release, but unfortunately, the 6th
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Verizon Outage
Dear George: I assume you’re aware of the outage caused by a contractor’s cutting of an exchange cable at 17th Street and 7th Avenue. This has left much of the West Village which uses a copper-wire landline without Verizon telephone service since January 29th. That includes Greenwich House on Barrow Street, which is home to
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More Insight on Coffee Joints
Dear Mr. Capsis: First, I am sorry to learn of the loss of John Capsis. My condolences to you and your family. My reason for writing is this: Gordon T. Hughes, Jr., in his January 2018 WestView article “West Village Coffee Joints,” missed an exquisite newcomer to the neighborhood. Ad Hoc Collective Coffee + Shoppe—part
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Staring Into Space
By Roberta Curley We boogied on my Dad’s porch. I whooped out karaoke to Chuck Berry’s “Sweet Little Sixteen.” My boyfriend Guy preferred crooning Elvis. He begged me: “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear.” I pleaded: “Chill, Guy. I’m capturing the sky.” My blue sky was lined with puffy, white parallelograms. Who knew this
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An Email Brings Snowmen to James J. Walker Park
Hi George, What do you think about the fact that the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation (NYC Parks) has kept the James J. Walker Park (at Hudson and Leroy Streets) locked up for a week or more after the last snow storm? I noticed while walking by that the snow was completely untouched in
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High-Priced Condos Drive Up the Cost of Everything
Dear Mr. Capsis, I met you at the November 23rd inaugural concert at St. Veronica’s Church. I was truly sorry to read in WestView News of your loss. It sounds like you and your cousin John had much in common. I write to you concerning two articles that appeared in the December 2017 issue of
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Grateful to WestView and Northwell
Dear George Capsis, Warmest wishes to you for a bright and successful 2018! With the New Year, the Village will have a Caregiver Support Program at Northwell Health. This is thanks to you! I wrote to you before the holidays about needing a community meeting place for our Caregivers to the Elderly Support Group. You
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I’ve Seen the Light and It Ain’t Pretty
Dear Editors: My apartment faces the towering buildings across the river in Jersey City. While I can mostly see only their higher floors and not the river itself, the views of the open sky and sunsets are important to us West Siders. I was shocked, stunned, and appalled a few months ago to look out
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“Bird of the Year” Brings Back Fond Memories, and More
Dear Mr. Capsis, While reading the January 2018 issue of WestView, with smiles and frowns, I committed to sending the edition to my 92-year-old father in Florida, who was brought up on the Lower East Side and the Bronx, and a best friend, over on 7th Avenue and 13th Street. Then I had to stop
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Supporting Music at St. Veronica
Dear Editors: The initiation of Music at St. Veronica is a glorious idea, and a critically needed series. There was a time when our musical superstars included the likes of Horowitz, Toscanini, Heifetz, or Menuhin—names that have long since faded. Some, such as Bernstein, still resonate with an ever-diminishing circle of admirers. The great composers
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A Transcontinental Legacy
Dear Editors: John Capsis’ obituary, which was published in the December 2017 issue of WestView, provided a reminder of a life well lived, the way John served his community and country. Joy and I happened to travel to Greece just after John Capsis’ passing, so as we met people there, we mentioned Mr. Capsis’ relation
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Against the Destruction of West Village Houses
Dear Editors: As long-term residents of the West Village Houses, we are appalled at how the Board is trying to destroy this low-rise community, which was championed by Jane Jacobs. They want to tear our buildings down and turn us into luxury housing. The community needs to rise up to stop this. —Alice Moore &
