Dear Mr. Capsis I read your article “Going Home to Turkey” with growing dismay. Beginning with your reference to Turks’ origins as “marauding” tribes whose (now paraphrasing) “only civilization could be carried in their saddlebags,” to progressively offensive comments that sound like they came from Donald Trump’s tweets, I feel compelled to write my first
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No, I Did Not Visit Tokyo Disneyland
By George Capsis “This is the Chase Bank and we have reason to believe that someone has acquired your bank account number and is attempting to charge against it.” Oh, wow, this is the second time this has happened to me and I froze—how much did they take and thought this is going to be
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Caruso’s Quips —By Charles Caruso
Everyone knows but no one cares. A sneer is a sign of a broken heart. Getting to work on time makes the day so long. The penalty for disloyalty is loneliness. Balloons make people happy but no one knows why. Summertime and the living is queasy. If a man and a woman are smiling and
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Asking Secularism Out for a Date (Part One)
By Reverend Donna Schaper “Attractive, well-placed Reverend seeks equally comfortable secularist for non-violent communication, partnership, (d) alliance.” I could publish this ad in the New York Review of Books or write this essay. At 285 dollars per column inch, I figure I get more value for my buck here. The ad could continue, now that
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How a German Fell in Love with New York— and Made the West Village Her (Most Likely Forever) Home
By Sophie Gruetzner It was the summer of 1999. Not only was it the last summer of the century but also the hottest summer in New York City in years. “The Big Apple is finally coming out of the oven,” read the headline of a prominent city newspaper when temperatures dropped below 100 degrees. It
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Ristorante Rafele
By Caroline Benveniste Ristorante Rafele has all the things you want in a neighborhood restaurant—good food, a convivial atmosphere, and a friendly staff. On a warm summer evening, we ordered a number of dishes from the large, mostly Southern Italian menu. The arancini were oozing perfection, the fried artichokes were as good as anything I’ve
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Village Independent Democrats Plans for November
On Thursday July 14th, the Village Independent Democrats held their monthly meeting in St. John’s Church on Christopher Street. Club president Nadine Hoffman reported on several party matters, such as the election of judicial delegates and state committee members, and on the recent renovation of the VID clubhouse on Perry Street. Tony Hoffman gave several
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Prison for Slumlord
By Emil Chynn, MD, MBA As I’ve grown older, I have increasingly begun to believe that there is something to “karma”—slumlord Steven Croman’s recent criminal arrest being a case in point. I had the distinct misfortune of buying my townhouse in the West Village from Mr. Croman. As part of the contract of sale, he
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Diversity Matters. Don’t Just Hashtag It.
By Annunziata Gianzero Black lives matter. Blue lives matter. Oscars so white. Equal work for equal pay. Hashtag it all you want. Or post your opinion and collect a bunch of “likes.” But it’s not enough to identify the problem. That’s just “social media,” whether you employ technological methods or old-fashioned human conversation. It’s also
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How A White Community Should Look at the Racial Divide
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Hand in hand with the scary speech of Donald Trump at the recent Republican Convention was a two-week period which saw a number of what appear to be uncalled-for police killings of black men in Baton Rouge, Minnesota, and Brooklyn, followed by the assassination of police officers in Dallas and Baton
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Vigil Exhaustion
By Reverend Donna Schaper Norman Lear, who is about to turn 93, was asked how he made it so long and so well. He responded, “By knowing the difference between what is over and what is next.” That is about as good a sound bite as I can remember. Is the season of our discontent
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30 Ways to Decrease Gun Deaths in America
By Emil William Chynn, MD, MBA Let me start by establishing my credibility to both sides of the debate. As a teenager, I was a Junior Member of the NRA. This was an extension of my positive introduction to guns in the Boy Scouts, where I earned the Rifle Merit Badge on my way to
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At Sixteen I Was Offered Drugs: A Teenager’s First Encounter
By Ralph Godfrey The hardest years of a person’s life are arguably the mid and late teens. When young men/women enter the high school realm, they experience a world of obliviousness and confusion—completely unaware of what life will provide and the steps they must take to make it and intertwine with the rest of society.
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Consequences of Conviction Greater Than Imprisonment
By Joe Turco In late May, our Greenwich Village neighbor, Federal Judge Frederic Block issued an important and controversial decision in a criminal case titled, US v. Nesbeth. Chevelle Nesbeth, the defendant in that case, had been convicted by a jury of attempting to smuggle 600 grams of cocaine through JFK airport by placing it
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Showing Up As Ministry
By Reverend Donna Schaper There is a Lower East Side Yiddish proverb that goes like this: “Hurry up and eat. We need the tablecloth for a sheet.” This references the way immigrants lived in shifts in small downtown apartments when they first arrived. They showed up. They made do. They became American citizens and enriched
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso You have your run and then you’re done. j We only recognize our happiest years when they’re past. j You’re old when the delivery man gets to your place before you do. j The elections are free but the politicians are expensive. j A girl who is chased a lot doesn’t stay
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Correction
In last month’s article “What Food Programs are Available to Seniors?”, we printed out-of-date information about the Center on the Square Senior Center. Joseph Salas from Greenwich House kindly provided us with this corrected statement: “Center on the Square Senior Center is located at 20 Washington Square North, the phone number is 212-777-3555. Center on
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Sharp Eyed Readers Welcome to Join WestView
Hi Caroline, Good article on D’Agostino but at the top you say Greenwich Street, then twice below you say Greenwich Avenue????? The paper needs a copy editor. —Mimi Sheraton Ms. Sheraton, I am happy you enjoyed the article, but I am mortified at our mistake. I have caught this error many times in other people’s
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Section 8 Housing Vouchers, a Personal Experience
By Brian Pape We’ve seen the news reports about cut-backs in public housing budgets for many years, and the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) has $millions of debt and deferred maintenance problems. Large concentrations of public housing in “projects” had developed as part of the government’s “city slum clearance” after the Second World
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Inside the Car with a Fire Outside
By Reverend Donna Schaper On Tuesday night, May 17th, I took the 6:45 Metro-North train from Grand Central Station to Poughkeepsie. I often take that train and usually spend the first ten minutes through the tunnel to 125th Street asleep. The train is quiet and dark then and it is a nice ritual for one
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WestView Scoops Major Outlets
I have been aware of the total blackout in the major media about events in Latin America since the early eighties, when the New York Times ran a front-page story by Raymond Bonner about the death squads in El Salvador and U. S. government complicity. After howls of criticisms from other major newspapers, the Times
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Selfishness One, Housing Zero
By Alec Pruchnicki The preservation of the Elizabeth Street Garden appears to be a victory for open space and quality of life. On closer inspection, I believe it is an example of selfishness. THE GARDEN: The garden is a pretty, well-manicured quiet open space. While researching this article, I’ve been there four times; twice it was
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Caruso’s Quips
By Charles Caruso Everyone laughs at the boss’s jokes. ………. You’re middle-aged when you bring a chair to the beach. ………. Blood is thicker than semen. Family ties outlast the sexual. ………. A miss is as good as her smile. ………. You can’t pray for yourself if you don’t believe in God. But you
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Surrealism in the Subway
By Alec Pruchnicki With police profiling many young black and Hispanic males as criminals, at least before the recent decrease in stop and frisk searches, and the public stereotyping many white police as racists, it might be a good time to rime-beer what we were taught as children. Don’t judge a book by its cover.
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Time for Another Protestant Revolution
By Alec Pruchnicki Thesis 1. Those who profess to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ should all be bleeding-heart liberals, like He was. What!? How can anyone make such a statement? The answer to that is in my religious background. Although I was raised as a Catholic, my family and I were never very religious.
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Thoughts About Justice Scalia and the Supreme Court
By Judge Frederic Block I am writing this article the day after Justice Antonin Scalia died. I am under no illusion that the vast majority of WestView readers are no fans of this reputed leading voice of the so-called conservative ranks of the High Court. Many of them probably hope that his replacement will be
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Youth Does Not Follow the Banner of Compromise
By George Capsis Times veteran op-ed columnist, Nicholas Kristof, tells a good story of how in 1981, he, as a young Washington Post intern, called the office of the newly elected mayor of Burlington Vermont to learn how this very American small town could have elected a “socialist.” After a lengthy interview with what he
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Corruption—A (Not So) Radical Plan to Clean Up Albany
By Arthur Z. Schwartz It’s not news: Our New York State government is the most corrupt government anywhere in the United States. You know that already. But why does it matter? • The Legislature spends $145 billion of your money each year • A large percentage of educational funding (including higher education funding) comes through
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Ashes to Ashes, Stardust to Stardust
By Reverend Donna Schaper I’ve been saying “Ashes to Ashes, Stardust to Stardust” at funerals I officiate for the last year or so. I have been astonished at the response. It is pervasively positive. We religious hybrids are desperate for a new kind of religion—a sincere platform from which we can engage the falsehoods that
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The “Immaculate Corruption” on Hudson Street
By Catherine Revland A few years ago, having heard the phrase “too big to jail” one too many times, I closed my account at the Chase Manhattan Bank on Hudson and West 12th. After completing the paperwork the bank officer asked me why. “Two words,” I replied: “Jamie Dimon.” “Oh?” he enquired, amused. “You know
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WestView Op-Ed
By Corey Johnson A contributor to WestView in his seventies offered he could not live in the West Village if it were not for his rent-controlled apartment—but even so, he was still having trouble making ends meet on a fixed-income. For decades the City and State have been passing laws and creating regulations to keep
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It Runs in the Capsis Family
By George Capsis At last, yesterday, I got John Capsis on Skype sitting at his desk in Athens. He had chided me, as he always does, that as a “techie” American, I shouldn’t have so much difficulty Skyping with him. I first met my cousin John in the summer of 1949. He was waiting
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A Prescription For Fraud
As a Times editorial reports, at a Community Board meeting in Harlem, city retained consultants tried to sell the plan to get profit motivated developers to build higher denser apartment buildings and have those who can pay exploding market rate apartments share with those who less and less can afford even “affordable” rents. But the
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Thanks for the Memory
By Erwin H. Lerner I can recall with clarity a December afternoon when I was a cutesy featherweight first-grader, standing fifth in a class lineup from short to tall; fast on my feet and able to heave a basketball off a rattling metal backboard, through the hoop in Bronx Public School 91’s schoolyard. The
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Faitheist
By Rev. Dr. Donna Schaper I ran into my Muslim friend on the street a week after the Paris bombings. She was not wearing her scarf. All we had to do was meet each other’s eyes to realize that we needed to have a big long cry. “Donna, my mother told me not to
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Love is NOT for Wimps
By Christina Winholt Raccuia We all strive for autonomy and self-sufficiency, however it can also rob us of true intimacy. “I can take care of myself” or “I don’t need anyone.” Do these phrases sound familiar? For a relationship to be balanced, partners must be able to depend on one another and feel that they
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Social Skills and Behavior
By Ron Elve No parent will be surprised to hear that recent research highlights the increasing importance of competent social skills and behavior. The direction in which a child’s social skills are trending can be apparent as early as kindergarten, and thus the behaviors can be modified before they become problematic set behaviors and emotional
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What Do We Do with Our Syrians?
By George Capsis The scene of groups of Germans smilingly greeting Syrians with food and blankets needs to be considered against the gleeful applause Donald Trump gets when he suggests walling off Mexico. Perhaps this is in part because the new generation of Germans may still feel guilt for the death of 6 million Jews,
