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,
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Mother of Mercy, Is This the End of Little Italy?
By Alec Pruchnicki While walking through the San Gennaro feast on Little Italy’s Mulberry Street this year, as I have for 45 years, I thought about its future. This Italian neighborhood formerly stretched from Greenwich Village south of Washington Square Park, all the way to below Canal Street. Now it includes only Mulberry Street
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Realationship Clues
By Ron Elve There are major connections between language, feelings and behavior. For example, the partner who speaks in terms of “my marriage, my children, and my house” as opposed to “our marriage, children, house” reveals a clue about the reality of the relationship. Saying “my marriage” could mean the person feels alone in the
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Coming of Age in Havana
By Robert A. Moore Photography of many aspects of Santeria, the Afro-Cuban religion popular all over Cuba, is strictly prohibited. But my friend Lazaro, who lives in Cuba, encouraged me because it was his decision to choose his own ‘making’ as a Santero, which is a high priest in “The Religion,” as English-speaking followers call
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Being Instead of Doing
By Christina Winholt Raccuia It’s easy to get caught up in the everyday rush of life. Life is speeding up, and often with that, inner angst. We want to put as much on our plates as we possibly can and be productive, but at what cost? I have personally noticed when I am rushing, I
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Good Show
Dear Editor, The concise, good article by Ron Elve in the July issue resonated. At NYU in the early 1970s, graduating in 1975, I was one of those upwardly mobile “Catholic Irish” he mentioned. I especially liked Ron’s ending: “Bless Gallatin and this country!” Good show, Ron. Sincerely, John Early Charles Street
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The Wrong Way to Tame Times Square
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s suggestion that Times Square’s pedestrian plazas could be ripped up and replaced by roadway shows an imperfect understanding of the need for public space in New York City. The plazas, one of the Bloomberg administration’s signature public space achievements, were an attempt to humanize a city that has too long prioritized
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Should WestView Run a Poetry Column?
Dear Mr. Capsis, First and foremost, I want to thank you for producing such a terrific publication! I have been a resident of the West Village going on 30 years, and have read WestView since its inception. Talk about fair and balanced reporting! (Fox news would draw and quarter me if they knew I was
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The Little Pink Pill
Dear Editor, PHARMA scores a new $$$$$$$$$$$ victory at the FDA. The female Viagra called Addyi manufactured by Sprout….with one huge windfall difference: while the expensive blue pill for men should be taken before engaging in sexual activity, women are to take the pink pill daily and the use is not tied to specific sexual
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Response to Pink Pill
Dear Jim, Yours is a terrific piece and unfortunately not farfetched at all in my opinion. Great to jump on that! From what I’ve read, the pill has negligible efficacy and pretty awful side effects. In fact, it was originally rejected by the FDA, dropped by the major big pharma that had been planning to
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A Humble Correction
I reported last month that after my arrest, Maya Angelou retweeted a copy of my article in WestView because I had mentioned that while in a cell, I read “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.” That was a major typo that I didn’t catch. The article was retweeted by Maya Angelou’s estate. Maya Angelou
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If Jim Says It’s Good
Dear George: WestView is becoming more substantive and readable with every issue. It was always good but it’s verging on great. The August 15th issue has a lot to like and I have already clipped for future reference A Boomer’s Roughing it on the Gulf Coast. One never knows. But my favorite must-read is Jim
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Are You Staaalled?
By Ron Elve If you are stalled (whether it be at work, school, or even life), odds are you know what your next step should be, but you are guilty of fatal neglect/avoidance. If this is you, try the following tips to try to get unstuck: Break your task down to the simplest of achievable
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A Note
George, Enclosed is a check for a renewal to WestView. Each issue of WestView continues to be a God send… Hope you are healthy and happy! Give our regards to the Village. Eleanor, Tunkannock, PA.
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A Euphoria of Praise
(The following is the text of a phone call to the publisher.) Hello, my name is Lydia Fogerty. I subscribe to the paper and I want to congratulate Mr. Capsis on his diligent reporting on Diller Island and how pleased I am for him that the story was picked up by the Times. I am
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A Euphoria of Praise
Hi George— My wife and I thoroughly enjoy reading your paper and believe you have a very good pulse on the neighborhood. We live in Connecticut, but nearly three years ago we purchased our dream apartment in the West Village. We have a few more years until we call the West Village home due to
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Lawsuit Will Hurt Long-Time Residents
At our monthly planning meetings for WestView News, the subject of rising rents and affordable housing comes up frequently. In our latest meeting, I mentioned the lawsuit against the city for granting preference to neighborhood applicants, and mentioned that I was writing a letter to Mayor de Blasio and other city officials to urge them
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You Don’t Pay Me Enough to Think
By George Capsis As I reached the kitchen counter to make morning coffee for our French guests, Isabelle and Kumiko, I glanced through the garden door and viewed with alarm that the glass table outside had shattered into the proverbial thousand pieces— glass glittered on the gray slate ground. This is the second time—the
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No Avatar City
By George Capsis On NY1 a very intense Mark Peters, the city’s Commissioner of Investigation, was cataloguing the horrors in the city homeless shelters as revealed in a study ordered by Bill de Blasio—vermin, pools of urine, and festering dead rats. Outraged by the situation, I tried to get the commissioner’s office or the
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Race and the City
The Crisis Continues By Arthur Z. Schwartz I had an interesting experience a couple months ago, entering the R Train at City Hall, just before a tall guy named Bill de Blasio. It took him five minutes to walk the length of the car because he was mobbed. High fives, lots of selfies (by passengers),
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I’m Mad at You, George
By George Capsis “I’m mad at you, George—you told Carol Yost that just because she was old she didn’t need to live in the Village anymore, that she should live in Florida to make room for young people. I’ve lived in the Village twenty years, George, and I am NOT going to Florida! I’m
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Mama Read to Me
By Maria Hadjidemetriou “No mamma,you read to me like when I was little” my daughter Julia said, and I did. This pattern during bedtime stories continued and it soon became evident that she didn’t want to read because she was struggling. I had discovered my child’s first learning crisis and it broke my heart.
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A Life of Apartments (Part Three)
By George Capsis Part Three concludes this walk down memory lane and looks to the future. If you missed Part One or Part Two, you can find them at http://westviewnews.org/2015/04/a-life-of-apartments-part-one and http://westviewnews.org/2015/07/a-life-of-apartments-part-two/ The Depression stretched a very long time—from 1929 all the way up and into the War. In that 15-year period, prices stayed
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They Want You Out by any Means Necessary!
Dear George: Rent regulated tenants (mostly seniors) suffer anxiety every time the rent laws are set to expire. These tenants should be able to enjoy their apartment instead of having to worry it will be deregulated out from under them. At this time of their life, they’re on fixed incomes that don’t
