By Penny Mintz City Council Member Jumaane Williams, a Brooklyn Democrat running for lieutenant governor, spoke with Progressive Action of Lower Manhattan (PALM) members in late January. He presented progressive credentials quite impressively and answered questions about the threatened closing of Beth Israel Hospital’s main building at 1st Avenue and East 16th Street. But Williams
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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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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
A GREAT DAY FOR COREY, COREY JOHNSON THAT IS – when, on January 29th, he was sworn in as City Council Speaker by New York Senator Chuck Schumer at a festive Inauguration Ceremony in the Fashion Institute of Technology’s Morris W. and Fannie B. Haft Theater. And a very good time was had by all:
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Notes and Perspectives from Away: Talking Points
By Tom Lamia It’s been cold here in Maine, with overnight temperatures below zero. The pond behind my house has developed a thick layer of ice. It is ice fishing season, a time for true Mainers to get out of the house and enjoy food, drink, and good stories with friends while sitting in a
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My Birthday Message
By Arthur Z. Schwartz I turn 65 this month. I finally move to middle age. (Hey, I have 12 and 14-year-old daughters!) This is my birthday message. The world around us continues to be very disturbing. We have a president who not only has authoritarian tendencies, but also engages in common bullying, using his Twitter
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Jim Fouratt’s – Have You Heard?
February 2018 2018 is a critical year for electoral politics in our country and in our state. I want to talk to you about what can be done to change how politics are being played out in Washington, DC, the state, and the city. I will ask you, the reader, the same questions I have
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Kill the Zombie Park Already Part V: Well, Now It’s a Business
By Alec Pruchnicki “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”—Eric Hoffer The great cause of preventing housing on Elizabeth Street is slowly transforming into a business, although with nonprofit pretensions. On December 8, 2017, Council Member Margaret Chin’s office released an announcement that developers for the
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The Importance of an Impartial Health Care Needs Assessment
By Penny Mintz Newsday, the Long Island daily, ran a story on January 16th (entitled “Southside Hospital upgrades emergency room, creates more parking”) about a Northwell hospital in Bayshore that is expanding its emergency room five-fold and has been opening a new hospital unit every seven weeks for the last 18 months. Instead of enlarging
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Do We Really Need Newspapers?
By George Capsis You read in the diminishing number of newspapers about the death of these publications, even community newspapers like The Village Voice, which died after 62 years in business. Okay, as the Publisher of WestView, which is now in its 15th year, I wonder if we can keep this up. But maybe the more
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Keeping America Free
By Michel J. Faulkner The contempt for people with dark skin that slipped out of the mouth of our president caught the anger of every white liberal, but how did it make African Americans feel? I am one of them, and after a lifetime of hurt, I have a hardened, protective scar, and I am
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Give It Back, Chuck
By Cynthia Chaffee and Mary Ann Miller On January 18th, a frigid Thursday evening, the senior senator from New York, Chuck Schumer, was feted by the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) at a $1,200 per plate dinner. This all took place at the Midtown Hilton Hotel on 6th Avenue and 53rd Street. While
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Can St. Veronica Become a Permanent Concert Hall?
By Carol Yost The beautiful St. Veronica Church, at 149 Christopher Street, is now a former Catholic church that (it is hoped) can become a permanent concert hall, which would offer free admission to seniors. Its exterior is landmarked but, as explained by Andrew Berman of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, its interior
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The Role of the City Council
The New York City Council, which dates back to the Dutch colonial days, has the important role of counterbalancing the power of the Mayor. It monitors the performance of City agencies and makes land use decisions. It also legislates on various other matters and has the sole responsibility of approving the City budget. Council members
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The Ghost of Robert Moses Stalks the Village
By Gary Tomei The planning process was secretive. After months upon months of sham public meetings in which community opinion was solicited, including constant discussions with officials from the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT), local public officials, and various “transportation experts,” we in the Village were handed an unanticipated bombshell. Disregarding the opinions
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Welcome to 2018
By Arthur Z. Schwartz 2017 was a horrific year. Trump took office on January 20th, and within 11 days, I had a heart attack! (This is true, but I am joking about the correlation.) He took office on that date and made sure the world would never be the same again. I don’t like writing
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Net Neutrality in the West Village
By W. Russell Neuman ‘Net neutrality,’ whatever that might mean, sure sounds like a reasonable idea. It’s got to be better than whatever the alternative could be. Let’s see: Net Narrow-Mindedness? Verizon Villainy? Time Warner Turpitude? You’ve seen headlines with the phrase ‘net neutrality.’ Perhaps you have heard further that net neutrality is an Obama-era
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A Declaration for Independence
By Tom Lamia “Greed is good!” is a memorable line from the movie Wall Street. Not long after the movie finished its run, the financial condition of most Americans, and of the country at large, was significantly worsened by what appeared to be a greed-induced recession. There is an analogy here to the current state
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Jim Fouratt’s Have You Heard? JANUARY 2018
I am happy to say that there is some good news to report in the new year. Our district’s City Councilperson, Corey Johnson, according to all reports, will be elected the Speaker of the New York City Council by the time you read this column. The role that Melissa Mark-Viverito has played as Speaker of
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The Fight of Her Life
By Reverend Michel Faulkner Growing up in the Bronx as the fourth youngest of 11 children wasn’t easy. When Vicky was three, she and her brothers and sisters almost died due to neglect and were removed from their mother. They were placed in foster care until she was 10. “The hardest thing about this was
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Corey Johnson Could Be Chuck Schumer!
Oh wow! The Times keeps calling Corey Johnson, the new Speaker of the City Council, the second-most powerful man in City government. I asked Erik Bottcher, Corey’s Chief of Staff, “How come?” and this is what I got… Like the federal government, city government is divided between the ‘executive’ (the Mayor) and the ‘legislative’ (the
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A City Law to Save Newspapers
By George Capsis OH WOW! I got a notice that a Queens City Councilman, Rory Lancman, was coming to the Village for a public meeting with Corey Johnson to propose that the City develop a plan to subsidize community newspapers and keep them alive. But I got the date wrong and missed the meeting!!! I
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Memory As a Bureaucratic Tool
When Corey Johnson was first running for City Council, he came to 69 Charles Street and asked if WestView would support him. I explained that we did not support candidates but that he could write an article expressing his views. He did just that and then, to our surprise, his mother and aunt showed up.
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What Do You Want Corey to Do?
By George Capsis What does it mean for the readers of WestView that 35-year-old Corey Johnson will, on January 4th, become the Speaker of the New York City Council, letting slide through his guiding fingers a City budget of $86 billion? He will be the second-most powerful man in City government. What do we really need
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What Do You Think of Governor Cuomo?
By Arthur Z. Schwartz As 2017 draws to a close, a year when most WestView readers have held their breath every time there was a word out of Donald Trump’s mouth, it is time to assess the political scene in 2018, and what it means to us here in the Village and West Village. Notice,
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Notes and Perspectives from Away: Can Democrats Prove Will Rogers Wrong?
By Tom Lamia What concerns me today is the failure of Democrats to organize effectively to win elections. Will Rogers had it right. When asked if he was a member of an organized political party, he replied, “No, I am a Democrat.” Democrats are tired of the dysfunction within their party. Tired of corruption and
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Jim Fouratt’s Have You Heard? DECEMBER 2017
Well kudos to WestView Publisher George Capsis for believing that St. Veronica’s on Christopher Street, which had been closed by the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, could be converted into a community concert hall. WestView sponsored a classical music concert at St. Veronica’s on Saturday, November 25th and
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Jefferson Market University: Radical Immigrants in America
By Frank Collerius The Jefferson Market Library is pleased to announce its next free course in December: a discussion of radical immigrants in 19th century America. The professor, Pam Nogales, is an American History Ph.D. Candidate at New York University. Her research focuses on radical political thought in the United States over the course of
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Will You Write for the West View News?
Greetings! We are starting a new monthly column, “BLOCK NEWS,” in which you can talk to the residents on your block and the rest of the West Village about your block. Sure, talk about the issues that only concern your block but also air concerns that affect the whole Village, from graffiti to traffic. Let
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Not Only in Our Backyard
Dear Editors: Due to the intense development pressure many New York neighborhoods are facing, residents are beginning to understand the importance of working together across neighborhood lines. At a recent City Council hearing on proposed plans for the development of East Harlem, residents made many eloquent comments, including the formidable Gale Brewer, Manhattan Borough President
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Fliedner for DA? Write On!
This month, it was reported that Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. chose not to prosecute Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump, Jr. for fraud when he had the chance in 2012. Similarly, Vance declined to bring sexual abuse charges against the now-disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in 2015, even though he had an audiotape of
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Why I am Running Against Cyrus Vance
By Marc Fliedner The social media-driven movement for my write-in candidacy was born when several urgent concerns about the sorry state of the Manhattan criminal justice system blew up all at once: (1) the failure to provide women with genuine agency when subjected to sexual assault; (2) the ability of the wealthy, privileged, and connected
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NYCHA Lives Matter
By Reverend Michel J. Faulkner Eighty years ago, Mayor Fiorello H. LaGuardia established the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) to provide a way out of poverty and create a brighter future for the poorest New Yorkers and their children. Until a generation or two ago, NYCHA families spawned City workers, doctors, lawyers, and teachers;
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Cage-Free in Washington Square Park
By Stanley Wlodyka The larger-than-life silver birdcage would block the path through the Washington Square Arch if not for the two refugees cut out from the frame. It’s no wonder that Chinese artist Ai Weiwei made the Washington Square Arch—an iconic symbol of New York City—a centerpiece of his Good Fences Make Good Neighbors installation
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Challenging the Incumbent
By Evan Roth Smith Christopher Marte’s incredible and unlikely challenge to two-term incumbent Council Member Margaret Chin has been fueled by determined grassroots opposition to the overdevelopment of historic neighborhoods in Lower Manhattan, especially the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Two Bridges, and Little Italy. In the rest of District 1, Marte’s supporters in SoHo, Tribeca,
