By Brian J. Pape, AIA The Walt Disney Company has presented quite a straightforward background building for its new New York headquarters at so-called 4 Hudson Square, aka 137 Varick Street. The design breaks up the massive potential of 1.2 million square feet into two towers—each with a 22-story height limit, over a shared 9-story
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How to Sell: Act as the Buyer
By George Capsis Every once in a while I get a young voice on the phone that wants to know if I want to buy a building or sell mine. I sympathetically offer them from my own youthful experience that there is nothing worse than doing a “cold call.” But recently I got a call
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Then&Now: The Weathermen Bombsite—18 West 11th Street
By Brian J Pape, AIA THEN: The Greek Revival townhouse at 18 West 11th Street was originally built in 1845, one of four houses on the block built by Henry Brevoort Jr. for his children. It was later (in the 1920s) the home of Charles Merrill (of Merrill Lynch), whose son, the poet James Merrill,
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A Public Housing Primer
The Housing Act of 1937 was intended to improve living conditions in cities and create quality public housing for low- and middle-income families. But after several iterations of the bill, two critical pieces were inserted. First, the Act passed with coverage for only the lowest income residents, due in part to fear that middle-income housing
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14th Street Busway—Neighbors Cringe
By Arthur Schwartz Polly Trottenberg, New York City’s most arrogant Department of Transportation Commissioner since Robert Moses, stood on 14th Street on the morning of October 4th and declared the Busway a total success. The Busway, which has turned 14th Street into an urban oddity, sees buses come through once every 10 minutes during rush
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Bleecker Street Newcomer Mademoiselle Mirabelle Negotiates Lower Rent
By Karen Rempel Mademoiselle Mirabelle might be a new kid on the block, but owner Nicole Nicholson is a veteran New York business operator. Six months after opening her Bleecker Street location, Nicole was having trouble making ends meet. Her Madison Avenue location has been a success for 30 years, but it takes time to
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Health, Wellness & Beauty
By Hannah Reimann Several stores in the West Village cater to shoppers like me who prefer to avoid toxic ingredients, to know what they’re putting on their skin and into their bodies, to be safe from contaminants, carcinogens and to protect their health. Since products in these stores tend to have a high price point,
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IN AND OUT
This month saw only one opening, a couple of closings and a couple of moves, with much of the activity centered around Asian spots. As usual, the fall will bring some anticipated openings. Open Omakase Room by Maaser 321 Bleecker Street between Christopher and Grove Streets A new omakase spot has opened on Bleecker Street
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Senior Shares for the Village
By Hannah Reimann According to the Institute on Aging, the number of seniors across the country will grow by more than 40 million, doubling between 2015 and 2050 and the population older than 85 will come close to tripling. By 2030, more than 28 states will witness a fifth of their populations being older than
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Google Lease Opposite Pier 40 Big Loss for Our Community
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Folks who follow Pier 40 doings may remember a few years back when there was great noise and cheering for the sale of air rights from Pier 40 to the new owners of the St. John’s Terminal, a gigantic multi-block commercial office space running from Spring Street to Clarkson Street opposite
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Yesterday’s Justice, Today’s Dilemma
By George Capsis Oh wow—it was only a week ago that Dusty heard a rumor that our garrulous head WestView distributor (and former seaman) was retiring to Florida and I thought, “Where does he get the money to retire to Florida on the peanuts I pay him?” And, bang, yesterday I heard he was not going
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Tenant Protection and Drastic Rent Drop Came Too Late for Cornelia Street Café
By Karen Rempel The New York State Senate Bill S6458, the “Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act of 2019,” came a few months too late to save the Cornelia Street Café. But at least the Café’s former landlord and its managing agent, the terrible duo Mark Scharfman and Mitchell Rothken, are hoist on their own
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Country Mouse, City Mouse
By Gordon Hughes One morning while sitting in my favorite coffee joint, Cafe Panino Mucho Gusto, I overheard a couple talking about Southern Chester County, Pennsylvania. Now that’s not something one is likely to hear about while sipping a cup of joe with a little skim milk here in the West Village. So ears perked
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Big Victory for All Tenants
By Arthur Z. Schwartz The plight of renters, both rent-regulated and non-regulated ones, has long been part of New York City lore—steep rent hikes, shoddy maintenance, fear of being blacklisted and evicted, and a general sense of powerlessness against a landlord who doesn’t care. The State Senate and Assembly’s landmark deal on New York’s rent
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IN AND OUT
This was a fairly quiet month, but after a long wait, it finally appears that some tenants are coming to the old St. Vincent’s site on 7th Avenue. A number of long-awaited openings have materialized this month, and a new pizza place has replaced a short-lived pizza place in the Meatpacking District. Open Top Openings
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West Village Bookstores
By Gordon Hughes It was about three years ago when I was visiting Marrakech… I was walking around the French Quarter and ran into a used bookstore/cafe. Now that was new to me. I had seen Brenton’s Book Store with coffee and soft drinks but I had never seen a French cafe with lattes, pastries
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IN AND OUT
This month we noticed a higher number of openings than during the colder months. A long-time Village bookstore returned, while another closed. Openings outnumbered closings on Bleecker Street, something that did not go unnoticed in a March 2019 article in The Commercial Observer which stated: “Bleecker Street retail has gone through several rapid changes in
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Pier 40: What to Do, Again
By Brian J. Pape To quote a beloved Yogi-ism: “It’s like déjà vu all over again.” At a heated Community Board 2 public hearing on April 18th, the CB2 response to elected officials’ request to change the Hudson River Park (HRP) Act of 1998 was discussed, specifically regarding possible legislation to allow development of commercial
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New Intergenerational Housing Ideas
By Brian J. Pape George Capsis asked me to please find the nonprofit company he saw in a TV presentation about “shared” apartments designed for unrelated individuals who are living collectively on either side of a shared kitchen and bath because this was like senior share apartments he wrote about in an earlier edition. A
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IN AND OUT
The title of this month’s In & Out could be “Delayed Gratification.” There were just two openings, a number of closings, but lots of projects in the works. There continues to be increased activity in the Bedford/Downing/Carmine area, and a couple of Korean restaurants are coming, replacing Do Hwa which closed last month. Open Chama
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Westbeth Announces Opening of Wait List After 12 Years
By J. Taylor Basker Westbeth Artists Housing, the largest artist housing community in the world with nearly 400 units, is located between Bethune and Bank Streets and Washington and West Streets in the former Bell Labs. It had closed its wait list in 2007 since there were many on the list, and the wait could
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Jackson Square Park Reopens After Extensive Renovation
By Michael D. Minichiello On April 2nd at 11:00 a.m., City Council Speaker Corey Johnson and others will preside over a newly renovated Jackson Square Park, the triangle formed by Horatio Street and Eighth and Greenwich Avenues. Among other events at the ceremony, three new pin oaks will be planted to join the older ones
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Hey Mt. Sinai: What’s the Plan?
By Penny Mintz At several public meetings in 2016 and 2017, Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel announced its plan to shutter Beth Israel Hospital and replace it with scattered out-patient services and a new 70-bed hospital in a two-story building on East 13th Street. It took steps toward this goal with the piecemeal closure of four hospital
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Rage, Rage Against Croman
By Cynthia Chaffee and Mary Ann Miller Whenever a New York restaurant closes, look under the nearest rock and you’ll usually find Steve Croman, the notorious landlord who just spent several months in jail—not at Rikers where he was supposed to go, but at the Manhattan correctional center, a.k.a. “The Tombs.” Add to the mix Eytan
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Eviction by Property Tax
DEATH AND TAXES—A cry of pain from George Capsis Neither can be avoided but one can offer considerable and protracted pain. So when I received a very well written plea for help from a neighbor who was facing an impossible-to- pay jump in real estate taxes to almost $51,000, I sent an e-mail to Chief
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City Council Announces Legal Action for Public Review of Two Bridges Proposal
By Brian J. Pape, AIA In the Two Bridges area of the Lower East Side, on the East River just north of the Manhattan Bridge, JDS, Extell, CIM, L+M, and the Starrett Group are planning five new residential towers. The collection of towers will include over 3,000 units, with retail spreading across the base of
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Villagers Speak as Cornelia Street Café Curtain Comes Down
Gone But Not Forgotten: A Tearful Farewell to a Venerated West Village Institution Bittersweet though it was, I’m deeply grateful for the experience of participating in one of the two final shows at Cornelia Street Café, whose legacy includes 41 years of presenting world class songwriters, spoken word, poetry, theatrical readings, storytelling, adventurous jazz, contemporary
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A Sad Farewell to Beloved Cornelia Street Café
by Karen Rempel On January 1, 2019, hundreds of patrons and performers from every decade of the Cornelia Street Café’s 41 years of creative explosion gathered for a final burst of celebration and communion. Many took the stage on the final evening, including the luminary award-winning recording artist Suzanne Vega. She sang “Tom’s Diner,” which
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The Strand Bookstore Landmarking Debate
By Carol Yost There has been a proposal to landmark some buildings near where the 14th Street Tech Hub is going to be. The Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation (GVSHP) would actually like to include far, far more buildings than the ones now under consideration. In any case, the threat of gentrification arising from the imminent
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IN AND OUT
January was a quiet month for openings and closings. One trend we observed was that a number of shops that opened in challenging locations closed just as quickly. Chelsea Market/Gansevoort Market Update Big Mozz took over the Very Fresh Noodles spot in Chelsea Market (Very Fresh Noodles moved in to the larger space vacated by
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More than a Coat of Paint and a New Stove
George, your statement, “My guess—her studio apartment with a coat of paint and a new stove would get $3,000” (“If Only God Had Money,” George Capsis, WestView News, January, 2019), was based on old business principles, but not accurate about housing. There are many things, worn out and practically worthless, that you could spiff up
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Then&Now: That Gay Street!
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP In the 17th Century Wouter van Twiller operated a brewery here before this tiny street was laid out in the early 19th Century. The first documented mention of Gay Street appeared in the Common Council minutes of April 23, 1827. Gay Street was widened in 1833. 1820s period houses
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City Council Proposes 18 Tenant Protection Regulations
By Carol Yost At long last, with a new Democratic majority in Albany, chances are better than ever to break the stranglehold the greedy landlords have held on our city. By hook AND by crook, saying they’re only trying to make an honest buck, they’ve managed to get laws that allow them to eliminate rent-regulated
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IN AND OUT
Open Top Openings: Encore 1 Little West 12th Street (between Gansevoort Street and Ninth Avenue) When I spoke to Harold Moore a few months ago about his just-opened French spot Bistro Pierre Lapin, he explained that French food had fallen from favor in New York but that recently it was making a comeback, following the
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Why Do Google and Hi-Tech Firms Expand in the Lower Westside?
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP For those who have lived or worked in our area, the answer is obvious; we love the charm, character, mish-mosh of building styles and sizes, and the crazy streets, like nowhere else in the city. But are we loving it to death? Landmarked properties and districts help some areas,
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City Planning Rolls Out Information Sites Called ZAP and POP
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Attending a training seminar in December at the relocated and remodeled Department of City Planning (DCP) offices at 120 Broadway, the infamous Equitable Insurance Building, one gets a sense of history and how the city has changed over the years. The DCP is the source for much information about
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Integral Yoga Natural Foods Closes Doors After 45 Years
By Sarah Dowson Recently hundreds of loyal natural-foods patrons were shocked and heartbroken to learn that Integral Yoga Natural Foods (“IYNF”), at 229 West 13th Street, had closed because of overwhelming competition in the changing retail landscape. IYNF sold organic fruits and vegetables, prepared foods, freshly juiced vegetables, as well as flour, grains, and spices
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Integral Yoga Natural Foods: Some Memories
Having finished my organic red kale the other day, I ambled over to Integral Yoga Natural Foods (“IYNF”) at 227 West 13th St. with the intention of buying another bunch to munch and maybe a few spices too. I felt devastated to see a sign on their door announced they were closing due to “overwhelming
