Today We Talk To George Capsis On How He Started The WestView News!

Interview by: Danielle Sevier

Produced by: Mike Persico

“Discover the visionary behind the thriving WestView News, George Capsis, whose passion, and commitment have shaped the publication for over two decades. As a dedicated advocate for the village, George Capsis fearlessly lends his voice to champion the causes and concerns of the community, utilizing the power of his esteemed newspaper as a catalyst for positive change.”

DS: Hi, I’m here with George Capsis, the owner of the notable WestView newspaper. I have in my hand the first copy of the WestView, printed 21 years ago. So, George, what inspired you to begin a newspaper?

GC: Well, at that time, I was the consultant to the United States Council for International Trade, and I was writing trade documents and my boss came up to me and said, you’re in your 70s, why don’t you retire? I have a cousin who needs your job. And so, I retired, and I like to write. I was not writing, so I decided to revive the Charles Street Newsletter. And I gave it that name because I thought I wanted it to spread beyond Charles Street. And I thought about the issues that were important to the people of the Village at that time, and we started to write about those, and that’s how it started.

DS: And in the 21 years that you’ve been printing this paper, what are you most proud of?

GC: I think without question, it started with my fight to restore a hospital.

DS: Yes, I remember that!

GC: And Dr. Kaufman was very active with the staff to try to save the hospital. When he finally lost the hospital to a condominium, he said to me, “George, can’t get a hospital. Get a CATH lab.” A CATH lab is laboratory that they take you to. If you have a heart attack, okay, you have 15 minutes to live, and they have there the operating equipment to get into your heart and save your life. And by sheer luck, I was downtown at the hearing on other issues having to do with medicine, and they got up to announce that the CATH lab had been approved.

DS: Very nice.

GC: And I got up and met with people from Northwell, and they put me in a photo with two doctors who are going to serve as surgeons in that CATH lab. So, it took, like, eight years, and that CATH lab is about to be opened, and I hope to be able to go over there and take another picture. That would be a proud moment.

DS: I imagine it will be.

GC: A newspaper is a great weapon because you’re able to state things clearly and you’re able to get support, and people believe what they read in newspapers. So, it just grew. And what’s amazing about the Village is that we have so many people like myself who have had long careers in business, in medicine, in all sorts of professions, and they think back over their careers, and when there’s an issue that they think they can bring something to, they do. And I’m amazed by the factual, introspective, and detailed articles that we get on subject after subject in this newspaper over 21 years.

DS: Amazing. And I think the key word there was factual. Since so much news these days is not, it’s nice to know that there is actually a printed paper where you can read factual news.

GC: The paper is written by the people who live in the West Village, and it’s mostly written by older people who had careers in what they write about. And no reporter can duplicate 30 years, 40 years of performing a function, whether it be a doctor or running a restaurant.

DS: Yes. So, what do you envision for the future of the paper?

GC: Well, I’m 95 years of age. I don’t expect to be running it much longer.

DS: What would you like your legacy to be?

GC: Well, I like my legacy to be what it is, that’s really important issues for the people of the West Village, articulated by people who know what they’re talking about. And I can only guess and hope that that’s going to happen. One of the last things I would like to happen is getting a hospital.

DS: That would be amazing.

GC: It’s very hard to do. But I was thinking just last week, oddly, the apartment building that was replacing St. Vincent’s Hospital is exactly the same shape and it has the same horizontal windows and one corner on the south corner of the building. They couldn’t rent the apartments, so they rented it to the hospital. We go to visit a doctor in that quadrant of the building. And so, I got the idea. Why not buy the building back, turn it into a hospital? You could do it doctor’s office by doctor’s office.

DS: Well, you have the Northwell across the street, so at least we kept that.

GC: Well, across the street is emergency facility. But unfortunately, if you have to have anything done, you have to go uptown to Yorkville to the hospital. And that hospital was originally constructed in a German neighborhood, and it was a German hospital. Communities build their own hospitals. We have lost ours. We need to get it back.

DS: Understood. Well, I hope you achieve that.

GC: Thank you.

DS: Thank you very much, George