By Catherine Revland On March 14th, the lecture room at the National Arts Club on Gramercy Park South was packed with artists, attorneys, curators, art dealers, critics, and historians to hear a discussion about the Visual Artists Rights Act (VARA).The speakers were Federal District Court Judge Frederic Block (who spoke to the broader subject of
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Lawsuit Filed to Stop L Train Shutdown
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Ever since discussion of the L Train Shutdown, scheduled for April 2019, began, people affected have felt run over by the Government, be it the MTA, which is in charge of the subway part, or the NYC Department of Transportation, which is in charge of the street configurations above-ground. We in
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How Cynthia Can Become Governor
By George Capsis “There is a beautiful young lady out here who wants to see you— do you want to talk to a beautiful young lady?” called my wife Andromache (Maggie) from the hallway on her way to put out the garbage. I shouted back that I was always interested in talking to a beautiful
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From TAKI 123 to High Art: The 5Pointz Decision (Part 1)
By Catherine Revland Last month, when the art world learned that Federal District Court Judge Frederic Block had awarded maximum damages totaling $6.7 million to 21 aerosol artists whose work had been destroyed by a developer, the response was laudatory: “This will change perceptions of an art form for generations to come;” “A milestone for
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Ramsey Clark at 90: America’s Most Liberal Attorney General and Veteran West Villager (Part 1)
“The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.”—Ramsey Clark By Bruce Poli Ask me why I live in the West Village, and I might say, “Because people like Ramsey Clark live here.” Considered one of America’s most liberal Attorney Generals, Ramsey Clark, who served in the Department of Justice during the
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Dr. Davis, We Need Frankness Not PR
By George Capsis I had an “Oh, wow!” moment when I read in the February 5th Villager article that Mount Sinai is “…‘leaning toward’ building an extra four floors atop its [newly proposed] mini-hospital…” This building would wrap around the shabby gray New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai at 14th Street and
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Preparing for Parish Closures and Mergers in New York City
What is remarkable about the following article, written by Jamie L. Manson in the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), “Preparing for Parish Closures and Mergers in New York City,” is the publication date—January 29, 2014—because the article could have been written this morning. Manson’s article is about the closing of Catholic churches in New York and
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Music I Grew Up With… and Starting A-Fresh:
A Primer for the February Concert at St. Veronica By Michael Feldman When I was a young lad, just getting my feet wet in the enormous repertoire of classical music, I recall my first expedition to the Sam Goody record shop. (Was it on 49th Street?) To this day, I remember the recordings I picked
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God at the Drafting Board
By George Capsis If God sat down at the drafting board to design a perfect solution for seniors now living alone in a five-story walk-up, with an ancient dog that has to go four times a day, what would He come up with? He would have a nice, fresh-faced youngster offer a strong arm to
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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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We Need Our Own Andrew Carnegie
By George Capsis On December 23rd, WestView gave another concert, our second at St. Veronica. Despite the rain, you came and again in great numbers and filled all the seats in the main sanctuary. Some had to again climb into the balcony—a full house! There is no doubt now that superb classical music played by
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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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Only 15 Minutes of Your Time
By Catherine Revland His name is fairly common, so I’ll just call him Gene P. He was on the list of go-see’s from the booker at my first modeling agency. I was in my twenties then, a fledgling model/actress from the Midwest, new to the Big City and incredibly naive. The booker, an aging Twiggy
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John Capsis, Greek Journalist and Politician, Dies
By Pantelis Kapsis John Capsis, who passed away on Monday, November 13th, was a notable journalist and politician. He was born in 1929, into a family of journalists. During the 1967 military junta in Greece, Capsis was sent to prison for his “controversial” ideas and writings. After the fall of the junta, he became the
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An Act of Faith
By George Capsis “Nobody will come. Nobody.” I could visualize this scattering of puzzled attendees in the vast pews of St. Veronica’s which can seat as many as 750. “It will be a disaster,” I thought, “A disaster.” When I arrived, the first notes of that disaster sounded. Our ad for the concert listed ‘7:00
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A Little More of St. Vincent’s Returns: Northwell opens new ambulatory surgery center.
By George Capsis I first heard the Limerick accent of Michael J. Dowling four years ago as he stood on the stage of P.S. 41 where my wife and I had sent our three kids, and where I had been the President of the PTA. Dowling was trying to reassure a packed auditorium that the
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Music at St. Veronica’s Receives Praise and Funding
By George Capsis “It is a magnificent idea,” offered one West Villager with a check for $100 for the first concert of Music at St. Veronica’s on Saturday, November 25th at 7:00 p.m. “Dear folks: You are wonderful and brilliant and WE LOVE YOU!” was followed by a check for $50. Another letter stated, “As
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Barry Diller Asks Me to Print His Words
By George Capsis Below, I have included my (slightly revised) email exchanges with Valerie Combs—the Senior Vice President and Head of Communications at IAC—between October 25th and 27th. These emails conveyed my attempts to meet Barry Diller in person. Hi George, I run communications for IAC, and wanted to get this to you on
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Diller Island is Dead
By George Capsis At 7:00 a.m. on September 22nd, I came out of the shower to a ringing phone and stood, still dripping, as Westview contributor Barbara Chacour announced with exhilaration, “Diller Island is Dead.” These were the very words printed on the front page of the New York Times article by Charles V. Bagli
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Rally Demands—No Beth Israel Shutdown
By Arthur Z. Schwartz The fight to keep Beth Israel open took a major step forward on September 24th. Over 100 neighbors gathered outside the hospital to demand that it cease shutting down, that services be restored, and that nothing more be done without a thorough government review of the potential consequences of a shut
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Your Own Concert Hall
By George Capsis You, and only you, reading these words, can have and give to others a 120-year-old marble-clad Gothic hall in which to hear the great music of the past and allow others to hear it for the next century or more… You can do that by attending the first concert at the Church
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Lawsuit Filed – Stop Beth Israel Closure!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz On August 30, 2017, as promised, a lawsuit was filed to block the further closure of Beth Israel Hospital, and to restore the services already cut. The lawsuit, titled George Capsis et al v. Howard Zucker as Commissioner of the N.Y. State Department of Health, addresses the ruse pursuant to which
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Will We Get St. Veronica’s?
By George Capsis As I waited for a ham sandwich at an outside table at Eric’s Restaurant on Hudson Street, I became aware of a gray-haired (and as I confirmed later) Irish-American lady walking towards me, trying to figure out if I was indeed the ‘George of WestView’. “Are you George?” she asked, followed by,
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The Happy Marriage of Pier 40 and Pier 55
Michael Sorkin is My Doppelganger If I could have convinced myself to do the math, I might have become an architect and, if I had, I would now be Michael Sorkin. I mean, he does exactly what I find myself doing—telling NYU how to better expand its campus and badgering Barry Diller to make his
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We Get a Concert Hall
By George Capsis Oh wow! In the 15 years I have been producing WestView, we have never received such heartfelt support for an idea we proposed as we have for converting the now locked St. Veronica’s Church into a concert hall for classical music—including a plea from a locked-out parishioner. We sent an elaborate proposal
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Bureaucrats Should Not Practice Medicine
By George Capsis I have macular degeneration in my right eye and became aware that my eyesight was getting worse. I started to condition myself to accept it as one of the penalties of old age but my eye doctor said, “No, you have a bit of debris from the insertion of an artificial lens
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Notes and Perspectives from Away: Summer in Maine
By Tom Lamia In a sweeping gesture of nature (and with a mass exodus from cities) summer comes to Maine. It brings euphoria, like the last day of school in fifth grade: There is no limit to tomorrow and no interest in yesterday. One day in early June, it is cold, wet, gray, and generally
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The Closure of Beth Israel Will Be Stopped
By Arthur Z. Schwartz June 11th marked a really sad day for those of us who live downtown. On that date, Beth Israel Hospital closed its Center for Labor and Birth. Life is funny. The Catheterization Lab doctors at Beth Israel saved my life in January, when I got wheeled in with a heart attack.
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The Times Reads WestView
By George Capsis Oh wow! The day after WestView’s June issue came out with the front-page article (“The Ego Fight for Diller Island”) about the now years-long ego clash between Wall Street tough guy Steve Novogratz and staid developer Douglas Durst to control and shape the Hudson River Park, Charles Bagli of the Times released
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Musical Resurrection of St. Veronica’s Church
By George Capsis On June 25th, the New York Catholic Archdiocese changed the locks and closed the 115-year-old St. Veronica’s Church on Christopher Street (just opposite the Archive Building) to the very few who still tried to attend the continually diminishing religious services. Another church has been lost to the ever- waning call of traditional
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The Ego Fight for Diller Island
By George Capsis In a recent two-part article by Lincoln Anderson, the now years’ long ego tussle to control the development of the Hudson River Park was traced, culminating in the now locked-horns court battle to stop Pier 55, also known as Diller Island. As we go to press, an appeal by the U.S. Army
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MoMA Lost My Art
By Martica Sawin In 1979, MoMA curator Kynaston McShine was walking along SoHo’s West Broadway when he noticed a display of exquisitely-decorated artificial cakes in the window of the Holly Solomon Gallery. He tracked down the artist, Pat Lasch, and commissioned her to create a monumental cake for the Museum’s 50th anniversary celebration. Lasch, at
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The Landlords Wrote the Laws. Schneiderman Wants to Change Them.
By George Capsis “Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is giving a press conference on tenant harassment and you gotta go,” demanded Nelly Godfrey who lost her Christopher Street restaurant to Steve Croman—the West Village landlord who is now facing prison time and is easily vying for the number one spot as “The Worst Landlord in New
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Billionaire Landlord to Pay $500K to Berks
By Arthur Z. Schwartz After nearly 25 years of litigation, which included a 1996 judgment against the owners of 95 Christopher Street worth over $100,000, and 16 separate holdover and non-payment petitions, peace has finally come for 93-year-old Ruth Berk (for whom I serve as a court-appointed guardian) and her daughter Jessica. After a three-day
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It Takes a Village: Meet Amy Smith, Sexual Assault Care Champion (Extraordinaire)
By Nicole Ferris “I knew what was in store the day I married a super hero,” says Mr. Smith, while driving his wife into Manhattan at 3:00 a.m. to attend to a West Village patient who had just been sexually assaulted. His words are genuine and accurate. Amy Smith is an exceptional human being. She
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The Self-Deception of Wealth
By George Capsis On that glorious morning, when we savored the first Trump defeat, I read what could be—THE court order that might, at last, sink Diller Island. Oh joy! The story goes that Diller Island began more than two years ago with an invitation from budget-strapped Madelyn Wils, who heads the Hudson River Park
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Secretly Dismantling Our Health Care
By Arthur Z. Schwartz As regular WestView readers know, on January 28th I experienced, first-hand, the reasons why we need a hospital downtown, not only Beth Israel, but another one on the West Side. On that morning, my life was spared because, while in the midst of a heart attack, I was able to reach
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A Tale of Two Exhibitions: An Afternoon of Art Without Leaving the Neighborhood
By Martica Sawin The first Whitney Biennial in the new Gansevoort Street building focuses on contemporary political and social concerns. The spacious galleries are well suited to the installations, bulky sculptures, and viewing areas for video that dominate the exhibition. Four blocks to the south, an artist-generated exhibition, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” filled
