After 29 years of dedicated cheerful superintendent service at 71 W. 12th St., Pedro Rivera is retiring. The W. 12th St. Block Association and residents wish him a long happy retirement. Photo by Marguerite Martin.
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Why Am I Running?
BECAUSE OUR CITY NEEDS VISION By Arthur Schwartz Our City is a mess! Our Community is a mess! WestView readers for the past ten years have read hundreds of articles I have written about problems facing our community and work being done to make our community better. In fact, for 30 years I have been
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Release from Jerusalem Prison Inspires Bestseller
By J. Taylor Basker Long time peace activist, Frank Romano, was released from prison in Jerusalem last year, where he was held on two felony charges: one interfering with Israeli government activity, and another for pushing a policeman. In prison he suffered physical as well as psychological injuries. He was expelled from Israel/Palestine and forbidden
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Crowdfunding Campaign Update: A Reward Greater Than Cash
A Message from George Capsis The pandemic became real to me when the Northwell medical complex on Seventh Avenue attached a truck to their building to discreetly remove the bodies of virus victims. How it would financially impact the paper became very real when a leading real estate firm sent a polite letter backing out
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The Sixth Precinct Builds the Block
By Karen Rempel On August 13th, the 6th Precinct of the NYPD held a “Build the Block” community discussion at the AIDS Memorial Park at West 12th Street and Greenwich Avenue. About 40 masked neighbors attended, including half a dozen folks from WestView News, to speak with a handful of NYPD Neighbor Coordination Officers (NCOs).
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“Whose Post Office? Our Post Office!”
Jacqui Taylor Basker, leading a group of approximately 40 West Village residents, shouted this and other chants outside the Hudson Street station at a rally in support of the USPS, and against recent moves made by Postmaster Louis DeJoy. DeJoy’s actions have received bipartisan concern, and many have seen the changes implemented as an attempt by the Trump administration to
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God’s Love We Deliver
By David Ludwigson, Vice President & Chief Development Officer God’s Love We Deliver began in 1985 at the height of the AIDS pandemic. What began with one woman, Ganga Stone, delivering one meal to a man dying of AIDS has grown to an organization of thousands of people cooking and home-delivering more than 2.3 million
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The State of Our Health Care and Hospitals: Carlina Rivera Calls for Change
By Penny Mintz These days the security of our health care should be a top priority. In light of the present economy it is also clear that our health-insurance system cannot be married to employment. Millions of people lost their jobs and their insurance as a result of the pandemic, and that puts all of
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Manhattan’s Vacancy Rate Soars
How Long Will It Be Before Renters Return? By Anthony Paradiso Just days before the WestView News September deadline, I realized I could write about the decrease in residential rents. How would I be able to get quotes? I started calling the real estate agencies that operate in the West Village and telling them I
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Veteran State Assembly Member Faces Newbie Challenger
By Frank Quinn Deborah Glick, the veteran Democratic state assembly member representing District 66, which includes Greenwich Village, Soho, and Tribeca, is facing a challenger in the upcoming November election. Tamara Lashchyk, a longtime local resident, is the Republican candidate seeking the assembly seat Ms. Glick has held for nearly 30 years. Ms. Lashchyk agreed
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The Ghost of Professional Journalism
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP When I bought the former home of Walter Williams in 2000, totally unaware of its illustrious past, the purchase changed my life. Williams built his Federalist-style brick home in 1917 during his years as the founding Dean of the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri in
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The Pines and BLM
By Russell Saray Our doorman opened our plywood-covered front door at 299 West 12th Street. The car service idled at 5:00 am. Low flying helicopters drowned out the chirping birds in Abingdon Square across from the building. The curfew prevented us from leaving any earlier. I worried we wouldn’t make the 6:45 am ferry to
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2020 Village Awardee: Village Apothecary
By Ariel Kates Each year, Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation honors the invaluable people, businesses, and organizations that make a special contribution to our neighborhoods at our Annual Meeting and Village Awards. On June 17th, 2020 we celebrated Village Apothecary as one of our outstanding awardees. In 1983, Michael Konnon—pharmacist, businessman, activist, and community
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July 2020 Community Events from the West 13th Street Alliance
By Birgitte Philippides-Delaney and Chandra/Jo Sgammato The West 13th Street Alliance is grateful to continue serving our neighborhood and beyond during the COVID-19 pandemic with Virtual Community Events in the month of July. Local residents, whether at home in New York, or far away, have enthusiastically participated in our events over Zoom during these past
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His Name is John
By John F. Early Many out-of-town visitors to the West Village, as well as locals, have seen the young man who usually sits on the sidewalk in front of the CVS on Sheridan Square. Tanned from homelessness rather than, sadly, the Hamptons, John is personable and charming nevertheless. He and I have been chatting for months. In
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Reboot 2.0
By Keith Michael It’s the afternoon of the longest day of the year: Saturday, June 20th, the summer solstice. With me safely typing at my computer, Millie has declared that she is off-duty: corgi-flat to the floor, eyes closed, ears back, nose to the corner. This is distinctly different than her various seemingly feng shui-inspired
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
THERE’VE BEEN SOME CHANGES MADE: SOME SAD – like the many, many West Villagers we’re losing SOME HAPPY – like the re-opening of the playground AND SOME … a mixed blessing perhaps?? All photos by Maggie Berkvist.
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The Village Vanguard Reopens Virtually with Live Streaming
By Karen Rempel One of the things I have missed the most during the NYC Pause is going to the Village Vanguard to hear live jazz. After a time of retreat and adjustment, the Vanguard shook off its muffling slumber and resurged on June 13 with a most welcome performance by the Billy Hart Quartet.
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The Dark Side of ADA Litigation
By Samuel G. Dobre, Esq. and Mallory A. Campbell, Esq. Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits disability discrimination and ensures that disabled individuals have equal access to public accommodations. Some plaintiffs’ attorneys are abusing Title III’s admirable intent by “sticking up” businesses and lining their pockets rather than seeking to help
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Kushner Real Estate in the Village: Another Slumlord
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP You may have heard that Steve Croman, the notoriously abusive slumlord owner of many Village apartments, is back at work as an ex-convict. He seems to be joined by another landlord organization of questionable reputation, the Charles Kushner family. According to Wikipedia: Kushner Companies LLC is an American real estate developer in
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A Vodka Bottle with an Important Political Message; Sex and the West Village; Her Shoes Could be Yours!
By Robert Kroll The fate of local community newspapers is, ultimately, in the hands of the reading public. When the public supports its local paper it thrives and the community benefits (and by support, I’m talking about subscribing). WestView News is a paper that is valuable to our part of New York: interesting, well written,
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God’s Love We Deliver: Proudly Making a Difference, One Meal at a Time, since 1985
By Emmett Findley, Director of Communications, God’s Love We Deliver God’s Love We Deliver was founded in 1985 at the height of a health crisis. The AIDS pandemic was forever changing the fabric of NYC, and many of our clients—homebound individuals living with HIV/AIDS—were living alone facing stigma, illness, and hunger. In those early years,
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The Plight of New Yorkers Who Have No Homes
By Carol F. Yost On May 12, 2020, an op-ed appeared in the Daily News with the title, “Why I Slept on the Subways: They Were a Safer Refuge for the Homeless the Public Holds in Contempt.” It was written by Denis Dugan, who identifies himself as a homeless man. One paragraph reads: “With too
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Feel the Power: Vote on June 23
By Penny Mintz There is a primary election coming up on June 23rd. For a while, it looked like the presidential primary was off—canceled by a decision of the New York State Board of Elections. But things changed when Andrew Yang, joined by more than a dozen intervening Bernie delegates and members of the New
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Suicide at 45 Christopher Street
I received an early call on Tuesday, May 18th, from an obviously alarmed elderly women who said a neighbor at 45 Christopher Street had committed suicide by jumping out of a rear window of the tall apartment house. The women who called lived near #45 and was alerted by the very early-morning appearance of police and an emergency vehicle.
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Michael Sorkin, Greenwich Village Creative, Dies
By Brian J Pape, AIA Michael David Sorkin, Greenwich Village author, teacher, humanist, and one of the most distinctive voices for social justice and sustainability in the design of the urban environment, died on March 26, 2020 after contracting COVID-19. Sorkin was considered to be one of architecture’s most outspoken public intellectuals, a world-class provocateur whose criticism
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Airports Are Petri Dishes for Virus
By J. Taylor Basker Two of my friends returned recently from countries embattled in the fight against the Coronavirus, but there was no health check of any sort when they got off their planes at Newark Airport. One was returning with his wife from a Fulbright in Israel, which has a large outbreak of Coronavirus due
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Flying Rome–NYC–Rome During the Crisis: My Personal Experience
By Mary Hudson I became aware of the dangerous new COVID-19 virus around the middle of February. The whole world was slowly gearing up to deal with it, including by restricting travel and requiring social distancing. However, it was imperative for me to fly back to New York from where I live in Italy. By departure date, it wasn’t
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Staying Emotionally Connected: Corey Johnson and Westbeth Artists
By J. Taylor Basker Despite Coronavirus isolation, attempts to prevent voting and misinformation for citizens, Democracy can still work! Residents at Westbeth Artists Housing held a personal meeting with their City Council representative Corey Johnson on April 7, via Zoom. They received important information and were able to ask questions about this stressful time. While
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Victoria Ann Ottomanelli
For Vicki, it was all about family Victoria Ann Ottomanelli, age 72, passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on March 26, 2020 after a 21-month-long battle with brain cancer. Vicki was born in the Bronx to the late William and Anna Fehrman and had been a resident in Staten Island since the early 1970’s.
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Craig Gilbert
Villager Craig Gilbert, a writer and producer, died last week. He was known for the “Dupont Show of the Week” (1961–1964), and “An American Family” (1973), a television series that documented the daily lives of the Loud family and made history as the first reality television show. Gilbert also produced “The American Parade” in 1974.
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Live Streaming from St. John’s in the Village
By Denise Marsa With all things chaotic, quiet and quarantined, St. John’s in the Village is teaming up with Musae and Denise Marsa Productions (DMP) to create an exciting and viable new platform for musicians to continue to bring their music and talent to audiences safely while keeping their distance and continuing to earn income.
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St. John’s in the Village & Invisible Hands: Helping Seniors Stay Home
Our new stay-at-home protocols given by the Governor of New York are for the protection of the elderly and those whose health is compromised. It is they who will suffer most if COVID-19 continues to spread, but everyone is involved in slowing the spread. It is seniors whose lives are, perhaps, most affected by the
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Death of a Hospital
By Nitin K Sethi, MD, MBBS, FAAN Former Chief Resident, Department of Neurology, Saint Vincent’s Hospital April 30th, 2010 dawned just like any other April day. As the sun rose along the eastern seaboard, Manhattan came to life with its golden rays. A healthy glow permeated all around. But not all its residents were blessed
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Research Fights COVID
By Alec Pruchnicki, MD Northwell Health Systems sent out press releases recently, concerning research they are doing to combat COVID. Before I discuss these projects, along with a few suggestions of my own, let me describe some of the issues involving medical research. All ethical research must be approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB)
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Neighbor Helps WestView!
In the true spirit of community, our neighbor, Sarah Jessica Parker, took time to promote our April 2020 issue on her Instagram account, with 6.1 million followers. During this unprecedented time, her endorsement was a boon to our paper, with website traffic increasing dramatically, resulting in more donations and subscriptions. These contributions to our struggling
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BREAKING NEWS—Hope: The situation in China seems to be improving
By Hannah Reimann WestView News was very fortunate to have Shen, a Chinese intern, on board with our team last Summer. Since his return to China in September, Shen and I have corresponded. I received the information below from him via email last night. We hadn’t communicated since before the pandemic broke out and I
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Wiggins In Love
By Michael Astor Guy Wiggins remembers the song that he and his wife Dorothy first danced to. It was Frank Sinatra’s “You Make Me Feel So Young.” “Nobody dances anymore. Back then, any time of the day, you just put on a record and danced. And that’s how you began to make love—one move led
