By Eric Uhlfelder It seems that every time I cover this most remarkable bicycle event for WestView News, the weather gods conspire to tell me: do something else. It rained, sometimes biblically, the entire day. But there are too many unique parts to this ride to stay safely tucked away at home out of the rain—like
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Maggie B’s Quick Clicks
Top row, L to R: The New Me, Outraged, Girl Power. Bottom Row, L to R: Follow My Lead, And Baby Makes Three, Ferguson is Everywhere. CONGRATULATIONS MAGGIE B! The Lucie Foundation is a nonprofit organization, based in Los Angeles, whose three-tiered mission is to honor master photographers, discover and cultivate emerging talent, and promote the
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75 Morton School Update
By Mar Fitzgerald On June 26th the students of MS 297 will mark the close of the first year in their forever home at 75 Morton Street. Due to construction delays, the inaugural class of 160 sixth-graders spent their first year of middle school co-located with the Clinton School for Writers and Artists on 15th
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Jefferson Market Library Gets ADA Rehab
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP The venerable Jefferson Market Library, inside the former Third Judicial District Courthouse building (ca. 1874-77), is getting an extensive ADA rehab. Since November 27, 1967 the building has served as the Jefferson Market Library—saved from the demolition ball by community preservation activists, and remodeled by architect Giorgio Cavaglieri. As
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Suzanne Poli Classic Photo
On a hot June Pride day in 2005, Suzanne Poli captured this infamous roller-skating pair, renowned for their dramatic and colorful flair, posing with their favorite companion. Miss Columbia (l.), the beloved drag queen from Queens died last October and was widely mourned and celebrated. Her swirling antics, as well as Rollerina’s, became part of the fabric of the annual half-century Pride March
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Summer Senior Space: West 13th Street Alliance Promotes Community, Health and Fun
By The West 13th Street Alliance The West 13th Street Alliance announces a unique pilot program for July/August 2019 for neighborhood seniors, elders, old hippies (or whatever folks want to call themselves!), to enjoy an array of activities at The Church of the Village, The Integral Yoga Institute, and Lenox Health Greenwich Village, all founding
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I.M. Pei’s New York Legacy
By Ananth Robert Sampathkumar, Partner–NDNY Architecture + Design Ieoh Ming Pei, the famed New York based Chinese-American Modernist Architect, died last month, at the young age of 102. During his illustrious architectural career, he designed a vast array of iconic buildings around the world including the Grand Louvre Modernization in Paris and the John F.
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Beth Israel News
By Penny Mintz It is hard to pry information from Mt. Sinai. On Wednesday, May 15, 2019, members of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel met, for the second consecutive month, in front of the main entrance to Beth Israel Hospital. The CCSBI wants to see the restoration of the hospital services, that were
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Lenox Hill Hospital Plan Includes Park Avenue Condo
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP Superstorm Sandy hit Manhattan hard in 2012, two days before Halloween. East River hospitals were crippled, transferring patients to other facilities. But transportation was hit too, so commuters mostly stayed home from their hospital jobs. My West Village home was at the edge of the flooding and without power,
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Gansevoort Peninsula Conundrum
By Brian J Pape, AIA, LEED-AP The Hudson River Park Trust (HRPT) has completed 72% of the entire park construction which started over 20 years ago, and is now designing the 5.5-acre Gansevoort Peninsula directly across from the Whitney Museum of American Art on Gansevoort Street. The design process will include several more workshops this
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9/11 Tiles for America
By Dusty Berke The 9/11 Tiles for America is the only grass-roots tribute to the tragic events of 9/11 that remains in the West Village on the corner where it first began. It was created by Lorrie Veassey, the owner of Our Name is Mud, a local paint-your-own pottery shop, as a way to brighten
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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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Pharma to Farm: Pharmacy to Farm Prescriptions Program
By Ede Rothaus A “Win, Win, Win.” How many times do we hear of—well—anything that actually matches that description? (Anything that meets that criteria?) Good news! A new program created by New York City’s Department of Health does. And people taking medication for high blood pressure, farmers at Greenmarkets in all five boroughs, and local
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De Blasio to Village and Chelsea: Drop Dead!
By Arthur Schwartz Just before WestView went to press, Mayor Bill de Blasio dropped a bombshell on us: 14th Street is going to be closed to cars starting in June and they will be directed to go across town on 12th, 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th Streets. Without a single community leader or elected
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Greenwich Village Staple Collaborates with NYC’s Music Venue Darlings to Feature Emerging Artists
See them Up-Close and Personal thanks to the New York Presenters Consortium A staple of the downtown new music scene since 2015, the Uncharted Concert Series at Greenwich House Music School (GHMS) has emerged as one of New York’s most exciting and unpredictable live concert series, and it’s right here in Greenwich Village. This year
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Alert: Mad Anti-Immigrant Paint-Thrower on the Loose in the Village
In March on Washington Street near Westbeth someone threw red paint over the sign in my car rear window that said “Welcome Refugees and Immigrants—Arab-American Center, Brooklyn.” In January, same street, someone threw white paint over my Bernie Sanders Bumper Sticker. In December in Westbeth someone slashed the poster on my door with a picture of
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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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City Council Takes Legal Action Against Two Bridges Proposal
By Brian J. Pape, AIA In the Two Bridges area of the Lower East Side, a collection of five new residential towers are planned to include over 3,000 apartments, with retail stores at the base of each project, with 700 affordable units in the mix. However, in December 2018, City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, Manhattan
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DOT Finally Comes to the Table!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz Flash: After nearly a year of refusing to have face to face negotiations with the 14th Street Coalition, which has led the Greenwich Village Community response to plans to shut 14th Street down to all but buses during the now cancelled L Train shutdown, the NYC Department of Transportation (DOT) leadership
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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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Why I Am Supporting Bernie—Again
By Arthur Z. Schwartz On a cold Saturday, the first weekend in March, I trekked out to Brooklyn College to attend Bernie Sanders’ announcement that he was running for President in 2020. I had been Bernie’s NY State Counsel in 2016 and had attended the Democratic Convention as a Sanders’ pledged delegate, but I wondered
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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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Brooklyn Hero of the Poor Now Speaks for All
By George Capsis Oh wow! Jumaane Williams won as Public Advocate and we interviewed him a few weeks ago as he sat in “my reading the New York Times chair” in our kitchen conference room at 69 Charles Street. We did not exactly endorse him as attorney Arthur Schwartz did, but asked him questions mostly
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Welcome Jumaane Williams!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz As we go to press, Jumaane Williams, of Brooklyn, is being installed as the City’s fourth Public Advocate. Besides chairing City Council meetings, the Public Advocate has rather undefined powers—but largely, it is the position of public ombudsman. Jumaane is an activist, a fighter, and an effective legislator (53 bills passed
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Diller Island Update
At last year’s State of the State, Cuomo allocated $50 million in funds for the waterfront park, which has been under segment-by-segment construction for more than two decades, and this year he is kicking in $23 million more to help finish it. As WestView reported in 2016, it will cost taxpayers $40 million to build two
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Remembrances of The Lost Village: Doris Deither the fighter
By Roger Paradiso Starting October 19th with THE LOST VILLAGE premiere at the legendary Cinema Village Theaters, we did community panel discussions after each screening. Sponsored by WestView News, we ended up doing 8 panels in that first week. But none was more memorable than the night Doris Deither came to visit. She has been
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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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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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L Train—14th Street Project Update and Aftermath
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, LEED-AP After months of valiant and sustained efforts to save their neighborhoods from an ill-advised MTA/DOT scheme for an L Train shutdown planned to start April 2019, local citizens persuaded Governor Cuomo to seek a 3rd opinion from engineers. Engineers recommended alternate plans, which do not require full shut-downs. Since
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Jefferson Market Library Offers Environmental Justice Course
Mark your calendars and sign up for the new (free) Environmental Justice and Community Action course brought to you by Jefferson Market Library University Programs of the New York City Public Library. Registration opens to the public on January 29 at 10:00 am and closes on February 11 at 8:00 pm. Students may register online, in person
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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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Don’t Just Sit There, Resist – Part IX: Impeach, Indict, or Both?
By Alec Pruchnicki The road to impeachment is clear. A combination of public scandals, congressional investigations, and Mueller findings will result in a long list of potentially impeachable offenses; the House will impeach; and the Senate will either develop a backbone and decide on the evidence whether or not President Trump should be removed, or
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Mayor de Blasio Waves His Baton Over New York City
By J. Taylor Basker At Symphony Space, punctuated by cadences of applause, our Mayor revealed his new orchestration of the citizens of NYC. In his sixth State of the City speech, Bill de Blasio promised New Yorkers a better life. NYC should be a model for the rest of the country that is descending into
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The Nicest Jewel Thief Drops In…
By George Capsis Carol Yost sent an article from the Post about an international jewel thief who lived, until he was arrested on October 24th, in a “$10 million dollar townhouse on West 4th Street.” Wait—West 4th is just up the corner from 69 Charles; so I e-mail our photographer, Joel, to take a picture
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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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Paving the West Village: A Historical Primer
By Tom Lamia Something odd is happening in the West Village and other long-neglected areas of our city. New life is coming into throwback street paving and its importance to economic development. After decades of neglect for the old technologies, urban street paving is becoming a hot topic among politicians and urban planners. Historic New
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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
