By Anastasia Kaliabakos Approximately 100,000 horses are transported annually across the United States border to be slaughtered for the sake of human consumption. People seeking to profit off of these magnificent animals cram them into crowded trucks without food or water—oftentimes for over 24 hours—to meet their demise in slaughterhouses, where many are gruesomely dismembered
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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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The Rise of ADA Litigation in New York
By Samuel G. Dobre, Esq. The need for a local online newspaper became dramatically evident last month when we got a call from the popular Sandwich Shoppe on Greenwich Avenue that they had been “served” with a nine page legal brief which explained in nearly undecipherable legal gobbledygook that they were not in compliance with
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NYC Helped Block President Trump’s Proposed Public Charge Rule Allocated $30 Million to Prevent the Spread of Fear
By Karen Rempel Since 2017, when President Trump took office and began trying to change US immigration policy, 78,000 New Yorkers who are eligible to receive food stamps or SNAP benefits left the program or didn’t enroll. A draft of a new “Public Charge” rule was leaked in February of 2018, and even though the
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Community Pharmacists Rally to Advocate for Patients Rights
By John Kaliabakos Hundreds of community pharmacists held rallies across New York State on October 23 to stand with Governor Cuomo and support legislation containing the nation’s toughest protections from prescription drug middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Village Apothecary was proud to stand alongside other independent pharmacies in the quest for fairness in
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Important Ballot Proposals—Vote November 5
By Arthur Schwartz Did you know that the polls were opened for voting on November 5 (and on our first five Early Voting Days, which have passed)? There are two important things on the ballot: We get to vote on giving Jumaane Williams the last two years on the normal four-year Public Advocate term. (Yes,
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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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Presidential Candidates Pledge to Cure AIDS
By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D. In a crowded 2020 presidential race, taking the lead on curing AIDS may offer candidates an opportunity to differentiate themselves and resonate with voters across multiple key demographics. More than 1.1 million LGBT, African-American, Latino and female Americans are living with HIV/AIDS today. Where does each candidate stand on curing AIDS?
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NYCHA in the Apartment Next Door
By George Capsis Below is an excellent history of U.S. public housing by our gifted Architecture Editor, Brian Pape. The article was prompted by the now year-long discussion here in New York to take government out of the building and maintaining of housing for the permanently poor and to invite developers via a competitive Request
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The Normalization of Gay
From Oppression to Legalization By Robert Heide In New York the “World Pride” month of June, 2019, was given over to celebrate gay life worldwide and the concept of freedom to be who we are—gay, straight, bisexual, and the trans categories of transvestite, transsexual, and transgender; and queer. Each day in June, walking out of
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Racism and Anti-Semitism are Existential Threats
We need to start having more awkward conversations before it gets worse By Arthur Schwartz Pittsburgh in 2018; another attack that year in Los Angeles; six months after Pittsburgh, a shooting in California. These are the latest acts of hate perpetrated against the Jewish community. They came only months before a shooting at an El
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Want Single Payer Healthcare in New York? Speak Up!
By Alec Pruchnicki, MD This isn’t a theoretical question. There is actually a bill in the New York State legislature sponsored by Assemblyman Richard Gottfried and Senator Gustavo Rivera called the New York Health Act. It would provide extensive universal medical coverage for all residents of New York State, eliminate almost all private medical insurance
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Update: 14th Street Busway: Court Allows DOT Busway for Now. The Fight Isn’t Over.
By Arthur Z. Schwartz In what has become a fight between the rights of Village and Chelsea residents against a callous, uncaring City bureaucracy, an appellate court on September 27 lifted a stay which has been in place since June 26. The lifting of the stay means that starting Thursday October 3 no cars or
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Long Island Fire Commissioners Call For 9/11 Review
For the first time ever, an elected government body in the United States has stated that it is “beyond any doubt” that explosives—and not just plane impacts and fires alone—were responsible for destroying the three World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001. Fire commissioners from the Franklin Square and Munson Fire District, located just
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“Wild West” Ad Culture on Facebook Targets Youth
IMAGES ON SOCIAL MEDIA POSTED BY THE SAN DIEGO LGBT COMMUNITY CENTER, @mxdavidmx and @darrow81. In a first of its kind, Facebook has been co-opted to advertise a pharmaceutical drug. Like Russian influence on the U.S. election, the use of social media targeted at vulnerable populations raises important questions. By Kambiz Shekdar, Ph.D.
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Why do Prescription Drugs Cost So Much in the U.S.?
By D. Cascardo, MA, MPA, CFP Although many Americans have insurance that covers most of the prescription drugs they take, many more do not have any insurance or have ridiculously high co-payments with the plans they do have. Those who need to take “brand name” drugs rather than generics, may find those drugs are not
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Abolishing the Senate
By James Lincoln Collier It hardly needs to be said that the United States government is today so riven by conflict that it can no longer function. Liberals are at war with conservatives, Republicans are at war with Democrats, the president is at war with everybody. In most parliamentary democracies the voters choose a legislature
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Landmark Preservation Today
By Brian J. Pape, AIA, Architecture Editor The loss of the original NYC Penn Station caused citizens here to focus on the importance of our monumental buildings and special historic homes being lost. But the movement to preserve special places grew. Economic and population pressures continued to threaten our historic fabric, from Plymouth Rock to
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Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel Applies for Drastic Changes
By Penny Mintz Mt. Sinai/Beth Israel filed an application with the State Department of Health on July 22nd, 2019. The application seeks approval for the relocation and construction of a replacement building for the Beth Israel Hospital on 16th Street and First Avenue. If this application is approved, the hospital, with an 800-bed capacity, will
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Polly’s Folly Will Be Adjudged This Month!
Disability Rights Lawsuit Against the MTA to Follow By Arthur Z. Schwartz I spent 24 years on Community Board 2. During those 24 years I interacted with numerous City and State Agencies (mostly the Parks Department and the Hudson River Park Trust), and I experienced the Community Board as a means by which the efforts
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WestView Instagrams the Issues of the Day
By Karen Rempel Last month we reported that WestView News has begun a video interview series in which George Capsis speaks with prominent cognoscenti about newsworthy subjects. We discovered that George is a natural TV maven, delivering compelling stories and coaxing his subjects to tell all. This month, WestView is pleased to announce we continue
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Captain O’Hare: PO Israel Torres Has Got to Leave the 6th Precinct!
By Arthur Z. Schwartz It isn’t often that I write about cases I lose, but this month I just must. During the third week of May I represented a former neighbor (whose privacy I will respect by calling him “J”) in a civil rights trial arising out of his arrest in 2014. The arrest was
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A Celebration of Pride: WorldPride NYC 2019 in the Village
By Karen Rempel Marchers and spectators from around the world brought a rainbow of color and sparkle to New York City on June 30 to celebrate and support each other at the 2019 LGBTQIA+ Pride March. NYC Pride was the official host of WorldPride NYC 2019 and Stonewall 50. These events meant unprecedented millions of people
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The Dignity of Work
By Siggy Raible I am retired now and have been for almost eight years. But when I worked I found what I did to “earn a living” dignified and fruitful—I managed my husband’s small law firm. We did not make a ton of money, but we earned our keep. I was floored by the news
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Climate Change Victories
By Tom O’Keefe New York State has witnessed two major climate victories in recent weeks. First, on May 15th, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation rejected the Williams Company’s proposed Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) pipeline which would have carried fracked gas under New York Harbor off the coast of the Rockaways to Long Island.
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Skullduggery
By Roberta Curley Growing older makes me hanker for an anesthetic. At 6 a.m. I spy a chubby crease wend its way from my lower-eyelid to my upper lip. In the past, those ‘sleep lines’ would have vanished by breakfast time. Neither coaxing nor scrubbing erases the propagating interlopers. These intrusive keepsakes operate like indelible
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We’ll See What Happens
By Tom Lamia With the late arrival of spring here in Maine, there are smiles, greetings and courteous conduct among all about me. The world is right again. Snow tires off, door and window screens on, lawn furniture and Weber barbecue laid out in a circle awaiting family and friends. What’s wrong with this picture?
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Request to Albany: Do the Right Thing
By Penny Mintz There was an exciting and promising development in Albany that bears directly on the Lower Manhattan community’s struggle to save Beth Israel Hospital. It may come to nothing this year, because the legislative session ends on June 19th. But as of this writing, there is still a possibility that both the State
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Lawsuit Stops DOT 14th Street Corridor Plan—For Now
By Arthur Z. Schwartz FLASH—Just as Westview was going to press, Supreme Court Justice Eileen Rakower granted a Temporary Restraining Order barring the NYC Department of Transportation from implementing its plan to bar all cars and vans , and most trucks from 14th Street, a move DOT says it wanted to make to “speed up
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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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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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The Shootings in San Diego, the Increase In Anti-Semitic Attacks, and My Soul
By Arthur Z. Schwartz On April 27, just as WestView went to press, there was a shooting/murder in a synagogue near San Diego. It was the second shooting in a synagogue within 6 months; last October there was a shooting/murder at a Pittsburgh synagogue. I am not a religious Jew, and I have learned to
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Pier 40 Public Forum
I’m speaking for Friends of the Earth, an environmental group with a 45 year history of work to stop over-development in the Hudson River from Battery Park City North to West 59th Street, New York water and land now controlled by Hudson River Park Trust authority (HRPT). The authority controls 60 acres of NY land
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Stop Privatization of Pier 40, Says CB2
By Bruce Trigg, MD A new generation of Robert Moses-style power brokers plan to privatize the last major public space in Lower Manhattan—if we let them. That’s right, they will push for last minute legislation in Albany to amend the Hudson River Park Act to permit the building of 700,000 square feet of commercial office
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A Tribute to Ralph David Abernathy and Martin Luther King Jr.
By Michael Duane Johnson Seven months ago, George Capsis, Publisher of the WestView News, in the Village of Manhattan, offered me an opportunity to write a piece for his paper about myself. I could not find the words or spirit until now to do so. I have no idea who I really am. For the
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Note to Mt. Sinai: We Care About Beth Israel
By Penny Mintz It seems that most people are completely unaware that Mt. Sinai intends to close the Beth Israel building on 16th Street and First Avenue. On the afternoon of Tuesday, April 16, 2019, four committed members of the Community Coalition to Save Beth Israel joined me at the corner of 16th Street and
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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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The New School: First Century
By George Capsis On the first sunny Saturday in April we sat down for sandwiches on a bench in front of the Café Panino Mucho Gusto (favored by the older crowd as a place to just sit and talk). A passing stranger looked down at me and asked, “WestView?” I responded, “Yes,” followed by his “Like your paper.” “Are
