WestView

A Rebirth of an Old Idea: How It Got to Where It Is

An Idea is Born
Greenmarket was hatched in the minds and hearts of Bob Lewis and myself two years before it opened. A confluence of forces led us in this direction. As urban planners we were alarmed at the rapid disappearance of fertile farm land in the region. In just 14 years, the mid Hudson region’s [...]

Following Public Outrage, Equinox Billboards Come Down But Swift City Action against Illegal Signs Is the Exception, Not the Rule

By Andrew Berman, Executive Director, Greenwich Village Society for
Historic Preservation
Shortly after Christmas, Equinox Fitness Center shocked its neighbors by erecting multi-story billboards covering both sides of its building at Greenwich Ave. and 12 St. The giant billboards were erected without any of the required permits from the Department of Buildings and the Landmarks Preservation [...]

Chianti – Not a Poor Relation

By Christian Botta
Chianti is a kind of stealth wine. It hides in plain sight, cloaked by its outdated reputation as a rustic, cheap bottle clad in straw. While its upscale cousins, Brunello di Mantalcino and the Super Tuscans, grab all the headlines, Chianti quietly goes about its business, satisfying wine lovers who want to put [...]

Using the Web for Your Pet

By Mark G. Burns, DVM
Veterinary Editor
In the last 12 to15 years, veterinarians have come to use and rely on several websites for medical searches, literature reviews, and interactive consults with their colleagues when confronted with challenging cases. These sites are often available by subscription, and only to for veterinarians. However, the internet has [...]

I Don’t Know Anything about Medicine but I Know What I Like

By James Lincoln Collier
I was beginning to wonder about old Doc Suture—his idea of a check-up was to look in one ear and if he didn’t see daylight, pronounce me fit—when he announced he was retiring. “You’ll like the new guy I’ve lined up. Smart as a whip. The advances they’ve made [...]

Tekserve: Making Apple Edible

By Scott Langer
The stark Bauhaus-like glass box Apple store on 14 St. and Ninth Ave. emits
an aura of uncompromising technical precision. As you enter you are met by
a smiling greeter who soliticiously asks your reason for entering what is,
most certainly, an orthodox Apple sanctuary. The vestibule of the Tekserve
shop is lined by a [...]

Semantics

By Barbara Riddle
It was something to do with words, how they could trip you up and confuse you if you weren’t careful. It was a night course my father was taking at New York University, and he was very excited about it. The main implication for me, a ninth grader, was that I [...]

“The White Ribbon”

By Adam Schartoff
The White Ribbon is the latest film directed by Michael Haneke, one of Europe’s most highly regarded directors. The film has already won the Palme D’Or at Cannes, an honor that has even impressed the typically nonplussed Haneke. As of this week the movie has also won the Golden Globe [...]

Disappointing Year in Albany

Fiscal Problems Unaddressed
Senate Squabbles for a Month
By Henry J. Stern
If one writes too frequently of shortcomings, one can get the reputation of a Cassandra, Eeyore, Chicken Little, or boy who cried “Wolf.” But what if the bearer of bad (or mediocre) tidings is accurate, like the soothsayer in Julius Caesar? Rule 29-T covers [...]

Science from Away: Cooperation

By Mark M. Green
Our bodies work using principles of cooperativity. How else could the trillions of cells we are made of work together for a common purpose to keep us alive and keep us on our chosen path? Much of the organic matter of which we are made comes in the form of polymers: proteins, [...]

Come High Water

FEMA Tells Coastal Villagers New Cost of Living
City Sets Hurricane Evacuation Zones, Shelters
By John Tebbel
WestView first received the news of the coming flood from our readers.
“The condo I’m involved with [on the corner of West St.] has just raised maintenance by 20 per cent. The reason: FEMA has just done a new 100-year flood risk [...]

Garbo and I

By Andrew Vélez
What had we shared? Three encounters. The first was in the mid-1960s when a festival of her movies was being shown at a theatre on 60 St. and Third Avenue. It was there that I saw Queen Christina for what was maybe the second time, but the first time in a [...]

The Beneficiaries of Inequity

By George Capsis
I had a call from a very well-spoken woman who wanted my address so she could send me a letter complaining about my reference to the “elderly” using the M8 bus. “Plenty of young people use it,” she asserted, and added that she uses it to go to work on 80th and [...]

AN OPEN LETTER TO: Chris Quinn

From WestView publisher George Capsis
Good morning Chris,
In this issue of WestView we have yet another article about a friendly neighborhood restaurant succumbing to high rent.
In this case, Neil Bender, the inheritor of the considerable collection of small neglected buildings nearly all replete with rent-regulated and even rent-controlled tenants appears to be insistent that Baby Buddha [...]

Letters

Dear WestView:
Fine article by Joan McAllister on “Unlocking the Homeless Cycle.” It’s an indication of the vast amount of sympathy Mayor Bloomberg has for the less advantaged that New York City now has 10,096 families in the shelter system (including more than16,000 children). Imagine how many others have nowhere to go in the bitter cold, [...]

We Are Being Used

MTA uses the press to stampede the legislature to restore proposed cuts
By George Capsis
In a January Times article on the announced service cuts by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, including our 8th Street crosstown bus, the M8, there was a hint that this might be a “political ploy”.
That sort of stuck in my head but I [...]

NYU Must Show Need, Impact at Park Site

NYU is seeking zoning variances to exempt its new proposed Spiritual Center from height and setback requirements. In spite of repeated requests that it set the top of the building back on narrow Thompson and W. Third Sts. to avoid overshadowing these low-scaled streets and the nearby landmarked Judson Memorial Church, NYU has refused. [...]

Ofrenda - A New Offering!

Ofrenda translates to “offering” and is associated with memories of ancestors. Ofrenda’s food is truer Mexican than the Texas variety. It does have nuance and some contemporary accents including more garlic and pomegranates. Enjoyed the Chayote Relleno, a starchy Mexican vegetable with a hint of cucumber, stuffed with cheese and spiced [...]

West Village Original: David Rothenberg

By Michael D. Minichiello
This month’s West Village Original is David Rothenberg, who has lived in the city since 1959 and in the West Village since 1964. While producing an Off-Broadway play about prison in 1967, he founded The Fortune Society, which supports successful re-entry into society for formerly incarcerated men and women. Today the Society [...]

Breathe Them in Slowly
Samuel Menashe was born in New York City in 1925 and has lived in the West Village since returning from Europe in 1951. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and, after infantry school in Fort Benning, Georgia, was sent to combat duty in Europe. He saw action in France, [...]