WestView

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 [...]

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, [...]

How I Married a Rent Controlled Apartment

By George Capsis
My wife Andromache (Maggie) claims that I married her for her heated, rent-controlled apartment.
I was living in a cold-water flat (no heat) on Ninth Ave., which I shared with two other guys. Our rent was $15 a month which made my share $5.
Maggie’s one bedroom was $62.50 a month. Our landlord, [...]

One if by Land, Two if by Sea … and Three it Really Tastes Good

By David Porat
One if by Land, Two if by Sea is not a new restaurant any way that you look at it. Existing and surviving in the West Village for decades, three to be exact, in a carriage house that has been there for centuries, 2.4 to be exact, yet the food to my [...]

Editor to English Teacher via Costa Rica

By Gay Bryant
Last month, I wrote a report on one of my career-change adventures: moving on from my career as a New York magazine editor, I did an intensive month’s training in Costa Rica learning to be an English language teacher.
It was a great experience, and I am now the proud holder of an ESOL [...]

Gone but Not Forgotten

by Maggie Berkvist
Early on, the New York street peddler’s lot was not a happy one. Continually fighting hostility and harassment just to stay in business, for decades the pushcart operators were compelled by law to keep moving. But in June of 1924 the city finally granted them licenses to have stationary stands and for [...]

Local and Independent: Three Lives & Company Caters to Customers, Survives Big-box Onslaught

By Nancy Matsumoto
In 2001, as they approached their twenty-third year as owners of the West Village literary beacon Three Lives & Company, owners Jill Dunbar and Jenny Feder began thinking about retirement. Eastern Long Island beckoned, but who could take over their bookshop? They wanted someone who understood the store’s spirit, someone they could trust [...]

Master and Commander: The Legacy of Admiral Sir Peter Warren

By Catherine Revland
The lush farmland around the hamlet of Greenwich was the eighteenth-century version of the Hamptons, a favorite refuge from the polluted streets and frequent epidemics of smallpox and yellow fever that plagued the residents of Old New York. Our neighborhood was first popularized by Peter Warren, a native of Warrenstown, Ireland, and a [...]

YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD OFFICE — offering 19 services “and much more! Just ask!”

By Barbara Chacour
It was a delight to talk to owner Helen Ann Lally about the business she founded 16 years ago but a bit challenging to write the interview, since about 50 per cent of what she said was off the record. It was not because customers of her original business, mail boxes, often [...]

World Peace? Look Inside

By Swami Ramananda
Around the world, and especially here in Greenwich Village, many people are committed to social change. While most of us are not in a position to eradicate poverty, fight terrorism or negotiate peace, we are all responsible for our own little corner of this planet. The significance of what each person can do [...]

Taka Kigawa Piano

[ January 28, 2010; 8:00 pm; ] Date: Thursday, January 28th, 2010, at 8:00 p.m. (doors open at 7:00 p.m.)
Venue: (le) Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker St. (bet. Sullivan & Thompson Sts.) New York, NY 10012
Phone: 212 505 3474, Subway: A, C, E, B, D, F, V to W 4th St
Tickets: $20, available at www.lprnyc.com, or call 866 55 TICKETS

Debussy: Preludes, Book II
Brian [...]

2nd Annual Greenwich Village Chelsea Chamber of Commerce Village Jazz Alive

[ February 10, 2010 6:00 pm to February 11, 2010 4:00 pm. ]

The Torch Club at NYU
18 Waverly Place
(between Mercer and Grand)
6:30 - 7:15 PM VIP Cocktail Reception
7:15 - 8:00 PM Cocktail Reception Opens to General Admission
8:15 - 10:00 PM Concert (2 Sets)
Featuring - multi-Grammy nominated drummer and
percussionist Bobby Sanabria and his hot Latin quartet
Posthumously honoring Art D’Lugoff with the
Village Music Legends Award
$100 Chamber [...]

West Village Original: Danny Bensusan

Danny Bensusan has been running the Blue Note on West Third Street since 1981.This month’s West Village Original is Israeli-born Danny Bensusan who opened The Blue Note on West Third Street in 1981. Featuring such jazz greats as Sarah Vaughan, Carmen McRae, Tony Bennett, and Billy Eckstine as well as a host of younger artists, [...]

Cover Story

By Joan McAllister
Years ago a New York Times reporter working on a story about family homelessness visited a Bronx family shelter and bumped into my “distributor,” an incorrigible jokester whose name was Renita.
I should explain: I publish a newsletter for homeless families in New York City, and years ago when the shelter system wasn’t quite [...]

What We Would Really Like On Pier 40

In our December issue we offered 13 hard questions posed by the only two members of the Hudson River Park Trust board of directors who actually live in our community, Pam Fredericks and Paul Ullman. Pam and Paul wanted to know what we West Villagers were willing to tolerate in the way of Pier 40 uses and traffic making it possible for the board to sign a lease with a developer who would provide the $150 million needed to replace the corroding steel piles and seal the leaking roof.