The Greening of the West Village: THE GREEN PIER
March 2010
PIER 40 THIS SPRING? The Hudson River Park Advisory Board is holding a meeting at Village Community School on March 22 to follow up on the community’s interest to establish the first indoor/outdoor year-round Green Market in New York.
Opening the Beach at Bleecker Playground
Kids can’t seem to get enough of playing in the sand. They love jumping in it, tunneling holes through it, and just feeling it slip between their fingers and toes. Parents can sit their babies and toddlers down in the sandbox and know they will occupy themselves for long stretches of time, playing and experimenting, [...]
Full StoryNews in Brief
On April 9, the New York State Legislature approved a budget that includes $21 million in capital funding for Hudson River Park. This appropriation, which will be matched by a like amount from New York City, will significantly advance the progress of construction on the waterfront park. The new pool of $42 million will allow [...]
Full StoryAmerican Masters Fine Art Show at the Salmagundi Club
The venerable Salmagundi Club is hosting a blockbuster art exhibition and sale that runs through May 7. The show features over 50 of America’s finest representational artists from Clyde Aspevig to John Stobart. This landmark sale is a benefit, with the proceeds going to restore the main gallery area of Club’s grand Fifth Avenue brownstone.
The [...]
Why Lafayette? PART 1
September 2007 marked the 250thbirthday of the Marquis de Lafayette. The New-York Historical Society is presenting “French Founding Father: Lafayette’s Return to Washington’s America” through August 10. In a two-part article, F. Seidenbaum explores Lafayette’s remarkable contributions to American history. This first highlights Lafayette’s crucial role in the American Revolution. The second, which will appear [...]
Full StorySpeaker Quinn Chided by Council members for Leading Sheep to the Slaughter
April 18, 2008
I report on the past four days’ events in the burgeoning scandal involving City Council budget lines allocated to fictitious entities, and fund transfers from those accounts to organizations whose officers stole the city money they received. It may be slow going to read, but it adds up to a situation that requires [...]
Pier 40 Questionnaire Results as of March 30, 2008
Based on 242 responses (online survey and paper ballots)
Ranked in order of preference, here is what all 242 West View survey respondents want to see on Pier 40 (ranked on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 indicating highest preference for that use on the pier). These numbers include the results that appeared in [...]
Neighborhood and NYPD Honor Fallen Auxiliary Officers
On the night of March 14, 2007, the air was alive with the sounds of gunfire and screaming police sirens.
On that tragic night, a crazed gunman shot and killed Alfredo Romero Morales, who worked at DeMarco’s Restaurant on Houston Street, and went on to murder Auxiliary Police Officers Nicholas Pekearo and Eugene Marshalik, who were [...]
New School Plans Enormous New “Signature Building” on Fifth Avenue Between 13th and 14th Streets
On March 13th, the New School gave a public presentation of their plans for a new “signature building,” which would become the centerpiece of their downtown campus, on Fifth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, replacing their current three-story Albert List building. The building proposal is part of an ambitious plan by the New School [...]
Full StoryLeave the Gun. Take the Cannoli.
Italian-American Actors Despair at Reinforcing a Stereotype They Hate
Last month, I received an e-mail invitation to a press preview of “Beyond Wiseguys: Italian Americans and the Movies.” Still in a wheelchair with an ankle in a cast, I appropriately called an old Italian-American friend to drive me to the Tribeca screening, where we discovered a [...]
HRPT Hands off Pier 40 Solution to Rich Sports Parents
Given 90 Days to Develop Funding Plan With Only Remaining RFP Contender
At the March 27 board meeting, HRPT Chair Diana Taylor read a statement reportedly drafted by a recently retained $7500-a-month PR firm expressing “the need to take action as soon as possible” to end Pier 40’s deterioration before it leads to “the ultimate loss [...]
6th Precinct Welcomes New Commanding Officer
He was born in the West Village at St. Vincent’s Hospital, and now he’s back as the new Commanding Officer of the 6th Precinct.
On January 24th, Captain Raymond Caroli took over the reins from Deputy Inspector Theresa Shortell, who is now with NYPD Special Victims Unit. He had been the Executive Officer of the 6th [...]
PETS IN OUR LIVES
Profile of Lynn Pacifico: Founder of The Dog Owners’ Action Committee
Lynn Pacifico, a resident of the Far West Village for 35 years, became an activist 15 years ago when the city’s Walker Field on Leroy Street was officially closed to dogs. At the time there were no plans to provide dog owners with another area.
When [...]
In the Neighborhood
Royale Cards and Gifts
177 West 4th Street at Jones Street
Norman Morel bought this long-established card store on West 4th Street thirteen years ago. The friendly Montreal native, who had been working various jobs in New York City, says he always wanted his own shop. Norman expanded the merchandise selection to include gifts, joke items, baby [...]
PRO-RELATED ARTICLE APPEARS IN CRAIN’S
Marc Ameruso, the head of the HRPT advisory board, called it “suspicious” that shortly after HRPT retained a $7,500 a month PR agency, the Marino Group, articles in favor of the Related Companies’ proposal for Pier 40 appeared in the Times, the Post and Crain’s New York Business.
Reprinted here is the article that appeared in [...]
Poetry Corner
West Villagers Celebrate National Poetry Month
Of the many revered poets who lived, loved and worked in our neighborhood, Edna St. Vincent Millay may be the most closely associated with the Village and its Bohemian lifestyle in the 1920s. She was the first woman ever to win the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, which she received in [...]
Dick Sebastian bio
WestView is delighted to introduce our new cartoonist, Dick Sebastian. Dick practiced oral-maxillofacial surgery for thirty-one years. After retiring, he and his wife Susie and their three dogs moved from their small farm in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to the West Village. They said, “Our friends thought we were crazy, but for us, it was the [...]
Full StoryThe Caring Community Promotes Safety for Seniors
The Caring Community (TCC) has served older adults in the Greenwich Village community for more than 35 years and is the largest private non-profit agency serving seniors in Greenwich Village and Lower Manhattan. TCC operates four Senior Centers, which are located at 20 Washington Square North, 212-777-3555; First Presbyterian Church (12th Street and Fifth Ave), [...]
Full StoryThe New York World’s Fair Legacy
The 1964-65 New York World’s Fair opened on April 22, 1964. Although it was only in operation for two six-month seasons, closing on October 17, 1965, the fair continues to capture the imagination. Surviving landmarks of the fair have appeared on television and in movies: the Unisphere is seen in the opening of credits of [...]
Full StoryEdward Albee Celebrates His 80th Birthday in the West Village’s Cherry Lane Theatre
What was meant to be the second night of previews for Edward Albee’s “The Sandbox” and “American Dream” at the Cherry Lane Theatre on Commerce Street turned into an intimate evening with Albee himself. The two plays are running through the end of April. Previews were cancelled because one of the actors was sick and [...]
Full StoryLetters to WestView April 2008
LETTERS TO WESTVIEW
Dear Publisher:
Although I may agree with your opinion that only rich people should not be negotiating on our behalf, this does not forgive you the journalistic crime of creating false facts by omission. It may be true that the three dads you cite have children in private schools. But rich dad Rich Caccappolo, [...]
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Pier 40, at W. Houston St., could be a great, big, fifteen-and-a-half acre, three-tiered, spectacular complex that could, for the next half-century, enrich West Village lives and even provide hundreds... Full Story
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