The Voice of the West Village WestView News VOLUME 17, NUMBER 1 JANUARY 2021 $2.00 2020—The Return of the Depression? By George Capsis apartment construction in Manhattan came to a dead stop; you can easily tell pre- If you go online right now you can find half Depression apartment buildings—they are a dozen articles on the precipitous drop English Tudor. (English Tudor was con- in the New York City real-estate market sidered the rich man’s style.) Those on brought about by the pandemic. In reading the west side of Washington Square are them I encounter terms that are very famil- perhaps the largest and fanciest examples iar to me, which I discovered when apart- we have in the Village. In the very largest ment-hunting with my mother during the is the residence of the president of NYU. depths of the Depression. The bulk of the five story tenements that Now, when Dusty drives me up Sixth undulate over the five-borough landscape Avenue past the RCA building in which of the city were designed in what might be I worked for RCA a half-century ago, I called Renaissance architectural style, with am disconcerted to see the streets nearly heavy sheet metal roof cornices and large empty of office workers or even tourists. keystone heads over some of the windows— Yesterday I read that owners of the empty architecture you can find in Florence or office towers are thinking of converting Rome. I used to think this was due to the in- them into apartment buildings! Photo credit: Library of Congress. When the Depression hit, in 1929, all continued on page 18 Working to Save West Village Restaurants at saverestaurants.com/take-action/ who wrote to us in time was Laurence Edel- signed primarily for delivery and take out. However, it was pretty clear, even be- man, Chef and Co-owner of Left Bank, on Having Poulet Sans Tete well established fore the stimulus package was passed, that Greenwich Street, whose response we are by March 2020, when the shut-downs were it was not going to begin to cover the fi- happy to be able to include herewith: implemented city wide, enabled us to keep nancial needs of our area's bars and restau- Since 2011, our unspoken motto at Left our restaurant open, let us keep a portion rants. Which is why—since they are such Bank has been: "We never close." That is, we of our staff employed, and gave us a small a vital part of our neighborhood—we felt never close because we've been compelled to revenue stream, enough to buy food, cover we needed to try to save them by coming close by some outside influence be it weather, payroll and taxes, and pay a percentage of up with some serious specific alternative financial burden, or God forbid—and some- our monthly rent obligation. At a very support systems closer to home. And why thing I could never have dreamed would be scary time in the city, when public health Caroline Benveniste and I wrote to local possible—political pressure. This energy had become something that we could no restaurants asking them for their input on drove us to build a business culture that could longer take for granted, when nearly every possible practical solutions by telling us: withstand extreme hardship, and in a sense, I small business, and big business, and every 1. How you've been managing to keep feel like we've been training for 2020 and the restaurant in the city had closed, we were your restaurant open so far pandemic, for the last ten years. quietly doing the work that we set out to 2. The financial burden involved Everything we do is guided by the prin- do; keeping our customers and neighbors LEFT BANK'S EMPTY BAR AREA following 3. How much longer you imagine you ciple that we want to be here for a long and friends fed, and keeping our working the December 14th shutdown. Photo by can keep going time. What little money there is to be made family as secure as were were able. Maggie Berkvist. 4. What solutions you would suggest in the restaurant business gets reinvested to None of this has been easy. I feel like to help this neighborhood's restau- bolster our chances for long term success. we've been reinventing the wheel every By Maggie Berkvist rants and bars stay afloat. To that end, a few years ago we launched week for the last nine months and we still Back in early December, a number of us signed There was one problem—the January is- a new product line called Poulet Sans Tete, don't have a working wheel. The feeling of a petition to Senators Schumer and Maloney sue was closing! And the only restaurateur which is a rotisserie chicken concept de- continued on page 13 City Winery Birds of 2020 Election Primer Reborn at Pier 57, City Finalists for the annual Information about the Winery has found a Millie Awards revealed. primary election coming to breathtaking new home. the West Village in June. SEE PAGE 17 SEE PAGE 26 SEE PAGE 28 SEE PAGE 8 2 WestView News January 2021 www.westviewnews.org WestView WestViews Published by WestView, Inc. by and for the residents of the Correspondence, Commentary, Corrections West Village. Publisher Small Business Owner major Democratic Primary election victories have a billion more people before the end Executive Editor Appreciates Support around the nation (like in Illinois in 1986) led of this millennium, century, decade, and George Capsis to the targeting of LaRouche by a combina- the vast majority, 80%, are going to have Managing Editor and Art Director It was such an amazing experience to have tion of Bush Family operators in the Depart- beautiful, darker skin. And they’re going Kim Plosia met Karilyn Prisco, who immediately sup- ment of Justice like William Weld, major to live short lives, short lives of sickness, Advertising Manager and Designer ported my small business at a local street news media, like NBC, the New York Times hunger, pain, ignorance, and violence, un- Stephanie Phelan bazaar on Bleecker and Carmine off 6th and the Washington Post, and Wall Street less we act radically. And these books have Traffic Manager Avenue that has been running for over weapons dealers like John Train, who hosted ideas. Some will work, some won’t work, Liza Whiting ten years. Most small businesses are strug- a meeting with major media representatives but they’re ideas. They can be “tested in the Photo Editor gling during this very intense pandemic to create a narrative based on the phrase “po- marketplace,” as we used to say. Darielle Smolian and these opportunities really encourage litical extremist Lyndon LaRouche.” “And the government came in with a false Photographers us all not to give up. Businesses all around Finally, in 1989, LaRouche was convicted bankruptcy claim, against a non-profit pub- Maggie Berkvist town have closed their shop's doors, and it on phony charges of “mail fraud,” and “con- lishing house, and shut ’em down! What’s Chris Manis, Bob Cooley makes me feel so blessed and humbled to spiracy” and sentenced to 15 years in pris- the First Amendment worth? “We’ll silence Associate Editors still be pushing through, amidst the odds on. About a dozen of his associates were you, you’ll have no books out there.” Justin Matthews, Anne Olshansky in New York City 2020. also railroaded into prison, with exemplary Ramsey Clark also warned that if the Comptroller As a small business owner, with a staff draconian sentences (77 years for Michael LaRouche case were allowed to stand, that Jolanta Meckauskaite of talented women, I want to send holiday Billington, 86 years for Rochelle Ascher) in it would set a precedent of injustice which Architecture Editor cheer from all of us at MaisonLuxeBeaute. order to terrify others into pleading guilty would haunt the United States for genera- Brian Pape We are a beauty brand that features very and destroying LaRouche’s movement. tions to come. That is now clear with the Business Editor special handmade products that are relat- Enter Ramsey Clark cases of whistle-blowers and journalists Caroline Benveniste able, realistic and reusable over time. It turned out that this political witch like Ed Snowden and Julian Assange, who Fashion Director My niece Hermonie, who is my VP Sales hunt had been noticed by former U.S. At- may die in a British prison for his “crime” Karilyn Prisco & Marketing, is a future medical student who torney General Ramsey Clark, who became of telling the truth about war crimes com- Music and Eldercare Editor received a full scholarship to college. This was LaRouche’s attorney on the appeal. Clark mitted by Anglo-American governments.. Hannah Reimann also very exciting news for her as well. wrote in a 1995 letter to then-Attorney If the American people would like to be Science and LGBTQ Editor It feels so grand to go to the newsstand General Janet Reno, about the LaRouche allowed the simple right of making our own Kambiz Shekdar, PhD and be able to pick up some copies to share case, “I bring this matter to you directly, be- decisions, and not herded into wild conspir- Regular Contributors with my family and friends over the 2020 cause I believe it involves a broader range acy theories about Russia and China hack- J. Taylor Basker, Barry Benepe, holiday season. of deliberate and systematic misconduct and ing elections and everything else, in pre-war Caroline Benveniste, John Gilman, Again, thank you Karilyn for noticing abuse of power over a longer period of time propaganda, and if we like to stop being Mark.