Business | The Village View

The Album and the Garage

There is a postcard on the table in my Bank Street studio. The Detroit Publishing Company printed it in 1912 and it shows a sea horse at the New York Aquarium ─ back when it was at Castle Garden. Walk south along the Hudson River Greenway from the end of this street and you arrive at the spot. The building is still standing, back under its older name, Castle Clinton. You can buy Statue of Liberty ferry tickets inside it now. I also have a 1920s postcard of the Statue. That one became a scarf.

Lavagna: An East Village Italian Restaurant

Last month Kelly and I headed east to find some good, but affordable Italian food for my son’s 39th birthday. We not only found an affordable place, we found a gem, well worth a walk across to 5th Street between A and B.

Housing Expert Condemns City’s “Affordable Housing” Plans

Housing expert Ron Shiffman condemned the current “affordable housing” agenda as a “Trojan horse” benefiting real estate developers, a stealth strategy that actually results in luxury condos, higher rents, and displacement of low-income renters.

Farewell to the SoHo REI

As the sun set one Thursday evening in late July, the SoHo REI shut its doors for the last time. Its passing did not go unremarked ─ hundreds of New Yorkers stopped by a makeshift shrine near the entrance of the store, which had peered out of the bottom floors of the iconic Puck Building for more than 15 years.

Raffetto’s, 120 Years Young

What are some fun facts about this pasta shop? They have had a pasta machine that cuts noodles (“the guillotine”) since 1916. The have had same phone number since 1920.

No Picnic: Phil Hartman’s Long-Lost East Village

Recently, I had a conversation with Hartman at his Two Boots Pizza in the West Village. This conversation has been condensed and edited for length and clarity.

Former Bayview Correctional Facility Transformation

Construction is officially underway to transform the former Bayview Correctional Facility at 550 West 20th Street into the Chelsea Beacon, a new mixed use building. COOKFOX Architects’ design includes housing, an interior courtyard and a 9,300-square-foot community facility with youth-oriented programming.