July 7, 2017

Hell in the West Village of NYC

Suzan Mazur has lived in the West Village since the 1970s. Now things are changing fast

Suzan Muzur, Huffington Post - The West Village (population 34,000) has long been one of the most creative and historic parts of New York, its 19th and early 20th century residential townhouses, carriage houses and worker row houses protected city landmarks. Fifty blocks constitute the historic district. Of “outstanding universal value” are the streets particularly in and around Bedford, Barrow, Morton and Cherry Lane, which need further protection if they are to remain habitable. Indeed, they deserve World Heritage Site status.

Instead, the West Village is plagued by mini-earthquakes from a subway system way too fast for the buildings above it. Its narrow streets are being ripped to shreds daily (for the next two years, I’m advised) to replace apparently aging water, gas and electric lines as well as to lay-in fiber optics. But will the patient survive the fracturing and gouging of streets; the Bobcats and Caterpillars careening unannounced through roads designed for travel by horse and buggy; the half-a-block-long trailer trucks and freezer truck deliveries; and the deafening municipal sirens that can be heard half-way across the Hudson River?

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