During my 30-odd years inhabiting New York City’s Greenwich Village, I’ve seen many things come and go.
Today’s Village buzzes, blasts, and bellows in every direction, change itself the only constant.
Once the province of printers, factories, piers, and the maritime trade, the Far West Village, from Varick to Greenwich, plays host to a looming Disney megaplex. Concrete office blocks, empty in the 1990s, are choked with condos offering wraparound frontage, their storefronts touting Botox (“Wrinkle Prevention Studio”), cosmetic dentistry (“secretly straighten your teeth”), and bootcamp gyms (“smash your fitness goals”). At Barrow Street stands the old film-noirish Keller Hotel, its Hopperesque HOTEL sign weathered by time and grime. Farther uptown, former slaughterhouse buildings host Apple and Google offices. The nearby Ear Inn, a classic watering hole and neighborhood haunt,…
