The Hudson Square rezoning currently before the City Council presents a rare case where a win-win is possible. Done right, the outcome could please everyone — developers and community groups, residents and businesses. Unfortunately, the rezoning plan also presents the possibility of a lose-lose for the community. One person will decide which of these outcomes we get [...]

BY FURY YOUNG  |  I’m a bus organizer for 350.org’s Forward on Climate rally. I’ve been on board with the protest for months now. “Why is it important to protest climate change?” you might ask me. Because I feel it’s my civic duty as an earthling. Whether or not you believe in global warming, it’s [...]

BY ANDREW BERMAN  |  The mantra from the New York University administration throughout the public approval process for the school’s massive expansion proposal was “We’re making our plans transparent and predictable.” Even if you didn’t like the university’s overwhelming proposal, its argument went, at least you knew exactly what it was planning. Apparently, the N.Y.U. [...]

Photo by Clayton Patterson From left, Enrique Cruz, Orlando Rodriguez and Javier Rodriguez hope to get a liquor license for their new restaurant on Rivington St.   V TALKING POINT BY CLAYTON PATTERSON  |  Manhattan is a small island. Starting in the early 1980s the Lower East Side began to be discovered as valuable property. [...]

BY TED RALL  | We don’t have the right to be sad. We don’t have the right to be angry. We don’t have the right to care about the 20 dead kids, much less the six dead adults or the one deranged shooter. American newspapers don’t have the right to pretend that we are a nation stricken [...]

BY MADELYN WILS  |  The change of the calendar always serves as an appropriate time to reflect and learn from the past, and by doing so, best prepare for the future. There is little doubt that 2012 was a momentous year for the Hudson River Park, and what made 2012 truly different was the enormity [...]

BY FRAN LUCK  | Many do not know yet that the Lower East Side/East Village is about to lose another one of its authentic, signature spaces to gentrification — the uniquely wonderful Whole Earth Bakery at 130 St. Mark’s Place, between First Ave. and Avenue A. Peter Silvestri, the warm-hearted owner and creator of this unique [...]

BY SARAH FERGUSON  |  I want to call this column “Kill Santa!” but I won’t in respect for the slain innocents of Newtown, Connecticut. But seriously folks: We need to ban SantaCon. This erstwhile Festivus of WTF holiday cheer has morphed into an urban menace that darn near traumatized my 4-year-old son and his two [...]

BY REVEREND DONNA SCHAPER  |  I know I overuse metaphors; I link the unlinkable. But how else to write about invisible, odorless gas on its way from sources unknown to destinations unnamed — or how else to fathom passions and decisions that are beyond logic? As a pastor, I sometimes am called to do marriage [...]