Volume 79, Number 5 | July 8 - 14, 2009
West and East Village, Chelsea, Soho, Noho, Little Italy, Chinatown and Lower East Side, Since 1933

Flashback

No buses, no nukes; More lights

The July 9, 1959, issue of The Villager reported on the start of a 90-day trial of rerouting buses out of Washington Square Park. If the trial was deemed successful, the front-page article stated, “the legal machinery for putting the final stamp of approval on the permanent closing of Washington Square Park to traffic will automatically be set in motion.”

In the same issue, an article, “Civic Leaders to Study St. Lighting,” reported on an effort to make the Village safer by adding more streetlights. Anthony Dapolito, chairman of the Borough President’s Greenwich Village Community Planning Board — the precursor to today’s Community Board 2 — was among the local leaders who would be doing a tour to inspect lighting conditions.

“‘Sane’ Speakers on Sidewalk Stump” described how Reverend Curtis Crawford, chairperson of the Village chapter of the Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy, held forth — standing atop a wine box, not a soap box — at Eighth and MacDougal Sts.

Crawford urged people to sign an open letter calling on Congressmember John Lindsay “to lead the fight in Congress against the U.S. agreement to supply Germany and five other NATO countries with nuclear weapons systems.” Looking to be in his 20s, Crawford was a member of the Serious Liberal (Non-denominational) Church, which met in the Circle in the Square Theater.

Compiled by Lincoln Anderson