For sixty years, the residents of Charles Street, in Greenwich Village, have known that if they're in trouble, or if they want to find some, the guy to call is their neighbor George Capsis. Capsis, who is ninety-five, with white hair and the annoyed bearing of a man whose waiter is taking too long, is the publisher of the monthly newspaper the West View News. West View's constituency skews old the types of neighborhood holdouts who might grumble that they moved to the Village for Dawn Powell and Balducci's and ended up with Marc Jacobs and "Sex and the City" bus tours. Over the years, the paper, which was founded in 2004 and has approached a circulation of twelve thousand, has fought against change in the neighborhood and its attendant problems: high rents, elder abuse, will tampering, greedy landlords.
It's also a juicy read. Subscribers will recall the times when Capsis recorded his habit of slapping public officials across the face. There was the cop who'd blocked the bike lane ("He personified the arrogance of arbitrary power"), the state senator at a rally against a hospital closure ("If you bring him here I'll hit him again"), and the intern working the rally ("To my astonishment, he began to cry like a girl"). In the manner of a small-town chronicler, Capsis refers to friends and villains in print by first name only. Lately, there have been a lot of villains. Capsis believes he has been the target of a succession plot, like Logan Roy without the Gulfstreams. Which is why readers have been hearing so much about Arthur.
Denne historien er fra March 20, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent ? Logg på
Denne historien er fra March 20, 2023-utgaven av The New Yorker.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
YULE RULES
“Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point.”
COLLISION COURSE
In Devika Rege’ first novel, India enters a troubling new era.
NEW CHAPTER
Is the twentieth-century novel a genre unto itself?
STUCK ON YOU
Pain and pleasure at a tattoo convention.
HEAVY SNOW HAN KANG
Kyungha-ya. That was the entirety of Inseon’s message: my name.
REPRISE
Reckoning with Donald Trump's return to power.
WHAT'S YOUR PARENTING-FAILURE STYLE?
Whether you’re horrifying your teen with nauseating sex-ed analogies or watching TikToks while your toddler eats a bagel from the subway floor, face it: you’re flailing in the vast chasm of your child’s relentless needs.
COLOR INSTINCT
Jadé Fadojutimi, a British painter, sees the world through a prism.
THE FAMILY PLAN
The pro-life movement’ new playbook.
President for Sale - A survey of today's political ads.
On a mid-October Sunday not long ago sun high, wind cool-I was in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for a book festival, and I took a stroll. There were few people on the streets-like the population of a lot of capital cities, Harrisburg's swells on weekdays with lawyers and lobbyists and legislative staffers, and dwindles on the weekends. But, on the façades of small businesses and in the doorways of private homes, I could see evidence of political activity. Across from the sparkling Susquehanna River, there was a row of Democratic lawn signs: Malcolm Kenyatta for auditor general, Bob Casey for U.S. Senate, and, most important, in white letters atop a periwinkle not unlike that of the sky, Kamala Harris for President.
