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The Paper of Record for Greenwich Village, East Village, Lower East Side, Soho, Union Square, Chinatown and Noho, Since 1933
January 11, 2018 • $1.00 Volume 88 • Number 2
Speaker Johnson faces bleak budget realities of Trump’s America BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
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s Corey Johnson assumes the role of speaker of the City Council, he has made some important and expensive promises that multiple constituencies are expecting him to keep. But he is also facing the prospect of cuts in federal and state dol-
lars that could make fulfilling those promises difficult. “Almost a third of our budget is from the state and federal governments,” said the 35-year-old, who is beginning his second term representing a district that includes the West Village, Chelsea and Hell’s JOHNSON continued on p. 10
Still creating after all these years: Westbeth Housing honors ‘Icons’ BY REBECCA FIORE
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hotographer Diane Arbus, actor Vin Diesel and painter Robert De Niro Sr. are some of the notable alumni who have walked the halls of Westbeth Artists Housing. But few still living there now have been at the residence since its very begin-
ning. When she was 50, Edith Stephen moved into the 348-unit complex, at 55 Bethune St., between Washington and West Sts., in 1970, the same year it opened. Forty-eight years later, at age 97, she’s still there, she’s still creating, and she isn’t planICONS continued on p. 4
Fred Bass with his daughter, Nanc y Bass W yden, outside the legendar y Strand Bookstore, at Broadway and E. 12th St.
Fred Bass, 89, built Strand into a world-famous brand BY REBECCA FIORE
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red Bass bled books. Many described him as a ruthless businessman who transformed the meaning of a bookstore time and time again. As the sole survivor of Book Row, where 48 bookstores once stood on Fourth Ave. between Union Square and Astor Place, the Strand Bookstore has evolved into a New York City staple, by keep-
The snow was the show ..........p. 9
ing its focus on community and, of course, books. Bass died in the early morning of Jan. 3 in his Midtown apartment from congestive heart failure at age 89. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; his sisters, Dorothy Bass and Eleanor Allen; his daughter, Nancy Bass Wyden; her husband, Oregon state Senator Ron Wyden; and their children, Ava Rose, William Peter and Scarlett Willa. Bass was born on June 28,
1928, at Beth Israel Hospital in the East Village. His father, Benjamin, opened the bookstore in 1927, and Fred would take over in 1956. The year after taking the reins of the Strand, Fred Bass moved it to its current location at 828 Broadway, at the corner of E. 12th St. In 1997, he bought the building for $8.2 million. The Strand sells books on three-and-a-half floors of the building. Half of one floor STRAND continued on p. 6
Scoopy: Pies and drugs and WikiLeaks .............p. 2 Union Square hit-run driver is arrested ............p. 3 www.TheVillager.com