With Betsy Polivy and special guests from Three Lives & Co Bookstore and Le Fanion

Purchase the Book!

In 2011, Betsy Polivy had a crazy idea to walk the entire original Manhattan Grid — from 1st Street to 155th Street. She traversed the side streets from the East River to the Hudson, documenting each business, meeting the owners, and listening to their stories as she went along. The project took nearly six years to complete. The Manhattan Sideways website and podcasts chronicle many of her experiences, but at the beginning of the pandemic, she made the decision to push through and self-publish the book Walking Manhattan Sideways. Her mission has always been to advocate for small businesses, and in this difficult time they need our support more than ever.

Speaking with Betsy will be two of the Greenwich Village small business owners featured in her book:

Three Lives Bookstore, on West 10th Street, is a self-described “anachronism;” “the shop around the corner,” “a touchstone in a neighborhood,” and “a haven for people who read.” Village Preservation has cited the business as being a “pocket of civility” among large chain stores, and Three Lives strives to uphold this commitment to readers in their neighborhood and beyond.

Hailing from sunny Provence in the South of France, Claude-Noëlle Toly arrived in NY from in 1982 and, basically, never left. Le Fanion, the shop that she opened only five years later on West 4th Street, is home for rare French country antiques and collectible pottery and earthenware, as well as fine art, decorations, and more.