We can barely keep track of the comings and goings (mostly the goings) over at the Village Voice. Besides Robert Christgau, music editor Chuck Eddy has also left the Village.

The Observer weighs in on the state of the traditionally leftist paper, highlighting new EIC Mike Lacey's attempt at a complete overhaul.

As the dissident Voice staff tells it, the new management is a bunch of out-of-town bean counters bent on dismantling a precious 50-year-old journalistic institution. The new management, in turn, depicts the paper as a haven for thumb-suckers, with a staff so self-satisfied that it refuses to stop writing left-leaning commentary and go out and do some reporting.

Meanwhile, Fox News (please don't start aggressively e-mailing — we were blindly led there by David Hirschman) tries to add some balance to the coverage by throwing in their hip, urban touch:

It's not like anyone reads the Village Voice or cares about it anymore. It was destroyed years ago, like most of what we used to call "the Village."

Sadly, we realize that Fox is right (as in correct, not conservative). As much time as everyone spends gossiping about the Voice, a delicate few still actually pick it up and read it.

However, last time we checked, "the Village" itself was still there.

Maybe it would help if the area was marked by "Village" garbage bags (y'know like the ones NoHo has) so the good people at Fox and the tourists who ask "where's Greenwich Village?" while walking up Laguardia Place won't get confused.

Can Village Voice Make It Without Its Lefty Zetz? [Gabriel Sherman, New York Observer]