In the News: The Greenwich Hotel to Open London Property

••• The folks behind the Greenwich Hotel are opening a property called the Wellington in the Covent Garden area of London. “Constructing the hotel will involve knocking through six adjacent buildings, three of which are Grade II listed. [Robert] De Niro says he will respect the history of Covent Garden in his plan, which involves retaining the historical facades.” (Above: A photo of Robert De Niro by Julie Shapiro for DNAinfo from the 2010 brouhaha over the Greenwich Hotel’s illegal penthouse.) —Sky News

••• The Tribeca Trib profiles David Cleaver, who has been organizing the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center’s Meet & Greets for 10 years. “Along the way, Cleaver also developed a side passion: collecting recordings of vintage American and BBC radio drama programs. ‘If someone gave me a nice basement in a bar,’ he said, ‘I’d love to do some old-time radio recreations.'”

••• “The Battery Park City Authority has forced out its only senior executive who actually lives in the community, Robin Forst, according to multiple sources directly familiar with the situation. Ms. Forst has served as the BPCA’s vice president of external relations, a post that encompassed dealings with the community, other government agencies, and the press, since 2014.” —Broadsheet

••• It’s neighbor-vs.-neighbor on Murray; his TV is big and bright, so she retaliated with a bright light. —New York Daily News

••• According to the New York Post, parents are paying adults to do their kids’ homework. “‘We all have assistants, right? I explained to my daughter it was the same thing,’ says one Battery Park financier who hired a ringer to ‘help’ his daughter, an eighth grader in a gifted-and-talented program at a public school downtown. After all, the girl was busy with a particularly intense field hockey season. ‘She’s a hard worker, but she was incredibly stressed out and stretched thin,’ the dad says. ‘I don’t believe that homework assignments necessarily groom you for success.’ So he recruited his personal trainer—at a rate of $200 an hour, double her fitness-training rate—to assist his daughter with science-lab write-ups. ‘[The trainer] had her B.A. in biology, so it was a good fit. And my daughter appreciated that she had a bit more free time. She understood that this was a one-off thing for an extraordinarily stressful time in her life. She doesn’t take it for granted.'”

••• Telepan restaurant on the Upper West Side has closed; including it here for those of us who remember when Telepan Local was on Greenwich (and before that, the Telepan pop-up where Gotan is now). —New York Times

 

Comment: