By Julie Shapiro (courtesy DNAinfo)

••• “After complaints from small business owners that their customers get lost on the way to [Lispenard Street], the city agreed Wednesday to install more street signs by the end of next week. [...] There is currently just one Lispenard Street sign, at Broadway, the tail end of the one-way street. Lispenard’s other two intersections have no signs.” —DNAinfo

••• “We hear that one unnamed West Coast-based Facebook insider has flown to Manhattan twice to look at Tribeca’s 144 Duane St., a sprawling multifamily townhouse priced at $49.5 million—up from last month’s $45 million price.” —New York Post

••• Photos of Lower Manhattan restaurants in the 1960s. They’re all exterior shots, FYI. —Eater

••• Those VIP baths at Aire Ancient Baths will be filled with Champagne, among other fluids. —DNAinfo

••• “The city has spent a staggering $30 million on police overtime at the Occupy Wall Street protests, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Thursday. The total overtime cost has ballooned over the past two months from $17 million in March to nearly double that on Thursday, Kelly said at a City Council budget hearing. The spike in spending follows the massive May Day protests of Tuesday, May 1.” —DNAinfo (Speaking of DNAinfo, did you know that its owner is the rich guy who was considering running the Jeremiah Wright-based attacks on President Obama?)

••• “It seems like it’s been awhile since a lunch spot like French Cafe Gourmand has opened in the Financial District—as in a place that’s not a chain or a new branch of a chain. No, this cafe on Maiden Lane (btw. B’way & Nassau) is run by actual French people and they sell a small selection of items including coffee, soup, salads, sandwiches and some French pastries and baked goods.” I’m onboard with that sandwich. —Midtown Lunch

••• “Dozens of waitlisted Battery Park City kindergarteners could be bused to school in Chinatown this fall, Department of Education officials said at a meeting Wednesday night.” —DNAinfo

••• “A woman dressed in jogging clothes plunged into the East River at Wall Street Friday morning, authorities and a witness said. The woman, who was described as distressed, climbed over a fence at Pier 11 and jumped into the water.” —DNAinfo

••• “There’s a mild puzzle in the recent sale of the ’1,872 sq ft’ Manhattan loft #3B at 366 Broadway (Collect Pond House) at $1.72mm, as it sounds like a beautiful loft that went for less than you’d think (well, than I’d think). But there is also a more emotional response, one of empathy, for a seller who tried to sell into The Peak but just could not get the deal done then.” —Manhattan Loft Guy

••• “More than 150 residents of Gateway Plaza gathered in the auditorium of P.S. 276 on Thursday evening, for a meeting of the Gateway Plaza Tenants’ Association. The event also drew a quorum of Downtown leaders and elected officials, among them State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, City council member Margaret Chin, and Community Board 1 chair Julie Menin.” That’s five, if you’re counting. —Broadsheet

As mentioned in the first item:

••• “Law enforcement officials are searching for one person they say is responsible for mailing 380 suspicious envelopes to elementary, middle and high schools, as well as government offices and other institutions across the U.S., the FBI announced Wednesday. Two elite lower Manhattan schools [including P.S. 234], which received envelopes containing white powder last Thursday, May 10, were among those terrorized by the mysterious substance sent out last week with a North Texas postmark. [...] They believe the suspect is likely to be a male who may not demonstrate a mastery of formal English. The suspect is also likely to be over the age of 30 and perceived by others as odd or eccentric.” You think? —DNAinfo

••• “Meg Ryan’s downtown home hunt continues. She was spotted this week at 153 Franklin St., the infamous Tribeca townhouse where [...] disgraced former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn lived while under house arrest after being accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.” —New York Post

••• “Parents at the Spruce Street School are demanding pedestrian safety improvements in the wake of a crash that killed a UPS worker across the street last month.” —DNAinfo

••• “The questions came fast and furious but the answers were frustratingly few in a meeting with school officials over what lies ahead in September for children on kindergarten waitlists.” In other news, the world continues to turn. —Tribeca Trib

••• Those three buildings the city wants to sell (22 Reade, 346 Broadway, and 49-51 Chambers) have been deemed unsuitable for schools. —Downtown Express

••• “In the last few days, three little cottages have appeared at the base of the World Financial Center in Lower Manhattan, like a rural-themed mirage. The installation is for Country Living’s semiregular House of the Year.” —New York Times

••• “After just a few months at the restaurant, Atera‘s Wine Director Alex LaPratt announced yesterday that he will no longer oversee the restaurant’s deep and ambitious wine list.” —Eater

••• “Another food truck lot [is] spawning downtown [at] the Lent Space at 70 Varick (at Grand) next to Duarte Park, and it’s another one involving the NYC Food Truck Association’s members, like the collection at the World Financial Center five days a week. According to the association’s site, there will be four to six trucks at the lot on Tuesday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.” —Midtown Lunch

••• “The owners of the landmarked Woolworth Building signed a contract to sell the top 25 floors of the tower to an Israeli investor group for nearly $70 million, or around $700 a square foot, sources familiar with the deal said. [...] The top floors, which total roughly 100,000 square feet, are empty and have been for a while as the owners contemplated turning them into a hotel or condos. [...] The remaining 32 stories, which are the bulk of the building, are occupied by office tenants. Sources says that although the owners weren’t actively marketing the space, they starting receiving numerous offers as the hotel and high-end condo markets revived in the wake of the recession.” —Crain’s

••• The New York Times on Demi Monde: “A hostess will greet you at the little entryway in the financial district and announce your arrival”—ladies and gentlemen, please welcome I.P. Freely!—”at this below-ground cocktail lounge and restaurant. The food, by Phillip Kirschen-Clark, formerly of Vandaag, will be small plates like Negroni-flavored oysters, king crab rolls and pork fried rice [...]. These drinks are also served with Mr. Kirschen-Clark’s $130 nine-course tasting menu at a 12-seat chef’s table. This summer, the entry space will become a coffee bar by day. (The lounge is open; the chef’s table opens May 24, for dinner Tuesday through Saturday at 8 p.m.): 90 Broad Street (Stone Street), (212) 248-7220.”

••• “9/11 Memorial Chief Emphatically Says ‘No’ to Sphere on WTC Plaza.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “A homeless man was rushed to a hospital late Tuesday night after an unknown assailant beat him with a piece of wood outside St. Peters Roman Catholic Church.” —DNAinfo

••• “Some are upset over the visual impact of logo laden bikes at a station on Duane Street. And at Bogardus Plaza, there are worries about the safety of pedestrians.” The Duane Park one is a crime. Put it on Greenwich or Hudson. —Tribeca Trib

••• “Telltale $9 shows bidding war for 100 Hudson Street loft.” —Manhattan Loft Guy

••• “Landmarks Commission approves Howard Hughes Corp. plan for new mall building on Seaport’s Pier 17.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “The historic schooner Pioneer is cruising New York Harbor once again, after some much-needed repairs. The South Street Seaport Museum spent $57,000 overhauling the 127-year-old boat this winter, adding two new sails and installing a new transmission, ballast, foredeck hatch and more, the museum said.” —DNAinfo

••• “First responders who risked their lives on 9/11 will return to the World Trade Center site May 30 to mark the 10th anniversary of the end of recovery operations at the site.” —DNAinfo

••• “In honor of One World Trade Center becoming the tallest building in New York, EarthCam has released an exciting time-lapse movie showcasing the construction progress from 2004-2012. In just a couple minutes, you can witness years of construction.” I suggest muting it. —Arch Daily (via Curbed)

••• “FDNY Pulls Body from Hudson River [near Battery Pace]” —DNAinfo

••• “Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish is opening its second location in Sherwood Equities’ 370 Lexington Avenue.” —Commercial Observer

••• “Available for one summer only, for the months of July and August, this 1,400-square-foot Tribeca sublet offers two bedrooms, 12-foot ceilings, and a Chinese restaurant as a kitchen. Okay, so the kitchen is pretty typical save for a light-box Chinese menu mounted on the wall.” Makes my soft-serve-cone lamp look positively restrained. —Curbed

••• Bruce David Martin of Reade Street Animal Hospital was the subject of this week’s “The Hunt” column in the New York Times‘s real estate section.

••• “Goya Foods began when Prudencio and Carolina Unanue, two Spanish immigrants living in Puerto Rico, decided to seek a better future in New York in the early 1930s. They opened a ‘mom and pop’ food shop serving Hispanics in Manhattan’s Tribeca section and later acquired the Goya brand.” —Tampa Bay Online

••• A young woman stabbed her boyfriend at their FiDi apartment then tried to pass it off as if he had stabbed himself. —New York Post

••• May 19 is It’s My Park Day at Washington Market Park: “We use this day to teach children a bit about gardening, and enlist their help in planting thousands of bulbs in the fall and annuals in the spring.” It’s from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Rain date: May 20.

••• I emailed Dr. Michel Cohen to see when Jean, his restaurant at 65 W. Broadway, might open. The response: “Getting close to make a decision! You will be the first one to know.” And you’ll be second.

••• From @MMDevoe on Twitter: “French Cafe Gourmand just opened on 9 Maiden Lane in former Klatch site. Yay caffeine!”

••• From Notify NYC: “There will be a fireworks display near Liberty Island on 5/12/12, at approximately 11:30 p.m.”

••• The city released a map of proposed bike-share locations. I would’ve expected at least one on Greenwich between N. Moore and Murray. The Tribeca section is pictured; click to enlarge. (Click “map” above to see the whole map.) —New York Times

••• “Two elite Downtown schools received envelopes containing white powder Thursday afternoon [....] The mysterious substance was sent to P.S. 234 in TriBeCa and NEST+m on the Lower East Side, police and school officials said. Police later determined that the substance at both schools was non-toxic and investigators are trying to discover where the white powder came from.” —DNAinfo

••• Curbed on 50 Varick (between Laight and Beach), which is “in the process of going from a Tribeca Verizon building afterthought to a model-magnet photo studio with a roof top made to throw parties. The architects are Adjmi & Andreoli, who are turning the Verizon building at 50 Varick into a U.S. outpost for London-based Spring Studios. The renovated building will feature 11 studios photo, 9 green rooms, a signature restaurant, bar, an art gallery, a small movie theater, library, offices, 20,000 square foot roof green roof deck, lighting and equipment rental, and event spaces.”

••• Sarabeth Levine of Sarabeth’s Tribeca did Grub Street‘s “food diary.”

••• “Governors Island announced their summer series of events for 2012.” Repeat after me: Its, its, its. —DNAinfo

••• “At 3:20am on Wednesday morning, Maserati, the 70 foot race boat that had been visiting North Cove for more than a month, [...] officially began her pursuit of a new sailing speed record across the Atlantic.” —Broadsheet

••• “Meg Ryan is on an apartment search again, with her rocker boyfriend John Mellencamp.” What?! Nobody told me they were a couple! In the photo, Mellencamp sort of looks like Judy Davis. “But Ryan, who as we previously reported has rented at 40 Mercer St., is now looking to buy. The actress recently toured a condo at Tribeca’s 51 Walker St. that was once rented by Leonardo DiCaprio. [...] Ryan and Mellencamp also visited the Marble House triplex unit at Tribeca’s 60 Collister St.” —New York Post

••• “A redesign of 1 World Trade Center’s mast may cost the building its 1,776-foot stature.” Seriously, this is a concern? It could also lose “its claim to unseating the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) in Chicago as the tallest building in America. It would not even be the second-tallest building in America. That is the Trump International Hotel and Tower, also in Chicago.” Pictured: The old design (left) and the new one. —New York Times

••• “In the latest example of his increasing focus on his next mayoral campaign, William C. Thompson Jr. informed the Cuomo administration on Wednesday that he was stepping down as chairman of the Battery Park City Authority.” —New York Times

••• FiDi bar-and-someday-café Demi Monde “officially opens to the public on May 18, but the rumor is that they’ll start letting regular customers into the space as early as this Saturday night.” I’m confused by the use of “regular” in the context of a yet-to-open restaurant. —Eater