••• Midtown Lunch is concerned that Mike’s Papaya is out of business: “The gate’s been down for a couple of days (as you can see from the picture he snapped). They weren’t shuttered by the Department of Health, so it’s a little bit of a mystery why they’re closed.” (Photo courtesy Midtown Lunch.)

••• “Workers restoring the landmarked Pier A have discovered even more rotten wood on the historic structure, bumping up the cost for the massive redevelopment project by nearly $1 million.” —DNAinfo

••• “The Brooklyn district attorney indicted eight New Yorkers yesterday for fraudulently receiving Medicaid benefits and food stamps, even as they raked in thousands of dollars and owned properties. [...] One of the defendants, Mohammed Irshad Chaudhry, 58, allegedly collected more than $146,000 in Medicaid benefits between January 2004 and November 2011. Prosecutors say he lied on his Medicaid applications, saying he earned about $300 a week while working at Super Punjab Auto Repair shop in Long Island City. He also claimed he was a ‘helper’ at a Tribeca tea shop. However, in reality Chaudhry owns both those businesses, prosecutors said, and makes $8,000 each month from them.” —Metro

••• “Battery Park City residents may have noted the absence of the Postal Plaza mobile mail truck during the holiday package season. The van that parked most days on South End Avenue outside Gateway Plaza provided shipping services for several months in 2011 before disappearing due to what Postal Plaza’s owners describe as ‘parking issues.’” —Broadsheet Daily

••• From Metromix: “And an Italian restaurant cheffed by Luigi Celentano of Gigino Trattoria will drop in Tribeca. It’ll be called Piccola Positano and should open by the new year.” Turns out “in Tribeca” is a mistake; the restaurant will be in the East Village.

••• Kutsher’s gets a rave from the Village Voice.

••• “A tipster writes in about the former Off-Track Betting parlor on Lafayette Street with the news that it’s becoming a 7/11. We’re guessing the space in question is the one at 110 Lafayette [between Canal and Walker; and it's 7-Eleven, not 7/11]. Anyone know different?” —Curbed

••• “The owner of two mid-sized Downtown hotels overlooking the World Trade Center reconstruction site claims the deconstruction of the Deutsche Bank office tower and the placement of a large construction crane nearby have cost it at least $1 million in lost business, a new lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court says.” —Real Deal

••• Wall Street Journal interviews Edward “Burnsie” Burns. Speaking of whom: Burnsie on video talking about some of his Tribeca favorites (Walker’s, the Live Well Company, the Tribeca Film Festival).

••• “Climaxing a sometimes bumpy 20-year ride, Edward Minskoff has bought out his partners in 101 Sixth Ave., giving the prominent developer/landlord sole control of the soon-to-be-vacant 425,000-square-foot tower. [...] Minskoff and Andalex built 101 Sixth expressly for Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union—now threatening to strike city office buildings at year’s end—in 1991. The union is moving out at year’s end, giving Minskoff a chance to rent all 23 floors at market rents.” —New York Post

••• A CB1 member is concerned about open windows during Pier A’s reconstruction. —DNAinfo

Courtesy New York magazine

••• New York Magazine’s cover article is its annual package of “Reasons to Love New York,” and mine must be missing a page because I didn’t see “Awesome Hyperlocal Blogs” in it. Elsewhere in the issue is a roundup on Lower Manhattan, praising it as “more livable.” It gets most of the big stuff, with a couple randoms thrown in.

••• Pelea Mexicana replacement AOA Bar & Grill now appears to be going by just AOA (for for Avenue of the Americas), with Dival Ramiro (of next door’s Cachaçaria Boteco) at the helm. The menu is still American. —BlackBook

••• “The Manhattan loft #5S at 149 Franklin Street that just sold has a very idiosyncratic character and a fascinating (odd) floor plan. No one who has seen it was surprised to see that it was the long-time live and work space for an artist, “2,300 sq ft” with a single bedroom, a living room facing Franklin Street, and the rest of the space (that bedroom and the large studio) facing south toward Leonard Street. The studio and the living room are about the same size, separated by a hallway that doubles as a kitchen.” Manhattan Loft Guy dissects the loft’s sale.

••• “Edward’s, at 136 W. Broadway, received 62 violation points from the Health Department recently.” UPDATE 12/14: See comments—Edward’s is back in the DOH’s good graces. —DNAinfo

••• Remember those “Missing Tortoise” flyers? “Filmmaker Chris Jakesson said a friend taking care of Cheeseburger accidentally left the tortoise in a box in the hallway—and a neighbor thoughtlessly took it outside and let it go. He’s been looking for it ever since and suspects he went underground for the fall and winter. ‘We’re hoping he’ll bury himself and in the spring will pop up,’ said Jakesson. ‘So if anyone sees a tortoise walking down the street…’” —Daily News

••• “Workers installing a new steam pipe on Fulton Street this fall stumbled across an archaeological treasure trove of more than 5,000 objects dating back to the turn of the 19th century.Among the discoveries made in an old basement foundation at 40 Fulton St. were a bone toothbrush, a copper half-penny and hundreds of shards of pottery.” Five thousand years from now, they’ll discover fast-food containers. —DNAinfo

••• “The Battery Park City Authority is calling on residents to point their cameras at tour buses idling or parking illegally in the area, in an effort to pressure the Department of Transportation to tackle the growing problem.” —Tribeca Trib

Pier A (as seen last February)

••• Grub Street learned more on the plans for Pier A: “The aforementioned oyster bar will be located at the end of the pier, with indoor and outdoor dining. The rest of the ground floor will be taken up by a beer garden. Upstairs, a restaurant serving ‘a tribute to local fish and local produce’ will occupy the second floor, ‘not unlike the Harry’s menu, but with a bit more focus on seafood,’ McDonald says, while the third floor will be dedicated to events.”

••• Fashion designer Nicole Miller hosted a book-promo cooking class in her Tribeca penthouse, and Racked attended.

••• A night at Uncle Mike’s. —Stay Thirsty

••• A Wall Street Journal about how the construction in Battery Park City is just about done includes the detail that the Pier A renovation is supposed to be done by fall 2012. (The rest of it is news-free.) Pier A is going to be an oyster bar and an event space or something like that.

••• Maybe Melanie is coming to Zuccotti Park! After all, Jackson Browne just played there (along with “Third Eye Blind Guy,” in DNAinfo‘s phrase).

••• “No store has struggled with the barricades more than the Milk Street Cafe at 40 Wall St., which laid off 21 workers at the height of the protests in late October and on its last leg. ‘Unless we get a Hail Mary, it’s a matter of days, maybe a week or two,’ Marc Epstein, the cafe’s owner, said Wednesday.” —DNAinfo

••• “On Tuesday evening, for the second time since September, a car hit a pedestrian on Rector Place and South End Avenue. The crossing is frequently used by residents as they travel to and from the Rector Street Bridge, as well as by local students traveling between home and school.” —Broadsheet Daily

••• “The parents and children at Spruce Street School (PS 397) will start the holiday season off a little safer thanks to the efforts of local elected officials. Last week, the New York City Department of Transportation reported that it had installed a traffic signal on Gold Street at the Beekman Street intersection, and will install another signal at the Spruce Street intersection by the end of this week. Additionally, the DOT said it will soon begin work on installing ‘No Standing 7am to 4pm School Days’ signs for school bus pick-up and drop-off locations on Williams Street and Spruce Street.” —Broadsheet Daily

What brought you to the U.S.?
My two friends and I, all from Israel, moved to New York City to attend the architecture program at City College.

You were 26 at the time. Was it a graduate program?
No, undergraduate. In Israel, students perform their army service requirement after high school, and then they usually spend some time traveling. Most people enter college around the age of 22 or 23.

That certainly must have been interesting for you, sitting in class with 18 year-olds.
Yes, starting so early certainly makes for a very different way of thinking. In Israel, we have already given some thought to what we want to do with our lives, so we are focused. Here, everyone is so young when they start college. I remember a philosophy professor asking our class if we could take a trip anywhere, where we would go. Someone yelled out “Six Flags”! I was just shocked. There are so many wonderful places to see in the world, and that’s what he chose?

Were there any cultural difficulties you faced in the beginning?
One issue is that in Israel, paying for things in installments is quite common. Here it barely exists. You need a computer, you pay in full. Paying tuition for the year, pay in full. That was difficult for me in the beginning.

What do you like about living in New York?
The culture. I grew up in Arad, a remote town in the desert in Israel. Culture was not so accessible. I love music, but before the Internet it was very difficult to find records of the songs you heard on the radio. There weren’t options for museums and other cultural things. But on the other hand I developed a relationship with nature. I love the desert scenery and my house was on the edge of town, one step away from the desert. There was lots of open space and I never felt cramped.

Was moving here to a tiny apartment quite a shock?
Yes, New York was culture shock in that sense. But it was also kind of a renaissance for me in terms of the cultural offerings. Plus, I lived on the West Side and I spent a lot of time going to the Barnes & Noble and Tower Records. There is so much to see in every square foot of the city, and I love that about New York.

Pier A

What made you move downtown?
It was 2004 and my architecture class was assigned a project to renovate Pier A, the old pier at the southern edge of Battery Park City. I took a walk around the neighborhood and ended up on the Hudson River esplanade. It was beautiful, and I discovered the rents were low because people were still worried about living downtown. I told my girlfriend—now my wife—about it, and later that year we moved into Gateway Plaza. We loved the neighborhood and decided to buy in Tribeca in 2007.

What do you think of Tribeca?
Living in Tribeca is like living in history. My wife and I love walking the streets, noticing the details on the old buildings and seeing what was there before. It’s very European, and I love that it’s a lively, friendly neighborhood with accessible transportation. You can get apartments with great water views and lots of daylight here.

Is there anything about the U.S. that you’re not too excited about?
There is democracy here, definitely, but I don’t like when people refer to the U.S. as the land of freedom and opportunity. There are so many restrictions here. For example, a few years ago I was doing some stretches in the courtyard at Gateway Plaza after a run and a security guard came over and told me I couldn’t sit on the ground. I asked why there were benches then, and he told me I could sit on the benches, but not on the ground. I argued with him and he actually called another security guard over. There is a lot of rigidity and formality, and the rules are often nuanced.

What are some of the differences between Israel and the U.S.?
Israel is a true melting pot, and different groups mix with one another. Here we’re still in the beginning. Every group is here, but every group has its own section of town and they’re not exactly mingling. It’s a melting pot, not a fondue.

What do you miss about Israel?
I still have a lot of good friends there, and I miss them a lot. It’s easier to make friends there, I think. There’s more openness and acceptance of new people. I also miss Israeli humor. There’s no concept of political correctness there, and that makes the humor edgier and funnier. Here everyone is so careful. I don’t think the late night shows—Leno, Letterman—are funny at all. And why are they all wearing suits? Why the formality?

Where do you go in NYC to remind you of home?
Hummus Place restaurants. It’s a chain and the closest one is in the West Village. Also the Holyland Market in the East Village. It sells all kinds of authentic Israeli products. It has all the brands that I grew up with.

What was your favorite New York City moment?
Meeting my wife. She really completed my life here and I enjoy being with her so much. She is American, and she moved to the city five years before I did. I knew the area around City College, but I had never been to Soho, for example. She really introduced me to the city, and to the theater and independent films. Oh, and Mexican food. I had never had it before. She got me to try it and I loved it.

Did you propose to her in New York?
Yes, in Central Park. We had a picnic there on a Friday night.

You had a picnic in Central Park at night?
I did my military service in Gaza. Central Park at night is nothing.

Are there any times that you still feel like an outsider?
Strangely enough, the process to become a citizen was the time I felt most like an outsider. Any time I had to go into federal buildings I felt humiliated. The way the officers speak to you, the way they treated some of the older people, the 50 year-olds and 60 year-olds, was terrible. They feel that this is the best country to live in, so you should be grateful that you’re here. There are lots of great things about this country, but it’s as if they are trying to take your roots and plant them somewhere else. I am happy to be here, and feel comfortable and settled, but I will always be Israeli and that will never change.

What will be different for your kids growing up in the U.S. compared to your experience in Israel?
In Israel, I was allowed to be out of the house by myself at a very young age. At six, I was walking to school alone. No one worried about kidnappers or pedophiles. In New York, kids don’t go anywhere by themselves. On the other hand, my kids will be exposed to culture at a much younger age than I was.

How does a young boy from the desert develop an interest in architecture?
In Arad, my hometown in Israel, houses fit nicely into their surroundings. I was always fascinated by them and would spend hours with my Legos, trying to recreate them.

And are you working as an architect now?
After graduation, I worked for five years with an architecture firm and worked on two luxury high rises in New York. Then in November 2010, I left to start my own kids’ furniture company. I have young twin boys, and I think most cribs look like prison cells. I’ve come up with different textures and patterns to break up the rigidity and make them friendlier spaces for kids.

When can we check out your kids’ furniture?
I’ve done the designs, but I still need to get all the necessary federal approvals. I expect to be selling them around the end of 2011.

About the author: Anojja Shah (left) is a Tribeca mom who spends her days running after a feisty 3-year-old. In past lives she worked as a journalist and on Wall Street in equity research. This Q&A is the fifth in her series of interviews with immigrants who live and/or work in Tribeca.

Previous “I → NY” interviews:
••• From Fujian to Tribeca: Kevin Red
••• From Tokyo to Tribeca: Masako Chiba
••• From East Java to Tribeca: Rinta Juwana
••• From Montreal to Tribeca: Sarah Mlynowski

by Librado Romero for the New York Times

••• The New York Times writes about the “turkey-shaped” farm coming Battery Park. Maybe this part was in previous reports, but if so, I missed it: The fence is “made from the bamboo poles used in last year’s ‘Big Bambú’ installation on the roof garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The identical-twin artists Doug and Mike Starn donated them.” (The relevance of the Starns being twins is a bit hazy.)

••• Broadsheet Daily on this past weekend’s Downtown Little League opening day and parade: “Battery Park City chairman Bill Thompson and Authority president Gayle Horwitz addressed the crowd, as did Community Board 1 chair Julie Menin and DLL president Bill Martino, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and City Council member Margaret Chin.” Six speakers? Yikes.

••• Manhattan Loft Guy dissects a non-recent-but-still-notable sale at 101 Warren. If you’re fascinated by the real-estate market, you really need to be reading him.

••• Broadsheet Daily recaps Pier A. This was news to me (um, I don’t always read past the third paragraph of most news articles): “Nevertheless, the Poulakakos team indicated their commitment to public service with assurances that they would offer community groups the catering space free-of-charge during off-peak hours. In addition, they are planning an educational use of the pier’s north side. The New York Harbor School, based on Governors Island, will run an oyster farm with interpretive signage in that space. Mr. McDonald pointed out that the oysters were not going to be served, at least in the near future, to patrons of the oyster bar. Rather, they are meant to provide a contemporary demonstration of the role oysters have played in the history of New York harbor.”

••• DNAinfo profiles Korin.

••• “The team redeveloping Pier A unveiled new renderings this week, offering a first glimpse into the pier’s planned oyster bar and other new food venues.” It’s very Terminal 5 at JFK. (DNAinfo)

••• In an article on Loft 107, a “sober-living facility” in Williamsburg, the New York Times drops some details about Tribeca Twelve, the Hazelden halfway house coming to W. Broadway: “it will house up to 30 people ages 18 to 29 in loft apartments featuring fireplaces, a roof deck and other amenities that Ann Bray, Hazelden’s vice president for strategic initiatives and general counsel, called ‘very, very cool,’ like 12-foot ceilings and hardwood floors made of Brazilian cherry. ‘We think this will be the hippest cool pad to hang out in,’ Ms. Bray said. Tribeca Twelve will cost $5,500 a month, and Ms. Bray said that some residents may be able to cover part of the expense with student loans, since it will count as off-campus housing.” (Love how the NYT’s URL includes the phrase “hipster rehab.”)

by Julie Shapiro (courtesy DNAinfo)

••• “A pair of bronze lions guarding the entrance to the Battery Park City Library would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood, local residents said at a meeting Tuesday night. Community Board 1′s Battery Park City Committee voted to support the proposal by sculptor Tom Otterness to put the 5-foot-tall lions, along with a handful of cubs, outside the library on North End Avenue.” The male is around five feet tall. (DNAinfo)

••• “The coffee shop on the 11th floor of [Goldman Sachs's] 200 West headquarters in Manhattan now sells the Taiwanese hit ‘Bubble Tea’ and desserts from Momofuku’s infamous Milk Bar.” Infamous? Did I miss something? (Business Insider via Eater)

••• “The owners of Dean Street announce they have found a chef to replace recently departed Nate Smith. Mike Franzetti, recently the executive chef at Stuzzicheria in Tribeca, will take the reins and serve American food with French and Italian influence.” If Franzetti’s fried artichokes show up on the menu, I may have to cross the river. As for Stuzzicheria, no word yet on who’ll be taking over, but the buzz is it’s someone notable. (Eater)

••• “When Lili’s Chinese Noodle Shop closed last summer, regular customers bemoaned its demise. Now, they have reason to celebrate. Kenny Yin, Lili’s owner, has opened Koko a new Asian fusion restaurant on Greenwich Street, south of the World Trade Center site. The young chef from Lili’s has also made the move to Koko and presents Szechuan, Cantonese and Taiwanese Chinese dishes as well as Thai, Vietnamese and Japanese choices. [What about Laos and Cambodia? —Ed.] They also serve Sushi and Ramen. In addition to old favorites like General Tso’s Chicken and Bean Curd Szechuan Style, there are new choices like Shredded Beef with Chinese Chili Pepper, Thai Basil Chicken, Steamed Bun with Pork Belly and Korean Kimchi. ‘We use all white meat in our chicken dishes,’ says Mr. Yin.” I feel like I just went on a cruise. (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “A capacity crowd of divorcees gathered for cocktails and passed hor d’ouevres at Maaco [sic!!!!] Trading Co. in Tribeca last night, where Melissa Francis, host of CNBC’s ‘Divorce Wars,’ emceed Huffington Post Divorce’s first event—’The Moment I Knew’ Meetup with some help from meetup.com.” (If you get your “news” from the Huffington Post, please be careful.)

••• Drama at the Riverhouse in BPC: “[Tyra Banks] is combining four apartments on the 22nd and 23rd floors (purchased for around $10 million) into a duplex, and that renovation has now dragged on nine months past its estimated completion date. Neighbors, Page Six reports, are not pleased. We’re talking call-the-cops not pleased, which they did, over “ear-rattling drilling,” paint fumes and other inconveniences of construction. What could possibly ease their pain? A big fat check, of course!” (Curbed)

•••”Popular Hot 97 disc jockey Mr. Cee—who also produced Notorious B.I.G.’s first album, “Ready to Die”—was busted in TriBeCa for public lewdness after cops caught him in a car receiving oral sex from a male companion, officials said. Police said Mr. Cee, whose real name is Calvin Lebrun, 44, was in a parked car last Wednesday when he was arrested at 4:05 a.m. with Lawrence Campbell, 20, at Watts and West streets.” (New York Post)

••• Downtown Alliance has a Q&A with Peter Poulakakos about Pier A, his dog-friendly bar, and more.

••• “The Water Taxi Beach at the South Street Seaport is dropping its tropical seashore theme in favor of an upscale* German beer garden, the owners announced this week. Telly Hatzigeorgiou, who owns the Slate party space in Flatiron, plans to replace the beach with 50 communal tables, along with outdoor Ping-Pong, foosball and billiards. Instead of the gaudy plastic palm trees that ringed the beach the past two summers, Hatzigeorgiou will bring in 25 real pear trees and other plants to create a lush, sheltered oasis facing the Brooklyn Bridge.” (DNAinfo) *”Upscale” and foosball don’t generally coexist.

••• New York mag included Reade Street and “Lower East FiDi” (i.e., near the Gehry building) in its list of up-and-coming neighborhoods and microneighborhoods. I don’t know… Reade Street really boomed years ago, no?

••• “The [Fulton Street] transit center is more than 50 percent done, and as for the specifics: steel is going up now, following the installation of Broadway’s 100-foot tower crane, and should be all done by the end of the year.” (Curbed)

••• “TF Cornerstone signed a 15-year lease to bring Potbelly Sandwich Shop, a Chicago culinary institution, to 2 Gold Street in the Financial District, the chain restaurant’s first New York location. Potbelly’s snapped up the last available retail space in the building, joining Pret-A-Manger, Goodburger, and Hot Clay Oven.” (The Real Deal, via Grub Street)

••• “Ed McFarland isn’t quite ready to open Caravelli’s, but when his kiosk in the World Financial Center debuts for the season on April 7, he’ll be offering something new: a lobster burger. The $15 sandwich is already served at Ed’s Lobster Bar on Lafayette Street, and McFarland describes it as “cooked lobster meat that is ground, it is mixed with a little clarified butter, salt, pepper, and chive. It is grilled and served on a sesame bun with spicy mayo, lettuce, tomato, and red onion.” The grilled yellowfin tuna sandwich and chilled seafood salad are other kiosk additions. Full menu here.” (Grub Street) The $25 deal for a lobster roll and a soda seems a bit rich given the lobster glut, no?

••• “This spring, the Battery Conservancy is launching its first-ever Urban Farm at the Battery, an enormous community garden that will stretch across 1 acre of the Great Lawn. [...] In a playful nod to Zelda the turkey, the park’s most famous resident, the farm will be shaped like a bird. Designer Scott Dougan crafted a bamboo fence to enclose the farm, which will trace out the contours of the beloved turkey, from beak to tail feathers.” (DNAinfo)

••• “The large wooden desk used by e.e. cummings has been installed at Poets House.” (DNAinfo)