One reason I started Tribeca Citizen was to get answers to questions I had just from walking around. Such as:

Photograph by Asha Agnish for Tribeca Citizen

What are those words painted on Murray Street, outside the new Poets House in Battery Park City?
They’re a temporary art project, titled Halos for New York City, by Michael Mercil. Computer-controlled heliostats (mirrors) placed atop the Verdesian building will be used to light up Teardrop Park South. (Teardrop Park is between Warren and Murray; Teardrop Park South is south of Murray.) In the meantime, as a way of testing the system, the Battery Park City Authority engaged Mercil to use the mirrors in an artwork. It debuted in June. From the release: “Inspired in part by the “Sun-Down Poem“ of Walt Whitman, Halos tracks the daily movement of light and shadow across lower Manhattan to slowly unscramble six, three-word phrases—WATCH & SEE; SELF & SUN; LEAP & SHOUT; TABLE & BOOK; KISS & TELL; OVER & OUT. The painted words come from a variety of sources. Table & Book, for example, is inscribed on a 19th-century Shaker ‘gift drawing,’ but the phrase might also suggest the nearby Poets House, the soon to open New York Public Library branch, or perhaps the contents of an ordinary Battery Park City apartment. Watch & See is another Shaker inscription that may evoke a quest for spiritual enlightenment, or delight in witnessing the process of on-site construction.” In November, when construction on Teardrop Park South is scheduled to be completed, the mirrors will begin lighting the park, and while the words will probably remain they will no longer be illuminated.

And reader Suzanne wrote in: “I noticed your article on Lance Lappin. Does anyone know what happened to Steven Paoli, the former partner at Lappin Paoli?”
Lance Lappin says that he hasn’t heard anything from Steven since Steven left at the end of 2004, and after we spoke it occurred to be that perhaps I should have asked if he knew how I could get hold of Steven—I guess I’m not so nosy after all. (If anyone else knows the answer to Suzanne’s question, pipe up.)

Send Nosy Neighbor questions to editor@tribecacitizen.com. Photograph by Asha Agnish.