STARTS WITH A T
Can’t seem to finish Thursday’s New York Times crossword. Stuck on 15-down: “Setting for an annual New York film festival.” Seven letters….

IN THE NEWS
“Facing a massive budget crisis, the cash-squeezed MTA is moving to implement sweeping service cuts—again—including shutting down dozens of bus routes. Two subway lines also would be wiped off the map and four stations would be shuttered overnight under the plan expected to go before a Metropolitan Transportation Authority committee on Monday.” The lines? W and Z. The stations? City Hall, Cortlandt, and Rector, on the Broadway line (New York Daily News). ••• Thursday’s Notify NYC warning about police activity at the Winter Garden Atrium was due to an anthrax scare. Happens all the time, evidently (Broadsheet Daily).

AROUND THE WEB
A street-construction update from the Lower Manhattan Construction Command Center: “Work on Leonard Street largely concluded this summer, with only intersection work at Varick Street remaining. Utility work there is now complete, and crews will soon begin installing the concrete roadway there. Nearby at Harrison Street, DDC crews will spend the next few weeks completing utility work and installing the concrete road base on the south side between Hudson and Greenwich. They will begin the next segment, on the north side of Harrison from Greenwich to West, in early 2010. Final cobblestone road restoration will complete the reconstruction once temperatures are on the rise next spring. Meanwhile, crews continue rebuilding several segments of Greenwich Street. The next block to be completed is between Canal and Watt Streets, where final cobblestone installation should be complete before Christmas. Additional work continues between Desbrosses and Hubert through 2010.” ••• The Cut goes shopping at Otte (slideshow).

THE INBOX
A loyal reader points out that the New York Sun ran an article headlined “Welcome to Triburbia” on June 12, 2006. “Baby buggies crowd recently lonely sidewalks, nursery schools are fielding a record number of applications, and a slew of new businesses catering to the under-5 set are capitalizing on Tribeca’s transformation into family-land,” wrote Gabrielle Birkner. “Less than five years ago, after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the Triangle Below Canal just north of the World Trade Center was uninhabitable. Lower Manhattan’s future looked so bleak that a state agency gave away $500 a month for up to two years to people willing to move downtown. These days, $500 won’t put a dent in the rent. The neighborhood now boasts the city’s priciest apartments and is establishing itself as New York’s most family-friendly neighborhood amid the proliferation of converted residential lofts.” Two of the businesses cited as evidence, MiniMasters and The Soda Shop, have closed (which isn’t to say that Triburbia isn’t an apt nickname). ••• Kiva Cafe is now open on Sundays.

STEALS AND DEALS
Buy a Spot gift card through Dec. 18 and get up to 20 percent off.