2009 BUY-LOCAL GIFT GUIDE
There are new installments to the gift guide (and I’m happy to report that I managed not to buy very much during this week’s reporting):
• Chambers and Reade
• Duane
• Harrison, Worth, and Leonard
And previously: West Broadway • Hudson • Lispenard, Walker, White, and Church • Broadway, Canal, Jay, and Thomas • Greenwich • Washington, Vestry, and Beach • Murray and Warren
Just two streets left! Hoping to get Franklin and N. Moore up today (as luck would have it, I stopped by Urban Archeology when it was closed for its holiday party…). Also, the Art Production Fund’s Soho pop-up shop has amazing gifts for art lovers.

COMING AND GOING
Tokyo Bar is being turned into TriBeCafe on January 27. All the details are here. And a deal may be in the works for Fitz’s Pig-N-Whistle on Greenwich. But is Stuzzicheria, a spin-off of the Flatiron’s Bar Stuzzichini said to be coming to the Province space, stuck? And is Square Diner on the ropes?

AT THE MOVIES
••• What’s in area theaters this weekend: Avatar, Crazy Heart, and more.
••• Tribeca Cinemas Kids Club is screening The Peace Tree on Saturday, with activities afterward.
••• Tribeca Film Institute’s Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund announced screenings of six of the 15 docs that have made the Academy Awards’ shortlist. Read more.
••• 92YTribeca’s January schedule has some intriguing events, including screenings of Jackass: Number Two (get it?), a sing-along to Muppets Take Manhattan, and a Guy Maddin series. Full listings (including non-film events) are here.

THIS WEEKEND
••• New Amsterdam Wintermarket is Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., on South Street. Special events this go-round: bell ringings (with 120 bells) every hour on the hour, and the chance to drink wassail (“a hot mulled holiday ale”).
••• Jose Gaytan‘s photos of the west side go up at Kaffe 1668 on Sunday, with an opening reception from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. More on that later today….
••• Bubble Lounge is hosting a gingerbread-house workshop for adults, to benefit Church Street School, on Sunday.

IN THE NEWS
••• “A counselor in one of Manhattan Youth’s after-school programs […] was arrested Dec. 15 on charges related to child pornography. The counselor, Michael Dossantos, 22, of Astoria, Queens, is charged with possessing sexually explicit images of children, 4 to 16 years old.” (Tribeca Trib)
••• The New York Times notes that a U.S. Army recruiting center is opening “not far from Ground Zero” on Chambers.
••• The New York Post reports that Natalie Portman wanted to rent an apartment on the market in River Lofts, but the seller doesn’t want to rent; Rachel Maddow checked the apartment out, too; another visitor was surprised to run into Meryl Streep in the building and titillated by the idea of seeing Gwyneth Paltrow’s storage space in the basement; and that Jim Cramer lives in River Lofts as does Karolina Kurkova. “But all is not peachy here: The condo board is suing developer Shaya Boymelgreen over shoddy-construction issues.”
••• Curbed sees signs of life at 2 Renwick and includes a bunch of downtown buildings—including 56 Leonard (left)—on its decade’s-end list of the top 10 buildings that didn’t get built.
••• Residents of north Tribeca made their opposition to “option #3″ known at this week’s CB1 meeting (Tribeca Trib).

HEY, LOCAL BUSINESSES!
I’d love to include your news here, but please don’t assume I’ll find out about it on my own. Email me at tribecacitizen@gmail.com.