HELPING HAITI
Chelsea Clinton “is hosting a 90-minute spinning class at SoulCycle Tribeca on Jan. 21 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. to benefit The Clinton Haiti Relief Fund. Bikes cost between $100 and $1,000.” (US Magazine)

IN THE NEWS
••• “State Supreme Court Justice Joan B. Lobis this week dismissed the lawsuit by Hudson Square residents, businesses and community groups challenging the city’s plan to build a three-district sanitation garage on Spring Street. The Jan. 11 ruling also dismissed the part of the suit that challenged the 2005 settlement that Friends of Hudson River Park reached with the city for a timetable to get the Department of Sanitation off of the Gansevoort Peninsula and Pier 97 to enable the piers to become part of the Hudson River Park.” (Downtown Express)
••• “The developers of a downtown Manhattan condo conversion, Tribeca Five, on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on the property […]. The Dynamic Group purchased the building, located at 283 West Broadway, between Canal Street and Sixth Avenue, in 2005 with plans to convert it into a five-unit residential condominium with ground-floor commercial space. The estimated cost for developing Tribeca Five was $14.5 million, according to Brad Zackson, president of Dynamic. Mr. Zackson claims that the planned condo conversion failed because the project’s lender, Inland Mortgage Capital Corp., failed to deliver its $11 million acquisition and construction loan in a timely manner.” (Crain’s)
••• “Construction workers tunneling into Battery Park City landfill recently found something much older than the neighborhood itself: The concrete bulkhead put in place over 100 years ago.” (Downtown Express)
••• That big ugly building going up at Sixth and Grand will be a James Hotel—part of a Schrageresque mini-chain that appears to have only one outpost, in Chicago (there used to be one in Scottsdale, Ariz.)—and not the Grand Street Hotel as previously planned. (New York Times via Curbed)
••• “Angry union protesters and the head of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn rallied in support for workers’ rights Friday outside the Amish Market grocery in Tribeca. The store has a history of labor abuses, leading the New York State Department of Labor to levy a $1.5 million enforcement against them for for unpaid wages last year.” (DNAinfo)

ARTS ETC.
••• Among the many instances of the Downtown Alliance using art to spruce up construction sites—or at least distract from them—is artist Maya Barkai‘s “Walking Men 99,” going up today at 99 Church (between Park Place and Barclay). Barclay gathered examples of silhouettes from “walk” signs from around the world and lined them up in one big row. The image is a rendering, as I learned when I went to take a photo this morning and saw that work was only beginning. (The New York Times)
••• The New York Times also says that “Downtown Pix: Mining the Fales Archives, 1961-1991,” a new show at NYU’s Grey Art Gallery, “reminds us what the arts scene in the East Village, Soho and Tribeca was like at the height of the AIDS epidemic, before gentrification and before the downtown ethos and aesthetic were packaged into family viewing spectacles like Rent or those by Blue Man Group.”
••• Steven Spielberg “will be filming a documentary about the World Trade Center site’s redevelopment. The six-part special is slated to run on the Science Channel in 2011,” says Curbed (via the New York Observer). Yes, let’s relive it. That sounds fun.

RESTAURANTS
••• Both Downtown Express and Broadsheet Daily delve into Cosmopolitan Café‘s planned move around the corner to the old Soda Shop space. Owner Craig Bero was one of the co-founders of the Soda Shop, but he bailed because “I didn’t want to do kids’ parties rest of my life,” he said. The new incarnation of the café will feature crepes.
••• Moomah got a little more irresistible when it began selling Locanda Verde pastries in its café (alongside ones from Balthazar Bakery). “This week we’re carrying the pumpkin bread, donuts and blueberry polenta muffins,” says founder Tracey Stewart.
••• While visiting Reade Street Animal Hospital—my pug is angling for patient of the year—I picked up a flyer for a Friends of Animal Rescue promotion happening this Wednesday, Jan. 20, at Mexican Radio (19 Cleveland Place). The restaurant will donate 25 percent of everyone’s bill to the cause. Mention Friends of Animal Rescue when reserving at 212-343-0140.

COMING UP
••• On Feb. 2, Maslow 6 will host a seminar on Chilean wines with wine specialist Jorge Perez ($45).
••• On Feb. 19, 20, and 21 (a special family-friendly matinee), choreographer Jody Sperling and Time Lapse Dance will appear at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. Expect “visual and kinetic routines that integrate experimental dance, circus arts, and light spectacles.” ($25, $15 for students and seniors). Sorry for the rampant quoting today…. Too much to do, too little time.