By Michael Appleton for the New York Times

••• The New York Times visits the two mosques already in Tribeca, including Masjid Farah (right)..

••• President Obama appeared to endorse the Park51 project: “I understand the emotions that this issue engenders. Ground zero is, indeed, hallowed ground. [… But] This is America, and our commitment to religious freedom must be unshakable. The principle that people of all faiths are welcome in this country, and will not be treated differently by their government, is essential to who we are.” (The New York Times)

••• The next day, he finessed the situation, says the New York Times: “In brief comments during a family trip to the Gulf of Mexico, Mr. Obama said he was not endorsing the New York project, but simply trying to uphold the broader principle that government should ‘treat everybody equally,” regardless of religion.'”

••• The Financial Times had lunch with Paris Review editor Lorin Stein at “his personal canteen,” Cercle Rouge.

••• An NYPD sting operation found underage drinking at several Soho bars, but not at one in Tribeca it had targeted, KD Connelly’s on Murray. (DNAinfo)