••• “A secret NYPD effort to evaluate the impact of proposed security measures at the new World Trade Center is giving site participants and other downtown players the jitters. Executives and business advocates hoping to see a great new complex rise and thrive, fear the prospect of barricades, vehicle-screening turntables and closed streets like those around the New York Stock Exchange.” (New York Post)

Photo by Julie Shapiro courtesy DNAinfo

••• “Robert De Niro showed up at a city hearing Tuesday afternoon to make amends for an illegal penthouse atop his Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca. De Niro’s architects pledged to make several changes to the penthouse at 377 Greenwich St., including the removal of an obtrusive sloping copper roof and the addition of a vine-covered pergola. After hearing the presentation, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously agreed to accept the changes and to forgive the fact that De Niro originally built a bulkier penthoue than was allowed. The commission could have ordered him to tear the penthouse down but chose not to do so. ‘I’m happy,’ De Niro said as he left the hearing in the Municipal Building on Chambers Street. ‘Chutzpah Sensibility prevailed.'” In other words, ask forgiveness, not permission. (DNAinfo)

••• Serious Eats named Grandaisy’s pumpkin pie one of the best in the city.

••• “The city is considering a takeover of Battery Park City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday. The city has long had the option of buying Battery Park City from the state for $1 and shutting down the Battery Park City Authority, but no mayor has ever acted on it. The Authority takes in more than $200 million a year from taxpaying residents and businesses. That money would go directly to the city if Bloomberg exercised the $1 option.” (DNAinfo)

••• Curbed on two sales: one in 101 Warren and one in 77 White.

••• “Setai, the luxury hotel/spa brand, wants nothing to do with 40 Broad Street anymore, and is suing the condo conversion’s developers to uphold its good name. […] In the filing—seen below—the Setai Group spells out in painstaking detail the branding agreement between the parties, which covered a lot more than just licensing fees, and how it was violated.” (Curbed)