by Julie Shapiro (courtesy DNAinfo)

••• “Just two weeks after it opened, the new skate park in Tribeca was already drawing crowds from around the city and beyond. From 8 a.m. until dusk, skateboarders and rollerbladers pack the 8,750-square-foot park at N. Moore Street and the Hudson River, waiting in line and performing their tricks shoulder to shoulder.” Fun pix. (DNAinfo)

••• “The land along West Street in front of the World Financial Center has been barricaded behind concrete walls and chain-link fencing for so long that it would almost seem to be its permanent state. But earlier this month state Department of Transportation officials provided a first detailed look at how the spaces, between the highway and the office towers, might appear once they are complete.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• A Continuous Lean rhapsodizes over the sandwich bread at Takahachi Bakery.

••• “The city has made a final decision not to expand Millennium High School into nearby space at 26 Broadway, Department of Education officials said last week. Downtown community leaders have been pushing the city to grow Millennium, a popular Financial District school that now accepts only 3 percent of its applicants. The city agreed that Millennium ought to be given the chance to expand, but instead of putting the second location in 26 Broadway, the city plans to put it in Brooklyn, said Lenny Speiller, executive director of public affairs for the DOE.” (DNAinfo)

••• “Downtown parents are raising the alarm about the city’s decision to move a new charter school into Tweed Courthouse next fall. The parents had hoped to keep the six classrooms in Tweed for local elementary kids, to alleviate overcrowding at nearby schools. But the city is giving the space to Innovate Manhattan Charter School, a new middle school that focuses on individualized learning plans and projects, said Elizabeth Rose, a portfolio planner for the Department of Education. The school’s model, called KED, originated from a for-profit Swedish company called Kunskapsskolan that runs 33 schools there.” (DNAinfo)

Courtesy Just Jared

••• Jennifer Connelly and Paul Bettany walking on Greenwich. (Just Jared)

••• “The New York Travel Advisory Bureau just released a map of Manhattan in its effort to brand Lower Manhattan as the “CanDo” (Canal Street Down) district. The map will include graphics and text about museums, theaters and other Downtown recreational spots. […] N.Y. T.A.B. is doing a trial run of 150,000 CanDo Maps in the coming months, which will be distributed in Lower Manhattan hotels, museums and government buildings.” (Downtown Express)

••• The New York Times profiled Steven Banks, “SpongeBob SquarePants” writer and author of “Looking at Christmas,” opening this week at the Flea.

••• Christene Barberich, a founder of Tribeca-based fashion site Refinery29.com, kept a diary of what she wore for a week for the New York Times. This column makes my teeth hurt, as a former boss liked to say.

••• Meanwhile, the New York Times also profiled Devon Armstrong and Winifred Oldham—she attends BMCC and works at a Tribeca McDonald’s—teenagers who have triplets.

••• “After a soft opening last Friday […] the new Hudson Produce market opened on the corner of Albany Street and South End Avenue, the site of the former JJ Produce. Hudson Produce intends to offer 24 hour service.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• The Adventurista Q&As an “artsy mom” at the Tribeca Greenmarket.