••• “Amid leftover snow and ice from the recent snowstorms, joggers and dog walkers on a recent weekday made their way up and down the East River Park’s new promenade, which is nearly fully complete. Structural renovations to the park, which began in mid-2005, are slated for completion by early spring, according to John Natoli, chief engineer of the city’s Parks Department. Workers are now finishing the final 600 feet of the new, 6,600-foot riverfront walkway, the key component of the construction project. Joggers, walkers and skateboarders will soon have use of the esplanade’s full length. The project’s landscaping will be completed by early summer, in time for the park’s peak-usage summer months.” (The Villager; photo by Will Femia, courtesy Curbed, which has more photos)

••• Nearly 700 city cops will be assigned to a new command dedicated to policing the Freedom Tower and surrounding area, NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Tuesday. The World Trade Center Command will not be fully staffed until Ground Zero is completely rebuilt. But the 673 officers that will eventually work out of the new command will give it substantially more manpower than any other NYPD precinct.” Is anyone else getting nervous about this? (New York Daily News)

••• More on the budget cuts affecting the after-school program at I.S. 289. (Broadsheet Daily)

••• “Today is the last chance for parents with children in Lower Manhattan public schools to make their voices heard about allowing a Downtown high school to expand, rather than let the Department of Education to use the space to relocate a high school from another neighborhood. At issue is whether Millennium High School—the only NYC high school that gives admissions preference to Lower Manhattan students—can expand into unused space the DOE controls at 26 Broadway. Every Downtown community leader […] has publicly urged the DOE to follow this course, which is needed to help relieve serious overcrowding at Millennium. But the DOE’s preferred plan is to use the space at 26 Broadway to relocate Richard R. Green High School from the Upper East Side to Lower Broadway.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• Restaurant-design blog Fine checks out Mehtaphor.

••• Eater gets a look inside the Ward III guys’ remake of the Rum House in Midtown.

••• Marc Murphy (of Landmarc) shares his recipe for spaghetti carbonara. (Village Voice)