by Julie Shapiro (courtesy DNAinfo). Normally I'd only use another outlet's photo if I was blurbing of its articles, but this is the only lion pic I can recall. Julie, if you want me to take it down just let me know!

••• “After weeks of silence comes word from the Battery Park City Authority, which has jurisdiction over what can be placed on North End Avenue, that the lion project could be dead in the water. ‘We will not accept a donation from an anonymous source,’ said Anne Fenton, assistant to B.P.C.A. president Gayle Horwitz. “If the donor is revealed, the proper process will have to take place including applying for a permit.’ […] Leticia Remauro, a spokesperson for the B.P.C.A., elaborated. ‘Public Authority law requires full transparency of all transactions—which might mean the end of the story,’ said Remauro.” (Downtown Express)

••• “A new $2.8 billion program for those sickened by exposure to the Ground Zero site would be open to more residents of lower Manhattan [anyone south of Reade/Brooklyn Bridge] than a previous victims fund, but they will have fewer face-to-face chances to make the case for compensation.” (Wall Street Journal)

••• “The currently vacant loft building at 396 Broadway in the historic Tribeca East area is finally getting a life. Four years ago, the Chetrit family branch headed by Abe and sons Isaac and Eli, vacated the building in preparation for a sale that died. After ‘many iterations,’ the Chetrits have now decided to turn it into a luxury rental with 52 residential units, according to their architect, Gene Kaufman. […] The building backs onto Walker Alley [actually known as Cortlandt Alley] and there are also side lot windows. Andrew Heiberger’s Town will market the units, which will be ready in fall 2012 and range from studios to penthouses. The building will have a doorman as well as a valet and, of course, lobby fridges for food deliveries.” (New York Post)

••• New York Post‘s Steve Cuozzo laments the dining in FaFoo FiDi (“after SHO Shaun Hergatt on Broad Street, it’s hard to name a single place for which anyone living outside the area would think of making a trip”), and tries to explain why.

••• “A 16-story residential rental at 135 William St. on the corner of Fulton, owned by Metro Loft Management, is on the market and could sell for as much as $30 million.” (New York Post)

••• Classy: “Officials at the struggling Seaport Museum New York backed out of a public meeting at the last minute this week, leaving more than 100 locals who wanted to question them about its faltering future in the lurch.” (DNAinfo)

••• “The New York City Department of Sanitation has made PS 89 on Warren Street the apple of its eye. The Sanitation Department awarded the school its 2011 Golden Apple Trophy and Award Certificate this Tuesday for the most innovative waste prevention program among elementary schools in the borough of Manhattan and New York City as a whole. As a complementary award, the school received the Golden Shovel Trophy and Award Certificate from the New York City Compost Project for teaching children about composting in the curriculum and changing the children’s daily habits in the lunchroom.” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• The exterior and lobby of 70 Pine are landmarked. (New York Post)

••• UPDATE: “An office building in lower Manhattan at 335-337 Broadway [northwest corner of Worth, where Strawberry was] is close to being sold and is slated to be converted into residential condos, according to sources. The 165,000-square-foot building in the City Hall submarket, which was marketed as 93 Worth St. for over a year, is now in contract. Sources said the buyer is the Horizon Group, a real estate development and investment company active in Westchester and New Jersey.” Crain’s couldn’t get anyone to confirm it on the record; for what it’s worth, I heard the same thing last week—alas, I promised not to mention it.