Obviously the big news is Hurricane Irene, but there’s far too much to even try and round up…. Here’s what else has been going on.

••• “Dominique Strauss-Kahn is bidding adieu to New York—for now, at least. The French politician hustled out his Tribeca digs on Friday afternoon—with his wife, Anne Sinclair, in tow – and raced to LaGuardia Airport’s U.S. Airways terminal. It appeared likely he was headed to Washington to thank the staff of the International Monetary Fund, where he resigned as chief after being accused of sexually assaulting a hotel maid.” (Daily News)

••• An in-depth description/review of the National September 11 Memorial: “The 416 oaks, chosen for their longevity, appear to be arranged as a pure grid. It soon becomes clear that they’re staggered. Those around the pools replicate the placement of the steel columns that held up the towers. Now pruned in the shape of elegant pyramids, the oak canopies will ultimately merge into one. In this rigorously minimalist aesthetic of straight lines, Walker throws one curve, and it’s a doozy. The so-called survivor tree, a Calgary pear that was found alive in the rubble and nursed back to health, has been installed just west of the pools. Its limbs were burned off on 9/11 but they have grown back to form a living candelabra. You see evidence of the trauma: Smooth branches emerge from the rough scars of the 9/11 bark.” (Philadelphia Inquirer) Pictured: A rendering of one of the waterfalls.

••• Brookfield Office Properties CEO Ric Clark lives in Tribeca. (New York Times)

••• Two tidbits in the same post on Eater: Ivo & Lulu up on Broome has been seized, and Brushstroke has introduced a vegetarian menu.