••• Also involved at Belle Reve, now open in the Los Americanos space: “Billy Gilroy, who founded the West Village cocktail institution Employees Only, and Paul Gerard, of the clubby, exclusive Soho House. Gilroy brought with him the team’s fourth partner Vincent Vitek, head bartender at Employees Only. […] It sounds like this is more nightlife destination than early reports let on.” —Eater (the pic, captioned “The #Chef and Saturday nights special,” is from Belle Reve’s Instagram account)

••• The New York Times goes over Howard Hughes Corporation’s South Street Seaport plan and the resistance to it. Of note:

—”City Hall has been largely quiet about the seaport project, and some officials have said that the gap between the developer and elected officials is too wide to bridge.”
—”The company has also built its own coalition of supporters, called Friends of the Seaport, which includes the construction, hotel and real estate industry unions, the Henry Street Settlement House and local residents.” Underline mine.
—”Howard Hughes has conducted its own outrageously rigged polls, which it says indicate that 80 percent of the local residents support the project.” Strike-through mine.
—”More recently, Howard Hughes paid almost $31 million for the unused development rights above the seaport historic district, which would enable the developer to build an even taller building.” So far, HHC has been mum about what it might do with those air rights.

••• Recapping everything that’s happening on Lower Broadway. —New York Post

••• More on Move NY’s proposal to add tolls to the East River bridges: “The 30-page proposal also includes a new surcharge for taxis and other car services below 96th Street and removes a parking tax exemption for people who live in Manhattan, as a way for them to help pay for the system.” —New York Times

••• “In what may be his first public comment since being forced to give up his leadership post in Albany, Assemblymember Sheldon Silver told Downtown Express Thursday that the Lower Manhattan School Overcrowding Task Force that he set up seven years ago will continue.”

••• “‘One Day,’ a powerful new musical about the complicated lives of young people, will open Thursday at Lower Manhattan’s 3-Legged Dog Art and Technology Center.” —Broadsheet

••• “Hundreds of guests at a Financial District hotel were forced from their rooms and left standing like popsicles when a frozen sprinkler pipe burst on the building’s roof, sending a waterfall of frigid water down stairwells, the elevator shafts and soaking rooms on all 50 floors. Guests at the Holiday Inn on Washington Street said they were jolted when an alarm began blaring around 4 a.m. Monday, only to realize that their rooms were filling up with cold water.” —New York Post