••• “New York City may soon be one step closer to building a new flood protection system around Lower Manhattan […]. Senator Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, said on Monday that the city would be awarded $176 million in federal funding for the proposed project, through a national contest created by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to help communities recover from disasters and better prepare for them. The money would be used to help fortify a stretch of shoreline from Montgomery Street on the Lower East Side to the northern tip of Battery Park City. Specific measures have not yet been determined, but could include adding sea walls and temporary flood walls that could be deployed before a storm, and building grass berms that could double as recreational areas.” This is great, but can someone explain why the focus is on Battery Park City, which didn’t flood during Sandy, and not Tribeca, which did? [UPDATE: PeterD points out that I was dead wrong about BPC, but the question about Tribeca stands.] —New York Times (which didn’t credit the rendering above, so I’m not sure from whence it came)

••• In a letter to the Broadsheet, Tammy Meltzer explains how to write to Governor Cuomo about how much you would value more local representation on the Battery Park City Authority board. You certainly don’t have to live in BPC to do so.

••• This Vogue “interview” with Ben Stiller as model Derek Zoolander name-checks Tribeca about two minutes in.

••• “At 40 Rector Street, a block from the 64-story, 780-foot-high residential tower under construction at 50 West Street, are two roomy studios [where] artists are creating works inspired by the plans, people and structural innards of the nearby soaring tower. […] The space where [four] artists have worked is provided free, along with a stipend, by Time Equities, Inc., the developer of 50 West. In exchange, the artists’ work will be hung in the new building.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “In 2008, after selling the 386 apartments in [15 Broad] for at least $380 million, the developer abandoned all efforts to complete the renovations or build the promised amenities, according to the state attorney general’s office. Last week, after years of litigation, Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, and the residents reached separate settlements with the developer, Africa Israel Investments Ltd., in the process cleaning up some of the wreckage from the last real estate boom in the city.” Same with 20 Pine. Also: “Africa Israel must also complete work on a historic building adjacent to 15 Broad Street, the landmark century-old former headquarters of J.P. Morgan & Company at 23 Wall Street, which has sat largely vacant for eight years.” —New York Times

••• The not-yet-built “condominium at 125 Greenwich Street will house 275 units—nearly 150 more than early renderings for the Financial District tower indicated. The Rafael Vinoly-designed tower will rise 91 stories with 275 condos spread over 306,312 square feet. Plans filed with the Department of Buildings […] describe an 876-foot tower.” Better start working on another new school. —Real Deal