••• As expected, advertising is coming to the passageway between the World Trade Center and Brookfield Place: “A gigantic electronic billboard is taking over the wall. Gigantic. As long as the spire of nearby Trinity Church is high: 280 feet. Nine and a half feet tall. With an LED display operating at all hours. Sometimes it will be kinetic; sometimes static. Mercifully, it will always be silent.” The New York Times thinks this is disrespectful to the memory of 9/11; babe, that horse left the mall a long time ago.

••• Announced for the World Trade Center mall: “Forever 21, Kit and Ace, and Smythson.” —Racked

••• The Broadsheet reports on the City Council testimony about the Water Street arcade proposal; nice to see Margaret Chin asking some tough questions about it (and Deborah Glick submitted written testimony). Net result: “After two hours of debate and deliberation, the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises appeared to be convinced of one thing: It needed more time to consider this issue, and hear from the public. Mr. Richards closed the session by saying, ‘we are going to lay over this application until the next regular Subcommittee meeting on May 17 at 9:30 am and give members of the public another chance to testify at that time.'”

••• The home goods store Canvas apparently reopened in Soho. —Racked

••• “Developers who agreed to buy the air rights over Pier 40 are paying 33% more than what they are worth, according to a recently finished appraisal commissioned by the owner of those air rights, the Hudson River Park Trust. […] The two developers want to acquire the air rights to boost the bulk of a mixed-use complex they are planning across the street from the pier on the site of a three-block-long building they own between Washington and West streets known as St. John’s Terminal. That project, called St. John’s Center, is anticipated to begin a months-long public review process next week in which the developers will seek a rezoning of the property to permit up to one million square feet of market-rate residential development and 300,000 square feet of affordable and senior housing.” Anyone know how much de Blasio squeezed out of them? —Crain’s

••• “The District 2 Community Education Council voted Tuesday night to approve a Department of Education zoning proposal for 75 Morton, a public West Village Middle School that will now be the zoned school for students from Battery Park City, Tribeca and up to 59th Street on the West side.” —DNAinfo

••• Uhuru and David Weeks are featured in a New York Times article about how “Unlike earlier generations of designers, most of whom sought licensing agreements with large manufacturers, [young design firms] are taking control of nearly every aspect of production, from initial concept to final product delivery.