••• A cross went up at St. Nicholas National Shrine (renderings here and here), within Liberty Park on the south side of the World Trade Center. The cross “is intended as an interim measure. It will be replaced with a permanent cross when the shrine opens in the first half of 2018.” A religious symbol in a public park, you ask? Port Authority executive director Patrick J. Foye “said there was nothing inappropriate about the presence of the cross in a public park, because St. Nicholas was destroyed in the attack, because construction costs were being met privately, and because the shrine would include contemplative space for the general public,” none of which remotely justifies it. —New York Times

••• “Through the end of the year, Harold’s Meat & Three will open a cozy pop-up [called Winter Wonderland] at the Good Story bar on the Arlo hotel’s roof. Snacks like pigs in blankets and Christmas cookies will be served with seasonal drinks, including a Tom & Jerry, hot chocolate martini and a fruitcake old-fashioned.” —New York Times

••• “Major Food Group’s new restaurants at the Seagram Building—which formerly held the Four Seasons Restaurant—will be renamed the Landmark [….] The name’s short for ‘the Landmark Rooms.’ […] The new Landmark name shouldn’t be confused with chef Marc Murphy’s Landmarc restaurants in Tribeca and in the Time Warner Center.” But they will be. —New York Post

••• “A Brookline, Mass., couple […] handed the keys to their $45,000 2014 Infiniti to a man in the lobby of Tribeca’s Roxy Hotel, mistaking him for a parking valet. The man, who was wearing jogging clothes, a red baseball hat and white sneakers, took the keys and was observed in a surveillance video driving off with the car.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “First signs of a safer crossing for cyclists and pedestrians arrived at the corner of West and Chambers streets Monday as workers from the Department of Transportation installed a traffic turn signal meant to prevent cars from turning into the path of bikes and pedestrians.” —Tribeca Trib

••• “The proposed Brooklyn Bridge Beach, which (if built) would become the sole access point at which Lower Manhattan residents could step into the water that surrounds them—rather than merely looking at it—[…] has received $15 million of dollars in funding from both the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the City Council, is supported by Community Board 1 and a chorus of elected officials, but remains at a years-long standstill.” —Broadsheet