••• When I interviewed Philip Williams of Philip Williams Posters for the first Spotlight Q&A back in 2015, he mentioned “four cyanotypes by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, from when they were together and working under the pseudonym Matson Jones. They were made for the windows at Bonwit Teller. I’ve had them for 40 years. At one point, two guys who owned a seafood restaurant in the south wanted to buy them, but when they said they planned to cut them to fit on their wall, I rescinded the sale.” Two of them are in the Warren Street window, or at least were two days ago, no doubt timed to the Rauschenberg “Among Friends” show at MoMA.

••• “Xtend Tribeca’s opening date was pushed to June 5,” says Laura.

••• D. noticed that Y7 Studio, “the original hip-hop yoga studio” appears to be opening a studio in Tribeca, although the exact location and timing remain a mystery. (“New Tork” does have a nice ring to it….)

••• The 180 store at 180 Duane now has Tokyobikes. You can test-drive one.

••• Here’s @Placardabuse’s response to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s announcement about placard reform:

We don’t see the need for additional staff. There is ample coverage; existing Traffic Enforcement Agents and Integrity Control Officers need to be given clear orders to issue summonses honestly and fairly in accordance with the law, and fully supported and protected when they do. Any harassment or retaliation needs to be dealt with firmly and decisively.

Unfortunately, we are skeptical this is designed to play to the news cycle, and possibly ride out an election, before returning to business as usual. We have heard promises of crackdowns before, and there is no evidence yet they are even trying to get this one started. Failing to clear the placard corruption in the area around the press conference does not suggest they are really taking it serious even for initial appearances, and we observed the regulars we have been featuring routinely in their normal places again today.

Creating dedicated resources creates the situation where complaints aren’t addressed because they didn’t have the “right” people because they “can’t be everywhere at once.” It also makes it easier to roll back later, citing things like “priorities.”

What is needed is a change in culture and consistent accountability from the people on top. That’s why we are so disturbed to hear the Chief of Department will be heading this up. The last time he was in the Bronx with de Blasio was for a Town Hall meeting, where he answered a question about placard corruption by reassuring the house audience that they have good controls in place and people who misuse placards are disciplined, which obviously had no element of truth whatsoever.