••• “Sheldon Silver, the former speaker of the State Assembly who rose to become one of New York’s most powerful politicians, was sentenced to seven years in prison on Friday for his conviction on federal corruption charges. […] At the retrial, prosecutors again showed that Mr. Silver had obtained nearly $4 million in illicit payments in return for taking official actions on behalf of a cancer researcher, Robert N. Taub, at Columbia University and two real estate developers.” Silver is appealing the decision, of course. —New York Times

••• Writer Jen Doll mentions Greca, Fika, and the Odeon in her Grub Street Diet. (Shouldn’t anyone who willingly eats wraps be disqualified from this series?)

••• “The Howard Hughes Corporation is mulling over outfitting a street-level bar at its Pier 17 entertainment complex with the same state-of-the-art sound system it installed on the rooftop to protect neighbors from pop music emanating from the pier’s top-deck concert venue, after locals in nearby apartment buildings mistook music coming from the bar for live tunes spilling out of the alfresco auditorium.” —Downtown Express