Crain’s has an op-ed from Charles J. Urstadt, a former state housing commissioner who chaired the Battery Park City Authority from its inception to 1979, suggesting that the city fill in the water between BPC and Piers 25 and 26 to make a campus for Amazon. Uhhh, no? He writes: “The transaction would be fairly simple, and the only outside approval would have to come from the Army Corps of Engineers, which previously gave its blessing to Battery Park City right next door. The price would be nominal because the city owns the eastern half of the site and the state owns the western half; neither is getting any income from it.” Thanks but no thanks.

SINGLE TIX ON SALE FOR FILM FESTIVAL
This caught my eye as useful, but then I realized it was written by one of my fave former students: The Tribeca Film Festival tickets are on sale now; festival runs from April 24 to May 5. I’ll do a bigger post later, but this has a decent round-up. –Backstage

LUXURY AT A DISCOUNT
A report from StreetEasy analyzing home sale prices from March to May 2018 shows that homes in “luxury-dense” neighborhoods – that’s us – and “value-friendly” hoods – that’s BPC and Fidi – are selling at a discount. That is, if you count discount $4.635 million, the current median asking price in Tribeca. (And remember math whizzes, median is the midpoint, not the average.) “Last spring, a resounding 90 percent of all listings in [Tribeca} sold below ask. Just to Tribeca’s north, SoHo faced similar struggles, with 89 percent of listings closing below ask.”

LEARN HOW TO FARM IN THE HOOD
6sqft includes Farm.One on its list of best places to take a plant course in NYC. “The two-hour hands-on class teaches attendees everything from the principles of hydroponics to managing climate, to planting, to pruning, plus you get to taste some of Farm.One’s offerings and take home a hydroponic planter of your own. The course costs $130-per-person.”

LAND OF GROWN ADULTS WITH ROOMMATES
Just had to reprint Car & Driver’s hysterical assessment of New Yorkers in the context of congestion pricing: “New York City is a place where grown adults with college degrees and average salaries have roommates until they’ve reached their forties. Today, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo promised to make Manhattan much pricier by 2021, when the city will adopt the nation’s first congestion charge tax.”

FILLING IN THE SEAPORT
The Intelligencer has this review/round-up/analysis of the mayor’s plan to fill in the Seaport – calling it vague, and then some: “The proposal is short on details, which will have to be worked out block by block, in hundreds of community meetings. For now, the document reads as though it had been conceived to justify De Blasio’s vaguely comical presidential ambitions, a table-thumping plea for national attention.”

BIG SHOCKER
The NYPD opposes the mayor’s effort to cut down on placard abuse, reports Politico.

JARED ENG ACCOMPLICE PLEADS
The alleged accomplice of Jared Eng (the Tribeca man who has been indicted in the murder of his mother, Paula Chin) pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court to an indictment charging her with three counts of hindering prosecution, three counts of tampering with physical evidence and one count of concealment of a human corpse, all felonies. Her case then was adjourned until June 5. –The Daily Freeman