Adding a new post, since I wanted to sneak in a reminder about the bike tour:

FIVE BORO BIKE TOUR
The annual Five Boro Bike Tour, run by Bike New York, is Sunday, so be warned if you need to get in and out of the neighborhood that day and/or want to sleep in.

The start of the race will be at Franklin and Church, with the tour’s 32,000 participants staged down to Battery Park. Street closings on Worth, Walker and Franklin will start the night before by midnight; Church Street will close starting at 5:30a on Sunday till 6:30 that night.

Because there are representatives of the mayor and the city who announce the start of the race, the organizers will set up 13 speakers placed along the route from Franklin to Duane. Last year they had 24 speakers, and they reduced it at the request of the community board. The committee also asked that the speakers not face residential buildings and asked that they not run tests too early prior to the race. (They said the AV company has a decibel reader so that neighbors will not hear the speeches in their homes, but that is just a silly notion. Of course if there’s a speaker on Church you can hear it no matter what.)

BOGARDUS EVENTS SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Bogardus Plaza has its Spring Block Party tomorrow (Saturday) at 11a, including performances from Downtown Dance Factory and art from Church Street, and its annual Downtown Dog Show on Sunday at 3p. You can still register for that here. 

JANE’S WALK EVENTS THIS WEEKEND
The Municipal Arts Society has all sorts of events cued up for its annual walking tours that it calls Jane’s Walk, in honor of Jane Jacobs. There are tons of tours downtown on the calendar for this weekend (some start today). See the map here and click through. Some examples: The Irish in New York: Before and After Five Points; Preview of Gotham Park: Underneath the Brooklyn Bridge; the Financial District: It Happened Here First.