••• “Executives of Off Off Broadway’s Flea Theater said they had purchased a building downtown to create a new home, concluding that buying instead of renting was necessary for its survival. The Flea […] bought a two-story office building at 20 Thomas Street last December for $5.3 million, according to the artistic director, Jim Simpson.” The Flea is “now in the quiet phase of a capital campaign to raise money to create at least two theaters within the 5,600-square-foot building.” (New York Times)

••• “Firefighters and hazardous materials specialists were called to 319 Greenwich St. around 2 a.m., after residents complained of fumes wafting into their hallway. The source of the vapor was believed to be a pesticide in use at the downstairs restaurant, Salaam Bombay. Firefighters detected no hazardous materials or vapors in the building, though six residents were examined at the scene, according to an FDNY spokesman. None required medical treatment.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• “Test scores plummeted at public elementary schools across the city this year, but an accountant who has been tracking test data for the past eight years advised parents not to worry. Tom Goodkind, a Battery Park City parent and Community Board 1 member, pointed out that everyone’s scores dropped, so children likely will not be penalized for scoring lower than they had hoped. Goodkind focused his analysis on the fourth-grade English Language Arts test, a key factor in middle school admissions, and sorted all 734 elementary schools in the city based on the percentage of students that passed the test this year.” (DNAinfo)

by Terese Loeb Kreuzer (courtesy Broadsheet Daily)

••• Broadsheet Daily visits with WTC masterplan architect Daniel Liebeskind.

••• A moving essay by Ameena Meer, Tribeca resident and designer of Park51‘s new logo, on “What it means to be a Muslim now.” (Religion Dispatches; her essay is the final one)

••• Fashion designer Prabal Gurung is having a party at the new Toro bar—I guess that’s what they’re calling the basement now—at the Smyth hotel tonight. (New York Times)

••• A WNYC blogger filed a dispatch about Fashion’s Night Out in Tribeca.

••• Local writer Cristina Page on the Park51 brouhaha. (Huffington Post)

••• Kula Yoga is opening a branch in Williamsburg. (Brownstoner)