••• “The city is moving forward with plans to knock down the New Market Building at the South Street Seaport, once again calling the site’s future into question. The rundown building—constructed in 1939 as part of the Fulton Fish Market—has sat vacant for many years. The city previously discussed demolishing it, back when the Howard Hughes Corporation planned a condominium and hotel tower on the site in 2015. At the time, representatives from the city’s Economic Development Corporation told Crain’s that the building was in danger of collapsing because the piles that supported the structure were so deteriorated. […] The city has already taken apart substructure portions of the old market, and expects it to be fully demolished by the fall. —Real Deal (photo from 1939, courtesy the NY Design Commission via Municipal Arts Society)

••• “Plans filed by architects Cross & Cross in Oct 1929 for 20 Exchange Place called for a remarkable 71 stories. Three weeks later, the Stock Market Crash sent them back to the drawing board.” —Daytonian in Manhattan

••• “Lower Manhattan has a new line of defense against tragedies and disasters, ranging from medical emergencies in an individual home to mass casualty events. On December 19, the Resident Manager Emergency Response Team program graduated its first class, consisting of more than 40 building staff, concerned residents, and community leaders. […] RMERT certification involves 15 weeks of more in-depth, hands-on training in minutely specific areas of focus like High Rise Search and Rescue, Building Risk, Active Shooters, Terrorism, and Acute Stress Disorder—the precursor to the more widely known Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. ASD unfolds in real time, often incapacitating victims or bystanders at the moment when their cooperation is most needed by rescue workers.” —Broadsheet

••• “City Council member Margaret Chin is pushing back against a wave of super-tall residential development on the Lower East Side, while also working to close a loophole that help trigger the avalanche of development now engulfing the East River waterfront, between the Manhattan and Williamsburg bridges.” —Broadsheet

••• “The latest addition to Canal Street Market will be a kakigori shop, a Japanese shaved ice treat often topped with fresh fruit and other toppings. Bonsai Kakigōri [opens] January 9.” —Eater

••• A huge New York Times article about the subway system includes some depressing photos of the once-grand Chambers Street J/Z station. (Below: my photo from 2015.)