••• “Community Board 1 is pushing for local representation on a board created by Governor Andrew Cuomo, to choose a location with Battery Park City for a planned memorial to 2017’s Hurricane Maria (which killed nearly 3,000 residents of Puerto Rico), and oversee its design. […] Bruce Ehrmann, who serves as co-chair of CB1’s Landmarks Preservation Committee, observed that, ‘apparently we have no real say, but it’s a little odd to put a memorial to the deaths of almost 3,000 predominantly Puerto Rican people in the middle of maybe the whitest neighborhood in all of New York City. It makes no sense.'” Hear, hear. —Broadsheet

••• Who uses Battery Park City’s parks and how? A new 130-page report, “Battery Park City Authority Parks User Count and Study,” has answers. —Tribeca Trib

••• “Gitano Jungle Room throws open its doors in the James New York hotel tonight, moving the sceney outdoor restaurant indoors for the season.” —Eater

••• “Local officials are looking to sink the hopes of a controversial advertising company that recently launched a floating billboard off the coast of Manhattan [….] ‘There is sufficient cause to believe that Ballyhoo’s operations in New York City violate the Zoning Resolution,’ [New York City Law Department] Corporation Counsel Zachary Carter wrote in the January 2nd letter. ‘Therefore, we are writing to provide Ballyhoo with an opportunity to demonstrate, no later than Jan. 16, 2019, how it intends to comply.’ According to Carter, several provisions of the NYC Administrative Code prohibit advertising signs in waterways adjacent to a residential, commercial, or manufacturing district and within view of an arterial highway—including the West Side Highway and FDR Drive. The boat’s current route begins near the Intrepid, traveling around the the southern tip of Manhattan before finishing at Roosevelt Island.” —Gothamist