••• Interesting request from the Institute for Urban Design for its new project, By the City/For the City: “From now through April 30, we’re asking New Yorkers to tell us where the sites are in their neighborhoods that they’d like to see receive some fresh design attention. From parks and streetscapes all the way up to the city’s transportation system, we want people in all five boroughs to tell us what they think needs a thorough re-imagining. Then, from May 16-June 17, we’ll rally the international design community to create proposals that address the sites, situations, and trends that New Yorkers are most interested in! In September, we’ll be publishing all of these proposals in an Atlas of Possibility for the future of New York, which will serve as the foundation for our first-ever Urban Design Week festival, which is scheduled for September 15-20, 2011.” There’s a form at the BTC/FTC link above. Here are a few ideas to get you started: The city could insist that developers explain what’s going on whenever there’s new construction (maybe using those black-and-white smart codes); we could come up with a new way for trucks to warn people that they’re backing up (besides beeps that you can hear from three blocks away—if you’re actually at risk of being hit, you’ll be too worried about your sudden deafness to get out of the way); a database of all film shoots planned in the city (I’m sure it exists, but the city won’t release it, which is pretty outrageous); the bizarre-but-enthralling AT&T Long Lines Building could be used for art and/or landscaping (the deck that runs along the south side is crying for attention); and so on.

••• Ward III is now on OpenTable.

••• From ROC: “11th anniversary is tonight! Grazie to all our friends…come by for a toast with a complimentary glass of Prosecco!”

••• From the LMCCC (I edited it quite a bit and boldfaced the last part because it’s most notable): “CB1 heard an update about National 9/11 Memorial visitor access at its monthly World Trade Center committee meeting on April 11. Jim Connors, the Memorial’s Executive Vice President for Operations, said that the timed-reservation system is being coordinated, and has the support of several tourism outlets, kiosks, and cultural institutions for visitor-pass distribution. He also showed mock-ups of the signs that will be hung on lights and other signposts, to direct people to the Memorial ‘welcome area.’ That welcome area is now planned to be a 7,500-square-foot open-air plaza on Albany Street between Greenwich and Washington—at the southern end of the former 130 Liberty Street site. The plaza will be paved and fenced off, furnished with bike racks [No doubt. —Ed.], benches and plantings, and hold as many as 700 people at a time. It would be used as the waiting area for Memorial visitors who hold passes according to their assigned times. From the welcome area, visitors would travel in groups along a dedicated walkway up Washington, west on Cedar, and north on West Street into the Memorial Plaza. They would exit from the same area, near the foot of the Liberty Street Bridge’s eastern stairway. Connors also reported that the Memorial’s open hours is likely to be from 10 a.m. on weekdays and 9 a.m. on weekends, until dusk—which means the closing time will vary by season.”

••• Also from the LMCCC: Details on 37 Warren! (That’s the old Janovic building at Warren and Church): “Conversion of the eight-story former office building at 37 Warren Street kicked off in April 2011 with interior demolition. Construction manager CitiStructure is overseeing its conversion into condominiums, which includes adding four stories to the existing structure, as well as renovating its façade. To complete the work, a hoist will be installed outside the building, with sidewalk sheds in place on both Warren and Church Streets starting mid-April. The completed 12-story building will be home to more than 66,000 square feet, with retail continuing to occupy the ground level. The $15 million project is slated for completion approximately May 2012.”

••• You may have noticed the Facebook “Like” button in the right-hand column and how it says 40 people like Tribeca Citizen. The proud parent in me needs to point out that the actual number of people who “like” Tribeca Citizen is 772 (which you can see here).

••• Remember Borbay, the artist who painted the Tribeca Grand? He was recently in Duane Park, painting it as a commission. The finished product is below, and you can see the painting take shape on his blog. Very nice!