••• “The coming misery of reconstruction on Chambers Street may have a sliver of silver in its lining. The city’s Department of Transportation, in partnership with a local community group, is planning to put a temporary pedestrian plaza on Hudson Street, between Chambers and Reade [right]. The block is expected to be closed to traffic during the three-year reconstruction project. The plaza would have large planters on each end of the block, with tables and chairs dotting the street, according to Victoria Weil, chairwoman of the Friends of Bogardus Garden, which takes care of the triangular garden on the east side of the street.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• “Ke$ha will not be allowed to perform in the South Street Seaport this summer. The owners of the Seaport said they pulled the plug on the pop singer’s free performance because the sponsor, Paper Magazine, did such a poor job of planning the free Drake/Hanson concert in the Seaport last week that ended in a riot.” (DNAinfo) Well, that’s the least upsetting news I’ve read in a while.

••• “The Zuccotti Park Greenmarket will cut back to just Tuesdays when a new Greenmarket opens in Battery Park City as soon as July 1.” (DNAinfo)

••• “Census takers are being denied access to some of the city’s fancier apartment towers, including several in Lower Manhattan, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Census Bureau. Since May 1, hundreds of census workers, called ‘enumerators,'”—WTF?—”have been knocking on the doors of households that either didn’t mail back their 2010 census form or didn’t receive one. But in more than a dozen high-rise Manhattan apartment buildings—at least five of which are Downtown—doormen aren’t allowing those workers to survey residents in their buildings.” (Tribeca Trib)

••• Kate Hudson and Usher have looked at buying apartments—separately!—at the Fairchild Lofts. (New York Post)

••• “The Battery Park City Authority is currently defending itself in hundreds of lawsuits brought by the employees of cleaning contractors who helped decontaminate neighborhood buildings after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and who now claim to be suffering from long-term health effects of exposure to environmental toxins such as asbestos. At last week’s meeting of the BPCA board, Jeffrey Leder, the Authority’s associate general counsel, estimated that ‘there are more than 12,000 of these lawsuits being pursued, and we are defendants in about 600 of them.'” (Broadsheet Daily)

••• Cool bike helmets, available at Adeline Adeline, got some affection from New York magazine.

••• “Robert De Niro affixed a small black sticker to the glass door of Locanda Verde Thursday afternoon to show his support for the 9/11 Memorial. The brief photo op outside the actor’s Tribeca restaurant launched the 9/11 memorial’s ‘Signs of Support’ campaign, which encourages businesses to donate $100 or more to the memorial foundation. Donors receive a window sticker that says, ‘We Support the 9/11 Memorial. Forever Changed. Forever Connected.’ ‘Every single customer who walks into this restaurant will see that the restaurant supports the memorial,” said Joe Daniels, president of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.” (DNAinfo)