I work at a global bank in midtown and we have about 1000 people in our office. Our return continues to be voluntary, and while we have been allowed to have up to 50% capacity since October, the reality is that most people are staying home. Trading desks and a few others are more populated, but only about 5-10% of investment bankers are coming into the office on any given day. Until the vaccine is more widely available, businesses in midtown are allowed to reopen (lunch spots, etc) and schools are on a more consistent in-person schedule, I don't see how that changes. Labor Day seems like the earliest we get back to any sense of "normalcy". — Lisa on In the News: Office towers are still empty

Our company has advised that our work from home situation is now extended through Labor Day with employees being allowed into the office on an as needed basis. — TribecaMom on In the News: Office towers are still empty

I agree. Welcome to the neighborhood Cocoon. Settle down people; I am feeling confident the owners will follow all the city rules. — TG on CB1 Licensing Committee approves beer and wine license for Cocoon

Walking down good memory lane of oh sooo many moons ago....Tommy Tangs for Thai...Incinerator Chili on Church... close by to Westside Coffee c. Sometime in the 70s? North River bar on Hudson...Magoos....Chanterelle,Thai House Cafe on Hudson , Sosa Borella on Greenwich...that Dinko-Rama Chicken Shack( forgot the name)Hey we can’t forget CornerStone that gave away hot chicken wings to our kidlets on Halloween...and when David Boule had that amazing little take out place with the most delicious organic rotisserie chickens, yummy little stacks of butter cookies in glassine sleeves, and bar none the BEST hot croissant with butter rich shireed eggs, freshly grated Parmesan and hand sliced smoke ham... ooh and duck confit in his take out “salad bar “... homemade ice cream... yum o licious! And what about “Bread” And Arqua and Peter Dent where I was the buyer/manager in the early 80s Pre Bubbys ( we bought pies from Bubbys toward the end, made the mayonnaise from scratch daily carried Croissant + from Collette’s French Bakery uptown , Orwasher’s, H and H , Zagreb Ham ... it was a mini Dean and DeLuca’s way ahead of his time as Peter had come from Dean and DeLuca’s having been their Cheese buyer.. yummy memories xoxox Be here now and let’s spread the love! We have a new president! Let’s rejoice ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ — Paddington on The Odeon responds to The New Yorker

from the VacinneFinder site today: "The website is closed. We have no appointments available at this time. This message will be removed if we have appointments available in the future." — Janet on Finding a vaccine in the neighborhood

urban renewal is an improvement over the rundown obsolete Washington Market buildings and streetscape. missing are the local landmarks like the Market Diner and the workers burning trash in steel drums. — perryo Rothenberg on Designer of Independence Plaza dies at 82

Houseman is our favorite neighborhood restaurant. The food "rocks" and we are so glad that the spirit of perseverance just flows out of the everything they do to make it through this challenging time. TriBeCa! Keep ordering Neds unbelievable food so we can all meet up and fill his dining room soon! — Jerry on Local Business Update: Beyond the pivot at Houseman

I work at one of these large banks and can tell you that we are now taliking about a very small number of additional people potentially coming back in Q4 at the earliest. Most of my friends at large companies such as banks, tech, advertising, media are being told discreetly by their managers that they will not be back in the office this year, even if they are vaccinated by June or July. You are most likely looking at 30% coming back at the end of Q1 next year and then 50% by June and perhaps 75%+ towards the end of next year assuming a very smooth vaccination process of a large percentage of the population. This is the reality of what is discussed with the employees regardless of what the landlords or media want to suggest. — Peter on In the News: Office towers are still empty

There are often blood drives at BMCC near Target. Make an appointment at https://nybc.org and you're in and out in 45 minutes. Donations were down drastically in 2020, this is a tangible way to help for those of us who are not healthcare or frontline workers. — Blood donor on Seen & Heard: Get your hands dirty

Have people who left Worth St. without appointments heard back / gotten emails re: second appointments? I know some people who haven’t. If you go to Stanton St, you will spend a couple of hours waiting OUTDOORS for both the first, and then second. Shot. Challenging if the weather’s bad. When I tried the small sites, I found that none had appointments, so I wasted a lot of time on questionnaires before I got to the scheduling screen that said nothing was available. In fact, the Rite Aid site told me there were no appointments within 50 miles of New York City. I don’t know if that’s changed. That’s the reason that I targeted a large site, far from here, and was successful. — A. on Finding a vaccine in the neighborhood

So happy for Ghislaine. She did our apartment, Love her style. — t on Seen & Heard: Get your hands dirty

Hear, hear! I used to deliver groceries to IPN in the 70's from the West Village. Best tips of the day and the nicest, most gracious people. We were bringing water to the desert. There was NOTHING in Tribeca then. And never would have been without IPN. I wound up moving there in 2000 and loved it for about 15 years; then the new condos and yoga and spinning studios took over. $27 for a burger at Bubby's? Come on. That's a hip and cool neighborhood? That's the Upper East Side. Murray Hill. — LongTime, FirstTime on Designer of Independence Plaza dies at 82

How dare you call IPN an eyesore. The residents of IPN inhabited this neighborhood when nobody else wanted to live down here. The residents fought for a supermarket, as there was nothing down here, as well as other amenities that you take for granted. Now that we have the entitled living here complaining about access to the waterfront. What's stopping you from walking to the river Sir? — jezz on Designer of Independence Plaza dies at 82

Not easily... — Tribeca Citizen on Finding a vaccine in the neighborhood

I also believe Westway would have been taken over with development - much as West Street is now. Can you imagine the number of buildings on top of that highway right up to the water's edge 20 years ago. We were not the "enlightened" citizens we are now. The West Street alternative, while at times feeling like the River Jordan, is a much better solution. The Park is one of the best in the country. — G on Designer of Independence Plaza dies at 82

@Scott -- since you asked. Westway was basically a taxpayer-financed swindle disguised as a park that would have *worsened* traffic and pollution by making it easier for more cars and trucks to be driven into and through Manhattan and onto narrow city streets. (Look up “induced demand.”) Not only did the opponents see this, they promoted the idea of “trading in” Westway funds for mass transit --an option they helped write into federal highway legislation that helped rejuvenate public transportation in New York and other U.S. cities. If you're curious, there's more in this eulogy I wrote a year ago to one of the leaders of the opposition, Carolyn Konheim: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2019/12/02/in-memoriam-do-all-the-good-you-can-the-life-of-urban-ecology-pioneer-carolyn-konheim/ — Komanoff on Designer of Independence Plaza dies at 82

It's a shame he succeeded with Independence Plaza and failed with the Westway. The end result is two eyesores that disrupt access to the waterfront and feel entirely out of character from the rest of the neighborhood. The Hudson River Parkway is a lovely effort to turn an uninviting highway into an inviting parkspace, but it's insane to think that we could have buried the highway, opened it up to park space, and had the federal government foot 90% of the bill. What were people in the early 1980s thinking in opposing it?! — Scott on Designer of Independence Plaza dies at 82

Any chance you make the links load in a new tab? — Chris on Finding a vaccine in the neighborhood

125 Worth Street is no longer taking walk-ins. My husband I were there tonight (Monday, the18th) at about 8:30. We were told that the walk-ins on Saturday caused too much chaos so they were only accepting people with appointments from yesterday on. The website still says there are no appointments available, — j on Finding a vaccine in the neighborhood

We live two blocks away from 1803 and could hear their loud, recorded, amplified music through closed windows. It was almost always the same, annoying play list. It was fine the first night, but every night gets old quickly. — JVZ on The streets will now be even quieter…

I do not think anyone wants to save a parking lot.” More apartments however are the last thing Manhattan needs especially now. There is an a overload of living spaces. Landmark Commission would be a joke if they designated a landmark and then decide to change their minds. What are they saving? Certainly the entrance to the FDR Drive and Brooklyn Bridge do not need more traffic. — Karen on Howard Hughes’ plan for 250 Water fails to get approval from Landmarks

I find it astonishing the amount of effort that is going into saving a “historical parking lot”. Businesses are going out of business and the development of this site would bring forth additional foot traffic that is desperately needed. There won’t be any district to save if no businesses survive. — Fred on Howard Hughes’ plan for 250 Water fails to get approval from Landmarks

Having gotten word of the walk-in for seniors I went to 125 Worth Street at 5:45 AM, Saturday morning. I was one of about 6 walk-ins at that time. Several friends went at 10:30, 11:30 or midnight and invested 2-3 hours for the process. I was eventually seated with a healthcare worker who guided me in filling in my form and directed to the 2nd floor for the vaccine jab #1, given a date in Feb. when I would next hear when to come for jab #2. I was out on the street at 6:45 AM. I highly recommend the very early morning hours if the offer is still standing. All the healthcare workers were professional and kind. Just walk up and find out; the neighborhood is highly surveilled so the dark early hours aren't anything to fear. Whose sleeping through the night anyway? — neighbor on Finding a vaccine in the neighborhood

I agree 100%! — NNYC on Howard Hughes’ plan for 250 Water fails to get approval from Landmarks

There is no end to the destruction of historic districts in New York. Affordable housing is the De Blasio era strategy to give vulture developers more pass to do what they want. The revival schemes of South Street Seaport in the past twenty some years have all failed fantastically. Malls and chain stores didn’t do it, so the latest epiphany is glassy towers. The more out of scale more obnoxious the better. Why not just leave South Street Seaport alone, let history speak for itself? To these people history is a brand, meaning exploitation and gaudy tourism, soulless development that replace any possibility of a sense of history. Bring back the Peking, bring back the Fulton Street Fish Market! — R. on Howard Hughes’ plan for 250 Water fails to get approval from Landmarks