What Lower Manhattan will look like after Silverstein's buildings are completed; the Woolworth Building with its ornate green roof is on the left, 99 Church is the tall building to it right (and to the left of what is an illuminated Church street); to the right is the WTC site, with Freedom Tower and the other three towers; image from dbox/Silverstein Properties Developer Larry Silverstein announced yesterday that he will build an 80-story building......

Principal Tyona Washington of Canarsie High School opened up a piece of mail that contained a noose made out of string as well as a 2-page letter containing, per Newsday, "a common racial slur and words suggesting that a black person should not be running the school." The letter also referred to "white power" and had the signature of a white administrator, but police do not believe the letter was from that individual. Additionally, the......

As the NYPD Hate Crimes unit, as well as the FBI and Justice Department, investigates the noose found outside a Columbia professor's office, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly commented about the school's cooperation. Apparently the school only turned over surveillance videos after the NYPD provided a subpoena - three days after the noose was found on Teachers College Professor Madonna Constatine's office door knob. Columbia said that educational institutions require subpoenas, because they are dealing with......

Another noose was found Thursday afternoon - and this time, it was outside the Church Street Post Office. Um, WTF is going on? The noose was found on a lamppost, and while it was visible at street level, postal employees working on the second floor noticed it. Building management took it down. According to Newsday, there is scaffolding outside the building at 90 Church Street that "leads to the light pole, but the scaffolding is......

Tomorrow, the city and other organizations will mark the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Here's the official city commemoration:7AM: Families start to arrive at Zuccotti Park, where the ceremony will take place. 8:40AM: Mayor Bloomberg begins the program, which includes first responders reading victims' names and readings from NY Governor Spitzer, former NY Governor Pataki, NJ Governor Corzine and former NYC mayor Giuliani. Bagpipers and drummers lead......

The Post created this handy graphic explaining the progress of buildings at the World Trade Center site. Describing construction as "booming," the Post suggests the "least heralded project" is the "massive, 80-foot-deep...bathtub" for three Church Street office towers and their foundations. Any takers on whether these projects get finished in time? We will bet that Freedom Tower opens in 2011, even if it's not completely finished, for a 10-years-after-September 11 ceremony. There are many......

Developer Larry Silverstein is probably sleeping better: Yesterday, seven insurance companies agreed to pay $2 billion in payments, which brings the total insurance payout to $4.55 billion and allows all the constructions projects to move forward with what Governor Eliot Spitzer called "certainty." He also said, "It permits access to the capital markets, it resolves and eliminates one of the outstanding hurdles that had remained and it brings to closure years of litigation." Apparently......

The Tribeca Film Festival is starting this Wednesday night, so you still have a few days to get your tickets and make dinner reservations. The New York Times gave a few local suggestions including Dennis Foy, Mai House, and Turks and Frogs. Cercle Rouge is offering a prix fixe, three-course menus for lunch ($19.95) and for dinner from 4 - 7 p.m. ($34.95), just for the occasion. Some of our other Tribeca favorites include Landmarc,......

Dennis Foy, a self-taught chef who has owned and operated restaurants in the tri-state area for over 30 years (most recently, EQ, which closed shortly after 9/11) can currently be found in Tribeca at the eponymous Dennis Foy. Although the restaurant has been open since December, a recent visit on a Thursday night found more empty chairs than one might imagine. Could it have been the cold weather, or perhaps the location, which is......

February 11: Second New Indian Dinner - A Benefit for Kids with Cameras Tabla is proud to present a multi-course dinner prepared by several of the world’s leading New Indian chefs, including: Maneet Chauhan, Vermilion, Chicago; Melissa Walnock, Pastry Chef, Tabla, New York City; Vikram Garg, IndeBleu, Washington, DC; Kirti Pant, Junnoon, Palo Alto; Hemant Oberoi, Taj Luxury Hotels; Mumbai, India; and Floyd Cardoz, Tabla, New York City. The dinner is a benefit for Kids......

In case you've been caught up in your holiday shopping, we wanted to let you know about some recent restaurant openings: - Kobe Club: If you're into Waygu beef, it's all over the menu at Jeffrey Chodorow's latest venture. Restaurant Girl gives us an early look. 68 West 58th Street, 212-644-5623. - Dennis Foy: chef (and painter) Dennis Foy brings his take on "French-influenced Contemporary American fare" to Tribeca, even dabbling in a bit of......

READING: Head to the NYPL for the Borowitz Report On The Future - "in a totally improvised and spontaneous program, cybersatirist Andy Borowitz will answer the audience's questions about what the future holds for current events, pop culture, sports, business, and Paris Hilton, with the guarantee that he will be at least as accurate as the New York Post," runs the NYPL description. - Krissa Corbett Cavouras 7pm // Humanities and Social Sciences Library [455......

At noon today, Suzanne Vega and Lou Reed will play a free concert at the opening of 7 World Trade Center. As we all know, 7 WTC is the only tower to be rebuilt since 9/11; the plaza already opened this week. The first tenants (the developers of the building - Silverstein Properties) will move in Friday, followed by the architects (Norman Foster, Jean Nouvel and Richard Rogers) working on the three buildings being......

Wow, this is the happiest we've ever seen World Trade Center leaseholder Larry Silverstein, pictured here with Silverstein Properties vice president Janno Lieber, after announcing that he will accept the Port Authority's deal (ultimatum) over the development of Ground Zero. (Usually, in photographs, you can tell he's not the happiest camper.) There are still a couple "logistical issues" for Silverstein and the Port Authority to work out, but he has agreed to the recent......

The government powers that be when it comes to the World Trade Center site - NY Governor Pataki, NJ Governor Corzine and NYC Mayor Bloomberg - have worked out a plan that was presented to WTC developer Larry Silverstein in hopes of getting the Ground Zero rebuilding off the ground. The deal is for Silverstein to build Freedom Tower (but the Port Authority would control it) as well as giving him control of three additional......

Ah, the past couple weeks of fretting about taxes is almost over, but not quite: With tax day falling on a Sunday, the deadline for filing your federal taxes is actually tomorrow night if you live in New York state (Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and DC are other Tuesday night tax deadlines, because we all celebrate Patriot's Day - hello, Lexington and Concord). Newsday has a couple last minute tips, including the reminder......

Governor Pataki, you can kiss your April "Freedom Tower" groundbreaking goodbye: Talks between World Trade Center leaseholder, the developer Larry Silverstein, and the Port Authority (WTC owner) went nowhere yesterday, as the deadline to . So enter the namecalling: Tthe PA calling Silverstein greedy and Silverstein saying that the PA "elected to suspend talks." The Times reports that talks "nearly blew up" many times during the waning hours of negotiating time (the deadline was......

Jakob reports live exclusively for Gothamist from Church Street downtown (1MB video on Vimeo). You could hear a pin drop (almost)!......

Oh, yes, it's on. After 3AM this morning, the Transport Workers Union announced they would strike a couple hours after rejecting the MTA's latest offer. Thousands of subway and bus workers walked off the job, leaving millions of New Yorkers to find new ways to go to work (sneakers, meet 60 blocks of walking). Now, New York City is in a state of emergency, in its special "contingency plan," with restrictions on vehicles (only......

Eager to reassure everyone that things were moving along at Ground Zero, Governor Pataki's World Trade Center flunky chief of staff, said that the PATH Transit Hub designed by Santiago Calatrava would offer 200,000 square feet of space for retailers and bidding will start in a few months. All hell, does this mean there will be an Olive Garden down there, to compete with the Applebee's at the Battery Park Regal Cinemas? The NY Times......

Today, the Port Authority will break ground on the new transit hub at the World Trade Center. Gothamist is especially excited because the structure is the gloriously ethereal design by Santiago Calatrava, and we actually can imagine a day when it will be completed (by the end of 2009, according to estimates), versus the slow, stop-start nature of the Freedom Tower. Politicians will be converging on Church Street today, as this groundbreaking comes close......

MUSIC: Tonight at Crash Mansion there's a free show and a free open bar...and for a good cause. Morning Theft, The Cloud Room, My Victoria, and The Rats will all perform for a second part of a benefit for Kia Nowotne. As an added bonus we hear our favorite artist, Michelle McShane, will be joining the Cloud Room for a few songs, playing autoharp. Open bar for 1 hour between 9-10pm. Stoli is sponsoring the......

We saw this ad on the Daily Show, during Lewis Black's segment about the commercialization of September 11, but we thought it was a joke: How could there be a coin created from silver mined from Ground Zero? Besides being unspeakably tacky and horrible, it just didn't compute. Luckily, reader Dan emailed us to with a link to the actual site about the Freedom Tower silver dollar coming from National Collectors Mint, which also......

There's been an unusual amount of mail-related news lately. First, the Church Street post office just a block away from the World Trade Center has finally reopened. Tribeca residents, who had previously walked by the closed post office (where someone does stand guard), now rejoice in not having to go to Canal Street, Bowling Green or other locations for their mail. Also yesterday, a man robbed a post office at 340 West 42nd Street of......

If you thought that the crap falling from the Time-Warner Center this weekend was an enraged Thomas Keller throwing fire-ravaged kitchen equipment from Per Se, you were so wrong. Two pieces of sheet metal fell from the 76th floor of the Time-Warner Center yesterday evening, due to the intense winds yesterday. Streets around Columbus Circle were closed until other debris was secured, and the Post says the sheet metal is from business mogul David Martinez's......

Gothamist headed down the Jean-Georges Vongerichten's Chinese-inspired restaurant, 66. The sleek Richard Meier-designed space was full of Wall Street types, beautiful people, and some people from L.A. The main dining area is separated from the kitchen by a beautiful aquarium (right), but there's a communal table that seems to have space at any time for walk-ins, which is what we were. The menu is split up into appetizers, dim sum, entrees, and noodles/rice -......

The re-opening of the Path Train at the World Trade Center will be marked by NY Governor Pataki and NJ Governor McGreevey at 2PM tomorrow, with free rides until midnight. The governors will ride in a train that was the last to leave the WTC Path station on September 11. This station will accept Metrocards at turnstiles, except weekly and unlimited cards. Additionally, since this is station at Church Street is a temporary one,......