High-End Gym Replaces Defunct Lucille Roberts

Some kind of fancy champagne bar will soon be positioned across the street from our front door.

Curious to see what our block looked like 400 years ago. Check in at the Mannahatta Project, search for our address, and you’ll discover that as you might guess, it was covered with trees. There was also a lovely little river running north to south between 5th and 6th Ave.

A man allegedly went on a rampage in Union Square on September 4 and left a complete stranger dead in the process.

Police said that the attack may have been a hate crime.

Friends of Jeffrey Babbitt, 62, were shocked to hear about the random act of violence that left the gentle, retired train conductor in a coma, CBS 2′s Dave Carlin reported on Friday.

“I don’t believe that. I don’t know why that happened. He is very nice,” Igor Sapozhnikov said.

Babbitt was minding his own business as he walked through the crowd near the chess boards in Union Square when a man made a hateful announcement and began his rampage, witnesses said. “He said ‘the next white person who walks by I’m going to [expletive],’” one woman said. “His fist went in and the man’s head bobbed and he hit the ground and you could hear his skull hitting the ground.”

The man continued his rampage before demanding to see police officers.

Sounds like the long-vacant restaurant space on the west side of University between 11th and 12th (next to Grey Dog) will soon become a 66-seat Thai restaurant.

This image looks southeast from the park toward the intersection of 14th St. and 4th Ave. in 1922, almost exactly 100 years ago. Note that at the time, the statue of George Washington stood at that corner.

Next up in the new retail strip on the west side of University Place between 12th and 13th is Glaze, which will offer vaguely Asian fusion bowls, like this: