This just in to the Gothamist feedbag -- organic (and environmentally friendly) fro yo joint Yorganic will be officially opening tomorrow in the Financial District at 3 Hanover Square. To celebrate, they will be serving free frozen yogurt (5 oz of original or green tea with one topping) today from 12pm until 4pm. In addition to fro yo, starting tomorrow they'll be offering smoothies and juice. Having stopped by the recent opening of their midtown......

Police sources say that the woman found dead in her West 22nd Street apartment was killed by her boyfriend after she broke up with him. The Post reports that 26-year-old Margaux Powers (pictured, with her father) had "canceled plans to attend a family gathering Thursday" so she could break up with Jonathan Smith, 34. Powers and Smith, a chef who had been recently laid off, lived together in the Chelsea apartment. Police believe Smith slit......

A survey conducted by the Transportation Dept. and released yesterday [pdf file] illustrated the sorry state of parking in lower Manhattan. The survey showed that the number of cars far exceeded the number of available parking spots in the financial district, unless one possessed a city parking placard.In the area it covered, largely the area south of Canal Street, there were only 1,105 metered parking spaces and 871 unregulated spaces available to the drivers......

Aside from the concerts, there isn't much reason to go to the Southstreet Seaport unless you're 14 and need to hit Abercrombie & Fitch. The NY Sun reports that General Growth Properties, the developer who owns the rights to the area (the Seaport and Fulton Fish Market), is on a mission to turn that all around; but is their mission misguided? With a commercial and residential project that promises a floating pool and a community......

Some more details have emerged about the fatal hit-and-run that killed a Brooklyn resident in lower Manhattan Thursday night. Florence Cioffi was fatally struck by George Anderson's Mercedes SUV on Water Street and Old Slip. Anderson had originally fled the scene but later returned, where he was arrested and charged with vehicular manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and leaving the scene of an accident. Anderson, who runs a technology firm in the Financial District, had gone......

Over a hundred firefighters responded to a three-alarm fire at 80 Pine Street in Lower Manhattan last night. The fire broke out on the 29th floor, where money management firm Tullett & Tokyo has offices. It's unclear what started the fire, but around 12:30AM, flames were "shooting out of the windows" according to WABC 7. Glass fell onto Maiden Lane, narrowly missing pedestrians. The FDNY closed down the street and was able to put out......

The local papers have some details about the NYU sophomore who was found dead in his dorm room Friday night. Police says 19-year-old Pranay Angara suffocated himself with a plastic bag. Angara, who is from Hopewell Junction in upstate New York, lived in the Water Street dorm at 200 Water Street in the Financial District. The police say he wrote a note for his family and that he pushed a dresser in front of the......

A 19th century Greek revival building on Pearl Street – the road that formed the oyster shell strewn border of New Amsterdam in the 17th century – will soon be torn down, according to the A.P. The former warehouse at 213 Pearl was built in 1831 and was integral to what Ric Burns calls “the first district in the world devoted exclusively to commerce.” Once the city approves the permit, demolition could start as early......

Yesterday, a group of longboard skaters raced down Broadway from West 116th Street all the way to the bull in the Financial District for the "Broadway Bomb." Sacha Lecca took photographs of the skate, which seemed to have at least 100 skaters. Sacha tells us there were around 70 last year and 30 in 2005; according to the website, the race started in 2002. The race was postponed from Saturday to Sunday because of......

There's a wacky exclusive in the Post today about the only sperm bank in NYC with Scandinavian sperm running out of its specialty. Seriously. Two years ago, the FDA banned sperm from some countries over concerns that Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be found in mad cow cells, could be passed on via sperm. The Post reports that Cryos International's Financial District branch "has run out of offerings from such prized blond Norsemen as 'Oluf,'......

The local newspapers tackled the sixth anniversary of the World Trade Center attacks in different ways. The Daily News offers most of its front cover to remember the day, while the Post gives some room to General Petraeus' Congressional testimony. The Post looks at how vibrant the Financial District is now, even after the devastating effects of the September 11, and the Daily News looks at how some families have decided to skip this......

This week in the Times, Bruni two-stars Soto, calls the restaurant “an unipalooza like none I’ve encountered.” Don’t stick to the sushi and sashimi; if you do, you’re “missing not only the best of this restaurant but also the point of it.” The service? “Sluggish and absent-minded.” In $25 and Under, Peter Meehan goes to Go! Go! Curry where he finds the curry sauce gloopy and sludgy, but ultimately “beguiling.” And they have a mascot......

Here's some feel-good news, courtesy of the MTA. It's a set of peregrine falcon chicks at the Throgs Neck Bridge! A wildlife expert from the DEP, Chris Nadareski, examined and tagged the chicks, all of which are female. And while the baby falcons are super cute, they are getting ready to grow up: The Throgs Neck chicks have been growing steadily, and eat about four or five times a day. Their diet consists of......

Realizing that the county is vulnerable to craziness in the power supply (best exhibited in the 2003 blackout), the Department of Homeland Security announced a $39 million pilot plan to better protect the power grid from disaster, whether natural or terrorist. And the pilot is taking place in NYC, with Con Ed and American Superconductor partnering up for "Team Hydra: Secure Super Grids." According to Newsday, here's what the project entails:The pilot project...will tie together......

The New York Times is reporting that the city is on its toes for Nor'easter 2007, with Mayor Bloomberg saying we should hope for the best as far as storm havoc goes, but prepare for the worst.The mayor said evacuations were unlikely, but in a cautionary move, city emergency planners have identified possible shelters in the highest-risk areas and have alerted hospitals and nursing homes there to be prepared to relocate patients and elderly residents......

Air Guitar Nation (directed by Alexandra Lipsitz): Sure, you can jam like Jimi Hendrix returned from the dead alone in your bedroom, but can you wail with your invisible guitar on stage in front of thousands of people? The quest for the lofty title "world air guitar champion" is the story of the documentary, Air Guitar Nation, which begins a theatrical run in New York this weekend at the Angelika. Inspired by a Wall Street......

Through much of its history New York had a working waterfront. Be it for passengers, cargo, fishing, or ship building, warehouses and other industries, the waterfront was a busy, stinky, messy place. As a result the poshest residences were usually built inland, think Park Avenue. Since the ports are no longer used for industrial purposes there has been a rush to build along the shore. As discussed in a long article in Sunday's Times,......

In yesterday’s NY Times, Nicolai Ouroussoff notes the onset of 21st-century medievalism, the siege-like architectural style that has surfaced since 9/11. Equating Baghdad’s Green Zone and Israel’s West Bank barrier with the concrete bollards that line Park Ave. and Wall Street, Ouroussoff writes that a new protectionism has emerged in contrast to architecture’s era of transparency. He compares the ethos of American military headquarters in Baghdad to gated communities of Southern California and wonders whether......

As we all know now, the soaring glass atrium dome and underlying transit hub designed by Nicholas Grimshaw will be much more modest than originally planned (above). The problem, of course, is b-u-d-g-e-t. A brief recap: The MTA cup that once runneth over with federal aid for post-9/11 redevelopment in Lower Manhattan now appears rather dry, owing to rising real estate and construction costs. To keep the project under a billion dollars, the dome will......

A story proving that even police officers are too grabby with their guns. Last year, off-duty police officer Bernard Marti got into an argument with Victor Mendoza at Financial District pizza restaurant Cordato's. Apparently, Mendoza knocked over Marti's beer, so Marti took out his service revolver. Mendoza pushed it away and then Marti "accidentally" shot Mendoza in the thigh. Marti ran to his car, only to be caught by police officers doing homeless outreach work.......

Last weekend, a group of longboard skaters raced down Broadway from West 116th Street all the way to the bull in the Financial District for the "Broadway Bomb." Sacha Lecca has some pictures of the event along the 8.5 miles, but we really enjoy the pictures from the dark skate the night before as there's nothing like a big bunny skating in Columbus Circle. Fresh Paved on skating in NYC. Also check out Silverfish......

Yesterday, a chilling crime unfolded in front of 17 State Street in the Financial District. Karen Allende of the Bronx was on her way to work at 6:30AM when a man stabbed her repeatedly. A security guard initially thought she had slipped on the wet sidewalk, but then saw the blood; a construction worker, one of five people who tried to help Allende, said, "There was too much blood." Cameras caught the murderer approaching Allende......

As London remembers the first anniversary of its deadly subway attacks, the Daily News reveals that jihadists were plotting to blow up the Holland Tunnel in order to flood lower Manhattan. The plot was apparently in the works months ago, with a "pledge" of support from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, with hopes, as the News puts it, "to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina." Well, given government response to floods,......

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that the drop in Homeland Security funding means a "cessation of the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative" - aka the "Ring of Steel" for the Financial District. A few months ago, the NYPD proposed an ambitious plan to install license plate readers and vehicle barriers downtown to tighten up security, modeled after what London did after its early 1990s bombings. Commissioner Kelly testified at the City Council and listed 17 terrorist......

Nearly two inches of rain fell on Central Park during the wee hours this morning. We are getting a break until tomorrow morning as the long tentacle of rain plows up against the ridge to our east and stalls out. The Weather Service is saying drizzle, showers and maybe a thunderstorm are on tap for tomorrow. The Weather Channel says "no way", calling for cloudy skies in the morning and a peak of sun tomorrow......

The NYPD's moves are the biggest news of the day. It's not just upping the NYPD's ranks by 800 - Police Commssioner Ray Kelly announced that hundreds of surveillance cameras will be installed in order to better observe (and deter) possible criminal and terrorist movements. Oh, and there will be license plate readers and vehicle barriers downtown as well if the NYPD has its way - the city wants federal money to build a "ring......

WABC says that many buildings in the Financial District were evacuated due to a gas leak at a New Jersey power plant. Firefighters started evacuating people this morning at 11AM at some buildings, and then some buildings started to evacuate themselves (including 116, 180 and 200 Water streets, 5, 7 and 10 Hanover Square, 111 and 116 John streets, 40 and 49 Fulton Street, 70 Hike Street). When we mapped Linden, NJ - where the......

Down in our lower, Lower Manhattan work neighborhood, amongst the pizza places serving cheesesteaks and the catch-all spots trying to pull off turkey sandwiches, tossed salads and Udon, there are a few places that rise above the clutter. We utilize the following spots for lunch when we don’t brown bag it, you may find them handy if you are caught showing some visitors around the Financial District or you get dragged down to Century......

“NYU is the largest private university in the United States and they are growing,” Andrew Berman, executive director of the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, told Community Board 2 Thursday night. “They are growing at a much faster pace than our neighborhood is. NYU has always been here. It should always be here. I don't think the Village would be the Village if NYU wasn't here. But I don't think the Village can......

The Daily News says that the MTA will be spending $6.7 million to put workers on platforms to help with crowds- aka "platform conductors" - and give assitance during emergencies. Gothamist thinks this is a great idea, because sometimes there is absolutely no place for people to move in or out. However, one subway rider tells the Daily News she rather have more off-hours presence, which is a good point, but the MTA will do......