The body of officer Angel Brito lay in the morgue of Bellevue Hospital, where he worked, for two months until fellow officers finally claimed it yesterday. Brito, 49, had no family, so when he died in his East Village apartment of natural causes on November 4th, his body was sent to the hospital he had spent the last 14 years protecting. more ›

This past Friday, as construction on Washington Square Park's redesign entered Phase II, a tombstone was unearthed. Dun dun dun. An eagle-eyed reader of the WSP Blog wrote in to that website Friday after "he noticed that there was a large hole dug about 6 feet below the surface in the fenced-off construction area" where two people were seen dusting off the tombstone. Creepy! more ›

The effect of a well-trafficked park under renovation really doesn't come into full relief until the spring, when the absence of greenery and flowers seems less like a normal part of urban living and more of a desecration of greenspace. The renovation of Washington Square Park continues at full tilt, however, as the fountain is reoriented centrally and the rest of the park is reordered to be greener and less anarchical. The Square used to be a potter's graveyard before it became a fashionable address. New York City's inexorable desire for change marches on. more ›