A State Supreme Court judge has issued a “preliminary injunction” prohibiting the city from turning the 78-year-old Pavilion in Union Square park into a restaurant. Last week the court ruled that the $21 million overhaul to the north end of the park could proceed while a lawsuit brought by community groups moves forward, but temporary stalled work on the Pavilion. Opponents object to what they see as the privatization of park space and insist the......

UPDATE: NY1's first report yesterday on the Union Square Pavilion lawsuit has been corrected. It turns out that, contrary to the initial news, the injunction stopping work on the park’s 78-year-old Pavilion is still in effect. While parts of the planned renovation to the north end of the park can now proceed, including construction of the expanded playground, the judge has also temporarily stopped the city from cutting down any trees while a lawsuit brought......

A state judge has issued a temporary restraining order to stop the city’s $21 million overhaul of the north end of Union Square Park, which would install a new restaurant in the historic Pavilion, redesign two playgrounds and repave asphalt where the Greenmarket had been operating. A coalition of community groups and parks advocates who brought the lawsuit say the city needs to get approval from the state legislature before privatizing part of the park,......

The Brooklyn Botanic Garden has yet again set up their ever-changing map showing "the approximate positions of every Prunus specimen in the Cherry Esplanade, Cherry Walk, Cherry Cultivars Area and Japanese Garden and its current blossom status." Only five have bloomed so far, the others showing buds but no petals just yet (picture of pre-bloom). Last year the garden was bursting with color around the end of April. When we asked Anita Jacobs and......

New York's about to get a lot shadier. According to the NY Times, the City Planning Commission just approved a new section of the Zoning Resolution, that requires developers to plant trees. For every 25-feet of street, one tree must be planted. This new rule goes hand in hand with MillionTreesNYC, an initiative of the Parks Department and New York Restoration Project that aims to plant one million new trees in the next ten years......

Two sidewalk Christmas tree salesman are accusing the "company" they worked for last year of leaving them out in the cold on Christmas Eve, waiting for thousands of dollars in wages that never appeared. The yuletide stiffing apparently was in retribution for either 1) skimming sales revenue, or 2) talking publicly about the shadowy figure who allegedly is the kingpin of sidewalk Christmas trees. Last year, an experienced tree-seller and longtime employee of Kevin......