Lowe and the 5 Oh: Rob Lowe, who turned 50 last month, recently appeared in some street art — apparently painted on the ground, not chalked, so as to hang around for a while — in Washington Square Park. It wasn’t done by just any old (no pun intended) tagger or graffiti artist, but is read more here »

Saucy retort: “Rest in pizza,” an article about Little Italy facing extinction, was the New York Post’s page one story Sunday. Eight eateries have closed in the past year in the famous enclave, including seven along Mulberry St., the article reported, including the likes of S.P.Q.R., Positano Ristorante, La Bella Ferrara Cafe, Il Fornaio Ristorante read more here »

New bookshop spot? Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York reported last week that St. Mark’s Bookshop is looking to move into 136 E. Third St., just west of Avenue A, in the First Houses, which is part of the New York City Housing Authority. “We’ve been sent a proposed lease,” bookstore co-owner Terry McCoy told the blogger, read more here »

The gold standard: The new “marquee” above Jerry Delakas’s Astor Place newsstand says it all, “Victory.” The golden letters are the work of East Village artist Kelly King, who championed Delakas’s fight to regain the kiosk after he was evicted from it during the waning days of the Bloomberg administration. In the end, Mayor Bill read more here »

Taking it to the strips: After the recent court victory against N.Y.U.’s 2031 superblocks development plan, parks and open-space advocates from across the city, joined by local politicians, will celebrate with a party at LaGuardia Park (on LaGuardia Place, between Bleecker and W. Third Sts.) on Sat., March 15, at 1 p.m. Actors Matthew Modine read more here »

Blame it on the vortexes: Last we heard, Phase III — the final part — of the Washington Square Park renovation, was supposed to be finished by the end of last year. Two or three polar vortexes and, oh, a couple of soggy slushapocalypses later, Phase III still isn’t open yet, and the park’s southwestern read more here »

Off on the right ‘foot’: Kicking off his push for universal pre-K, Mayor Bill de Blasio came to P.S. 130, at 143 Baxter St., Tuesday morning, where he visited a pre-K class with 20 students and three teachers, including Aimee Koa-Chan. De Blasio complimented one young boy for being “articulate” for smoothly pronouncing the mayor’s read more here »

‘Master’ class canceled: The late tragic actor Philip Seymour Hoffman was among the many Downtown celebrities who contributed their efforts to the community’s ongoing fight against New York University’s 2031 South Village development plan. One of the top items on the block in the N.Y.U. Faculty Against the Sexton Plan’s massive, star-studded auction back in read more here »

E.R. is on the way: The pain of the loss of St. Vincent’s is still sharp. It seems like just yesterday that the community was desperately fighting to save the historic, 161-year-old hospital from closing. But, four years later, the new 24/7 emergency room at the former St. Vincent’s O’Toole Building is not far off read more here »