Back in April there were some updates on the preservation efforts of the 151-year-old smallpox hospital on Roosevelt Island, and word is that, as of yesterday, it’s been saved from total destruction. However, NY1 reports that Trust for Public Land’s Andy Stone “said the restoration process is painstaking and delicate, since every piece that fell down had to catalogued, and there are hundreds of pieces still waiting to be reattached.” amNewYork also reports on the city’s only landmarked ruin, noting that aside from those finishing touches, it has “finished a $4.5 million stabilization after a portion collapsed in December 2007.” Now that the structure is sturdy once again, ground was broken yesterday for the construction of Southpoint Park , which will encompass both the ruins and the Strecker Lab and will include “two large lawns, a scenic overlook and gardens along the southernmost part of the island

Last week, the players with stakes in Ground Zero development—the Port Authority, developer Larry Silverstein, Mayor Bloomberg, NY Governor Paterson, NJ Governor Corzine, Assembly Speaker Silver among them— met at Gracie Mansion to discuss the stalemate (and bickering) over the World Trade Center rebuilding progress. What they agreed on was, the Post reported, “to order their aides to come up with an agreement by the next summit on June 11 .” Um, great. The NY Times had an editorial yesterday about the stalemate , declaring that instead of helping Silverstein build (aka fund) two towers

Photo by Zach Klein At least it’s not the Scientologist’s with their stress tests . This group of Mennonites were spotted singing to straphangers at the Broadway stop today, and it’s not the first time. They’ve been singing down there for years, here’s a video from 2007. The group is most likely local and from the Manhattan Mennonite Fellowship … but do they have a permit ?

Phillippe Petit wasn’t the only daredevil back in ’70s that used the World Trade Center as a stage. Yesterday marked the anniversary of George Willig ’s climb up 2 WTC, the south tower, in 1977. Also known as “the human fly” or “the spiderman,” it took the mountain-climber and Queens resident about 3.5 hours to scale the building. Sport Illustrated wrote a story about the climb shortly after it took place, which you can still read here . In it Willig’s brother notes that the Port Authority cops asked him “‘Is George sane? Is he doing this for any political purposes? Is he going to wave signs or something? Is he doing it for a commercial reason?’ I told them he was doing it for his…

Picture Kevin Bacon in a black suit, white v-neck tee underneath, walking in slow motion down an overgrown High Line. It just seems fitting, doesn’t it? That must be what the folks at Sundance thought, too, because here is that exact scene as part of the channel’s High Line Stories series (the first of ten episodes will air tonight). As the opening of the High Line approaches, the series aims to tell its story through profiling those involved in transforming the 1.5 mile elevated railway along the west side of Manhattan. “From celebrities to City officials, from artists to architects, each episode explores their relationship to the High Line, what it means for New York City, and how it represents an example of taking a derelict post-industrial site and making it green and beautiful.” See more clips here , and (fingers crossed) the first section