Violet and Bobby in happier times.

​Yesterday, it looked as though Violet the NYU hawk mother and star of the Bobst library hawk cam was doing OK apart from her cheating husband. She had been captured and was receiving treatment for her injured leg. Now, City Room reports that Violet has died. She was thought to be around five years old.

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Last we heard about Violet the NYU hawk mommy, she was in trouble. Her leg was seriously injured and it looked like she wouldn't survive. Luckily, as City Room reports, Violet has been captured and is receiving treatment for her necrotic foot. Violet is described as being in "good spirits."

Little does she know that Bobby, her mate, was seen in Washington Square Park with a different mature female a day after Violet's capture.

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Rebecca Nathanson

Sean Daly playing his guitar

​Much has been written about the Financial District community's reaction to Occupy Wall Street's continuing occupation of Zuccotti Park, and now that a splinter group from the movement has spread to Washington Square Park, its presence is being felt by a vital sect of the park's community: musicians.

There's been one (failed) attempt to officially "Occupy Washington Square Park" back in October, but a WSP-based General Assembly formed and has been meeting regularly ever since. It's now been almost a month since OWS expanded to WSP, and we went to check out how the park's regular musicians were reacting to their new neighbors.

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​Where's Waldo? The question we've all been asking since childhood will be answered Saturday. Here's a hint: he's somewhere around Washington Square Park. Or at least a version of him. Teams of two wearing red and white stripes will be hunting for the elusive children's book character come to life as part of a game dreamed up by Parsons grad and graphic designer Katie Richanbach.

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​Tomorrow at about 9:30 a.m. street musician Colin Huggins will move a Yahama baby grand piano from a Manhattan Mini Storage on Spring Street to Washington Square Park by himself. And if maneuvering a five-foot three-inch piano around city blocks sounds really difficult, Huggins said "it's much easier than you think."

To get the piano he's going to push, Huggins started a Kickstarter campaign in March to raise funds for the purchase of the baby grand. A regular in Washington Square Park, Huggins raised just under $9,000 by May 5, and bought the piano for a little over that sum off of Craigslist.

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Esther Zuckerman

​The eastern side of downtown Manhattan's Washington Square Park was filled with people today as it reopened after a long period of closure for renovations. Washington Square Park Blog has furiously covered the travails of the park's redesign, which began in December 2007. The opening of the northeast and southeast quadrants today mean that part of Phase II of the project is now finished. Phase II was at one point scheduled for completion in Fall 2010, the blog explains, which was then pushed to "Spring 2011" and, following that, "by Memorial Day." Another part of Phase II and the entirety of Phase III are still to come.

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