Openings & closings Like many art-loving New Yorkers, we were bummed to hear that all of the colorful pieces at Long Island City's 5 Pointz were whitewashed in the middle night by the owner of the building, who plans to knock it down to make way for luxury condos. Whether you think it was an art murder or believe that the landlord had the right to do what he wanted with his own property, there's no denying that 5 Pointz was an iconic NYC spot that will be missed. You can see from our slide show why it had so many fans.

On a sweeter note, our neighborhood of the month, Brooklyn Heights, is set to get a new treat shop when the Upper West Side's Chocolate Works opens its second location on Montague Street next February.

The High Line keeps adding cool new features. In addition to a playground, Phase 3 will include The Spur at 10th and 30th Street, an amphitheater surrounded by trees and plants, and boasting that most important of all amenities, public bathrooms.

The Uncommons, which bills itself as a board game cafe, has opened in the former Village Chess Shop space on Thompson Street. Appropriately, chess is one of the many games on offer. Sounds a lot like The Brooklyn Strategist.

One of our favorite Brooklyn makerspaces, The Makery, is opening a pair of holiday pop-up studios in Manhattan: on the Lower East Side the week of December 2 and in Harlem the week of December 9. Creative kids (and adults) can sign up for a variety of cutting-edge workshops where they can make light-up wristbands, kinetic origami sculptures, Post-it speakers and other offbeat projects.

Finally, the Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center in the Bronx recently reopened to the public after renovations. The spruced up building now has cardio, strength and spin rooms, a computer resource center with Wi-Fi and game rooms.

School news Not only are NYC parents being asked to apply to kindergarten online, there's an earlier cutoff date, too. All applications for kindergarten seats (save G&T programs) are due February 14, 2014, a few weeks earlier than the traditional early March deadline.

Feeling pressed for time? So are families at certain public middle schools where parent-teacher conferences are limited to three minutes per prof. I know how stressful this is firsthand: This past fall, my husband and I had to split up and run up and down ten flights of stairs to sign up for our eldest's conferences, and we still ended up not meeting everyone.

Six new apps recently hit the market to help you navigate the high school application process. Each one offers different tools for families to search for the best fit for their kids. They're intriguing alternatives to the phone-book-sized tome distributed to NYC middle schoolers (which my son actually read cover to cover). We're curious to see which ones survive the academic year.

An update on that inBloom student data storage controversy we wrote about last month: A lawsuit has been filed on behalf of 12 NYC parents who contend that sharing personally identifiable information about their children without consent violates New York State's privacy laws. A hearing is scheduled for December 6.

That's entertainment Two big pieces of Broadway news, both involving Disney. The pop-culture giant's brand-new musical spectacle, Aladdin is slated to open at the New Amsterdam Theatre in February, with tickets going on sale to the general public next Monday, December 2. Meanwhile, Disney's Newsies is having a fabulous winter sale: Buy one full-price ticket and get one free. Tickets must be purchased before December 24 for performances between January 6-March 5, 2014.

Read all about it Children's book authors will become booksellers on Saturday, November 30 for Indies First, part of Small Business Saturday. Join Emily Jenkins at powerHouse on 8th in Park Slope, meet an entire, star-studded kid-lit lineup at Word in Greenpoint or search here for an event near you.

In sad kid-lit news, Barbara Park, the beloved creator of Junie B. Jones, passed away from ovarian cancer on November 15 at age 66. She leaves behind a legacy of super-popular books intentionally riddled with grammatical errors.