Locals press Bushwick mall developer to keep out national chains, government homes with holiday cheer … and more

1. Locals press Bushwick mall developer to keep out chain stores [DNAinfo]
2. The White House, Governors’ mansions get decked out for Christmas [Curbed]
3. Yardbird, a Miami favorite for Southern cuisine, heads to NYC — possibly to Park Slope [NYM]
4. Giorgio Armani takes 60,000 SF in the Meatpacking District [NYO]
5. An Upper West Side townhouse, and the downside of virtual staging [Curbed]
6. 2013’s healthiest housing markets [Forbes]
7. In Queens, Major League Soccer stadium could spell the end for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park’s fountain [DNAinfo]
8. Inside Drake’s $2.8 million Hidden Hills, Calif. home [Rolling Out]
9. Delivering a foreclosure notice can be a dangerous endeavor [AOL]
10. Mort Zuckerman endows the Mind Brain Behavior Institute at Columbia University [Bloomberg]
11. Tight housing inventory is a boon for lumber futures [Housing Wire]
12. Thor Equities breaks ground on a new BJ’s store in Gravesend, Brooklyn [Thor YouTube]
13. Core remembers the life and work of Walker Tower architect Ralph Walker [Core]
14. EDC selects Success 88 to transform a 12,000-square-foot Flushing, Queens commercial and retail space [Press Release]
15. Will 2012 be remembered as the year of the urban planning and design book? Probably not, but there sure have been a lot of them published of late [Planetizen]