A doctor who practices in NJ with admitting privileges at New York Presbyterian Hospital. His 94-year-old mother. Her $832,453 savings. And a wall collapse in Upper Manhattan. In a case Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau called "a mini-Astor case," Dr. Robin Motz was accused of stealing his mother's savings since 2003. Motz, who pleaded not guilty to grand larceny and money laundering, assumed power of attorney for his mother, Minnie Motz, a retired librarian. According to......

Almost exactly two years after a 150-foot part of a 600-foot retaining wall next to the Castle Village apartment buildings collapsed into the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Department of Buildings is ready to release its report. The Post have the exclusive and says DOB investigators "determined that the managers of the apartment complex and an engineering firm brought in to examine the wall knew the structure was at imminent risk of falling." The DOB......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a large crowd on Prince and Lafayette at 4:45am, 10-75 at Broome and Attorney in LES, and a barricaded EDP in Midtown East. Greetings from Washington Heights: the Castle Village retaining wall that collapsed in May 2005 has finally been repaired. If your landlord is trying to evict you to turn the building into an illegal hotel, you might soon get some relief-- the city is changing the loophole......

Last week the owners of the cars crushed in the Washington Heights wall collapse were informed they would have to pay for the towing of their pancaked automobiles. Well, now that the dirt has been removed, Gothamist reader Bob Matsuoka went up to Castle Village and got some shots of the cars-- doesn't look like those wrecks are going anywhere without a crane and flatbed truck-- and how much is that going to cost......

This might be the most comprehensive sign that owning a car in New York City is an act against Mother Nature. Or building engineering. There's a NY Times story on how cars will finally be dug out after being buried by a dirt landsilde in Washington Heights last year. What's crazy is how many owners have to pay for towing their cars out themselves.Another buried car, a red 1993 Honda Civic, belongs to Sarah......

Wow, time really flies, as it has been one year since the retaining wall at 183rd and the Henry Hudson Parkway collapsed, sending thousands of cubic feet of dirt onto the highway. AM New York checks up on the scene, which has not been repaired (though dirt has been cleared away and the rest of the wall secured) since, and finds that the Department of Buildings is still investigating the incident. The DOB's Board......

Now that the northbound Henry Hudson Parkway is open for business again after the city cleared away dirt that had collpased from a retaining wall, the focus is on who will pay for the repairs and cleanup. The NY Times reports that the city hopes to recoup the untold millions, most likely from Castle Village, the private co-op whose responsibilities include maintaing the wall. An insurance agency tells the Times that the apartment's liability insurance......

The city is still trying to figure out what happened to the Washington Heights retaining wall that collapsed Thursday afternoon as they hope to get most of it cleaned up by the Monday morning commute, however unlikely that may be. It turns out that Castle Village residents had complained for many years about the wall's instability, seeing small rocks fall from it. Mayor Bloomberg says the city will not be paying for repairs and......

Yesterday afternoon, a 150 foot part of a 600 foot long retaining wall collapsed onto the Henry Hudson Parkway, sending city officials and nearby building residents into a frenzy. The City evacuated residents of 1380 Riverside Drive, the building just south of the wall, as they inspected the collapse, which poured tons of dirt, stone, and trees over a thankfully empty stretch of the highway and empty cars. It's unclear how long the northbound......