Results tagged “castlevillage”

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.

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 feels the firm could have warned the city about the wall's instability, since its engineers had seen the "65-foot-high wall move 9 inches away from the hillside in less than a week."

Still Life, by Benzadrine.

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 the owners?

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 should cover the clean-up - but not the rebuilding of the wall. Zoinks! The insurance company president explained, "It's kind of industry standard that retaining walls that are not part of the building are not covered." Yeah, it's probably not something most people like to think about. What's interesting is that a shareholder in Castle Village says that rebuilding the wall might not be what they do: They might decide to "install a swimming pool or build another building." Well, make sure the land is stable first.

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 cleanup, since the wall is private property - Castle Village's - and because the city doesn't "have the money" to pay for repairs to "every private piece of property." The city is demolishing other unstable parts of the wall. Many experts say that the methods used in 1908 to build the wall were not up to modern standards - plus a wall that high would never be built today. What should be interesting to see today and tomorrow is the big tarp they plan to put over the dirtslide, in anticipation of rain - it'll be like a modern art installation.

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 part of the Parkway, right near 181st Street, past the George Washington Bridge, will be closed, but the city will be working around the clock to survey the damage and get it removed. While a full investigation needs to be done, the early hypothesis is that water caused the wall's instability. It's been said before, but Gothamist is glad the weather looks clear - we can't even imagine what this would be like if it were raining.