[Update Below] This week, New York City is committing mass arborcide in the name of public safety. Since Monday at least 100 trees in Isham and Inwood Hill Parks have been cut down, and more than 200 have been heavily pruned, in an attempt to make the areas safer. more ›

Police are searching for the man responsible for groping a 23-year-old female jogger in Inwood Hill Park on August 31st, and neighbors are shaken about the incident. One local told the Daily News, "Just shows how careful you need to be everywhere." Though perhaps one must be a little more careful in that park, as apparently it's a dream come true for pervs. Student Audrina Cruz said, "This place is so big, it'd be the perfect place for something like that to happen. There's so much space to hide and run." In 2004, the body of a Juilliard student was in the park; her killer still has not been found. more ›

Travel up to the northernmost neighborhoods of Manhattan these days and you might catch a whiff of more than just gentrification in the air—now skunks have invaded Inwood and Washington Heights as well! The area where the only skunk smell formerly found was from the weed sold along Dyckman Street is now crawling with the unwanted pests. The Parks Department's chief naturalist says, “It really seems like the population has gone from zero to many. I’m not sure why." more ›

Writer Jim Carroll died of a heart attack Friday while working at his desk inside his Manhattan apartment at age 60. Carroll is most famous for writing , his follow-up memoir about working in Warhol's Factory and attempting to get clean. Carroll is survived by a his brother, Tom. more ›

Arborcide! Not content with the steady stream of stabbing and shooting opportunities the city provides so many of its common criminals, someone has taken to destroying 17 trees in Inwood Hill Park with a machete and possibly an ax as well. Parks Department Commissioner Adrian Benepe said: “A methodical serial attack just to kill trees. It’s sad.” While cedars were the primary target of previous attacks in 2006 and 2008, the current crop of victims are tulip trees, pines, sugar maples and hackberries. Local residents were organizing a volunteer patrol and there is a $2,000 reward for information leading to an arrest, which could land someone in jail for up to a year with a $15,000 fine. Benepe told the Times that the tulip trees were just planted in the last 10 years near a spot once occupied by a a 280-year old tulip tree that died in 1938. more ›

Some readers have been asking about events related to the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Aside from the official city plans, which include moments of silence, reading of victims' names and time for the families to lay flowers at Ground Zero, as well as the lighting of Tribute in Light, a number of organizations and groups have events all weekend and on Monday. For instance, the September 11 Memorial Quilts will be dedicated tomorrow at the Marriott Financial Center, the World Trade Center Survivor's Network will plant a "Survivor Tree" in City Hall Park on Sunday, New York Buddhist Church will have a floating lighted lantern ceremony at Houston and the Hudson River on Monday. more ›

Cyrus Adler, president of Shorewalkers, Inc. more ›

Yesterday, Dimitri Sheinman, a former Inwood resident, was convicted of assaulting a man - and his dog - while in Inwood Hill Park. Usually a story like this wouldn't be newsworthy, but Sheinman has actually been the "number 1" suspect in the May 2004 murder of Juilliard student Sarah Fox since December 2004. Fox's body was found in the Inwood Hill Park after she had been jogging, and her death sparked an massive police search of the area that came up short. The NY Times has a more in-depth look at the two cases. During the 2005 assault, Sheinman claims that Rene Perez's dog jumped on his wife's pregnant belly and his young daughter's stroller; Perez says that Sheinman the kicked the dog away. Sheinman then proceeded to punch Perez when Perez called him a criminal. That's a good move - to be publicly known as the number one suspect in a murder and to beat people up. Then again the DA's office never charged him, because there wasn't enough evidence. more ›

Gothamist on the Sarah Fox case. more ›