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......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a commercial robbery on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn, a suspicious fire on Renwick St. in Manhattan, and an "air-mail incident" at Union St. and Franklin Ave in Brooklyn. We can't wait to hear what that possibly means. Six men were murdered Saturday morning in New York City. Separately! The Times reports that patrons of the Bohemian Hall and Beer Garden don't know what they're enthusiastically drinking to at a......

Historical ecologists and research cartographers are using historical pre-Revolution military maps produced by the British to create a 21st Century digital rendering of the topography of Manhattan in the 17th Century, before the arrival of European colonists. The New Yorker has a slideshow of a number of images that are attempts to show Manhattan as it was occupied solely by Lenape Indians. The basis for the topographical model was drawn from this 1782 map*......

The AP has this great photograph of a dog named Rocky at the Atlanta Humane Society. The Humane Society explained that Rocky had a #7 Michael Vick t-shirt because the society has been taking donated Vick clothing and using them as rags and bedding. Vick, the star quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, pleaded guilty to federal conspiracy charges related to running a dogfighting ring at his Virginia home. Vick will appear in court on......

Police are investigating the murder-suicide of an 18-year-old woman and a 40-year-old police officer. When 7-year veteran officer Fred Maselli didn't show up for work at the 34th Precinct, his colleagues were sent to his apartment at 3611 Henry Hudson Parkway West to investigate and found Maselli's body as well as the blood-soaked body of Shirley Fontanez. Fontanez, who had a 3-year-old son and had been dating Maselli for two years, was shot three times......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a motorcycle jacking at 230th Place and 148th Ave. in Queens, shots fired at police at Gates and Nostrand Aves. in Brooklyn, and multiple pedestrians struck at Coney Island and Ditmas Aves. in Brooklyn. State and city politicians broke ground in the Bronx yesterday on a new Metro-North station stop at the under-construction Yankee Stadium. It's hoped that the transit option will cut down on auto traffic from upstate......

There's a fascinating obituary in the NY Times today for Harvey J. Weinstein (no relation to the movie producer). Weinstein died on May 13 at age 82 in Manhattan, and while he was once the head of the biggest tuxedo manufacturer, he gained a different kind of notoriety when he was kidnapped in 1993 by a man who worked at one of Weinstein's companies as a collar maker. According to the NY Times obituary, Weinstein......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a body was found at Schenk and Livonia Aves. in Brooklyn that was initially reported as body parts, a shooting on Prospect Ave. in the Bronx, and there was a police car multi-vehicle accident on the Henry Hudson Parkway near 79th St. A daycare cries child abuse as the artists who share their space are attempting to throw the tots out on the street. The head of neuropsychiatry at......

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......

Yesterday, two people were killed in different incidents where their cars crashed over guardrails and plunged 26-40 feet below the roadways. Near midnight on Saturday, Joseph Harris's car rammed one driven by Gretchen Patterson on the Henry Hudson Parkway near West 74th. As the Post reports, Patterson's car went "banging into a wall, flipping over it and then plunging down into Riverside Park." The 48-year-old Brooklyn woman was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Hospital, while......

Robert Moses’ legacy may be getting tweaked if organizers of three upcoming exhibitions have their way. The NY Times’ Robin Pogrebin is reporting that the Museum of the City of New York, the Queens Museum of Art and Columbia’s Wallach Art Gallery will unveil a three-parter over the next month on the master builder. Columbia University architectural historian Hilary Ballon says that Moses’ achievements have been overlooked. From the Times: Living in New York,......

A woman driving on the Henry Hudson Parkway died after a crash near the Moshulu Parkway. Police believe that 34 year old Lusaed Perez lost control of the car as she was putting on her makeup. A police source said, "There was makeup all over the air bag," plus there were open containers of makeup in the car. The Post says Perez's Mitsubishi "careened across an embankment, smashed into a lamppost then crashed into two......

Yesterday afternoon, a 51 year old Bronx woman was fatally hit by a city bus. Rachel Levy had been crossing a road near the Henry Hudson Parkway around West 236th Street. The bus driver didn't realize someone was hit and didn't stop; the driver was not charged. And on Friday morning, 33 year old kidney surgeon Lawrence Yoo was hit by a bus at Ninth Avenue and 39th Street in Manhattan. Yoo, who was headed......

With the mercury rising to high for the city's liking, Mayor Bloomberg held a press conference at the Office of Emergency Operations in Brooklyn to emphasize what the city is doing during the heat wave. We suspect he's trying to be extra visible and genially authoritative (check out the plaid shirt!) in order to salvage public opinion after the Queens blackout, but his words are important:“The heat wave affects New Yorkers in all five boroughs,......

- Boy George gets community service for his drug posession charge - and the judge wasn't having any of his antics! - A penny jar stops a bullet and the apartment's owner, who has been crusading against drugs, takes note - A house in Brooklyn is evacuated because it's unstable; apparently digging around the foundation somehow led to cracks to appear in walls - Queerty has some Gay Pride Parade video - Aw, Scarlett......

The body of a 39 year old black woman was found on the shore of Riverside Park yesterday morning. A passer-by called 911 after seeing the body near Marginal Street and the West Side Highway. The Post says the woman lived on 143rd Street, with two children. A purse filled with cash was also found at the scene, but police did not see any "immediate signs of criminality," according to Newsday; the ME's office will......

Were you stuck in crazy traffic on the west side last night? Here's why. An out of control car (there's been a few of these lately, no?) jumped the barrier on the Henry Hudson Parkway, "knocked over a steel light pole and landed in oncoming traffic." "It was crazy," one witness told the News, "it actually did look like a movie." All four injured were taken to hospitals almost immediately. "The devastating chain of......

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......

We're always looking for current bike path maps. The most authoratative comes from Transportation Alternatives, but it's a 1.5MB PDF, and hasn't been updated this year. The NYC Bike Map 2006 mashup pictured above is attempting to fill in the gaps, but seems to be missing a bunch of the smaller paths. We've already featured the Secret Bike Maps page-- but still haven't taken that trip to City Island. Has anyone successfully biked up......

Police suspect that the 22 year old man who died when his car crash into a Brooklyn home was driving at 100 MPH. Witnesses say that Michael Adams's driving was "out of control" early yesterday morning in the Farragut section of Brooklyn; WNBC reports that the car plowed through an iron gate and brick wall, "landing on another car." Then the two cars exploded, setting Gregory Mewborn's house on Clarendon Road on fire. Mewborn escaped......

The police are searching for a livery cab driver who drove his car into the Hudson River near 69th Street. Reports say that the driver was asked to move his car around noon, "from an area near West 69th Street and the Henry Hudson Parkway," and then he drove it off the pier. What's unclear is whether or not the cab was on the Henry Hudson Parkway, or actually in Riverside Park, where the pier......

Last night, one of the walls of 496 LaGuardia Place collapsed, causing the evacuation of all residents and Houston Street to be closed. Luckily, no one was hurt as a "cascade of bricks" fell at 6:30PM. Residents told the Daily News that there was no construction at the buliding; the Department of Buildings is investigating the collapse. And according to Wired New York, 496 LaGuardia was built in 1909 and converted to a condo building......

Police stopped a car that was speeding on the Henry Hudson Parkway at around 2AM. The Mercedes then sped away as the police went to check the driver's license, only for the car to crash into a wall and explode! Who knows what the driver, who died at the hospital, was trying to flee from, but turning the car into a fireball was probably the last thing he or she was thinking. And in another......

For our Sunday dose of wall alarmism, Gothamist enjoyed the NY Times examination of 126 retaining walls with "cracks, bulges and leaks", because now we'll be walking the streets, wondering if the wall next to us will suddenly collapse. Most retaining walls are located in the Bronx and northern Manhattan, because they are the hilliest parts of the city, but you may now notice retaining walls wherever you go, like around the cemetary at Trinity......

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 was able to clear two lanes of the Henry Hudson Parkway last night, which was strewn with dirt and debris after Thursday's retaining wall collapse that closed the immediate area, and the first car drove by at 10:18PM. Over 25,000 cubic yards of dirt and rubbles from the area were removed by city construction crews around the clock. However, what caused the accident (probably water), what could have been done to prevent......

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......

A retaining wall near the George Washington Bridge collapsed, creating a landslide of dirt onto the Henry Hudson Parkway. Dirtslide, we guess, since it's not quite the California kind. The firefighters were called to the area below Riverside Drive and 181st Street to remove dirt, which has buried some cars. No word on injuries yet, so we hope no one was near the cars. So, if you're headed back home and take the West Side......

For about a day, Gothamist was worried that the Port Authority was seriously thinking renaming properties like the George Washington Bridge or John F. Kennedy Airport if sponsors would fork over enough money, but it turns out it was over eager speculation. The Port Authority is looking at possible shortfalls in the next few years and would consider renaming the Port Authority bus terminal; Gothamist liked Port Authority Commissioner Bruce A. Blakeman's quote: "We would......

You might find the History Channel's reenactments of various moments of history scary, creepy, or trippy (the Barbarians series was off the hook), but they are definitely informative. This week, the HC is tackling the Conquest of America, with appearances by Bering, Coranado, and more, but Gothamist is most interested in an Englishman named Henry Hudson whose extensive travels in our part of the country have made sure that the estuary we know as the......