Matthew Schuerman

Construction projects are stalling around the city and condos are sitting unoccupied. Your Uncommon Economic Indicators project is rolling out a new map, Halted Development, to pin point where it's happening and we need your help. Click here to tell us about stalled residential construction or unoccupied condos. ...

New York, NY —

Just over four years ago, Mayor Bloomberg and the City Council agreed on how to rezone 184 blocks of the Greenpoint and Williamsburg neighborhoods in Brooklyn.

It is just one of 97 rezonings that have taken place during the Bloomberg administration. But it’s also one of ...

New York, NY —

Governor Paterson's named his choice to head the MTA: Jay Walder, a McKinsey and Company consultant who already worked a stint at the MTA in the 1980s and 90s. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

This time, Walder will take over the combined positions of chief executive ...

A rendering of the first part of Bushwick Inlet Park, which is expected to open next year. Greenpoint and Williamsburg residents complain the parks promised with the neighborhood's 2005 rezoning are taking too long to be built.

Mayor Bloomberg has rezoned large parts of the city to make room for population growth, but he's had a hard time creating the open space where these new residents will be able to exercise. WNYC calculated how much more open space the rezonings will provide compared to how many more residents are expected to make those places their homes. It turns out that back in the 1990s, the city developed guidelines for this ratio: all large new developments, they say, should ideally provide 2.5 acres of open space for every 1,000 residents once they are fully built out. (See page 5 of this PDF.) Taken as a whole, the rezonings fail to meet that goal. (Go here for the story we aired this morning on this topic.)

New York, NY —

The City Council approved a rezoning of a 30-block industrial area of the South Bronx, the eighth such large-scale rezoning in the Bloomberg administration. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman reports that like its predecessors, this plan will increase population while adding little new park space.

REPORTER: Back in ...

New York, NY —

The city has broken ground on the first of three new waterfront parks in North Brooklyn. Bushwick-Inlet Park will eventually stretch six blocks along the East River. Mayor Bloomberg says the first block between North 9th and North 10th Streets, will take two years to ...

Mayor Bloomberg and, on his right, Adrian Benepe, Parks Commissioner and Quidditch expert. (Edward Reed)

Mayor Bloomberg certainly didn't know. In this snippet from this morning's ...

New York, NY —

And it looks like another stalemate could be in the offing, and that's over the dispute over who'll pay for what at the World Trade Center site. Developer Larry Silverstein has filed an official notice that will allow him to take the dispute to arbitration ...

New York, NY —

City Council members grilled city officials about their development proposal for Coney Island, especially on their plans to force property owners out. Mayor Bloomberg wants to replace privately-owned amusement parks with a city-owned one. Economic Development Corporation president Seth Pinsky avoided giving direct answers about ...

New York, NY —

That car you're renting for a holiday getaway this weekend is going to cost you much, much more. That's because new state surcharges went into effect yesterday that boosts the tax on car rentals to 19 percent. WNYC's Matthew Schuerman has more.

REPORTER: A mid-sized ...

New York, NY —

It's going to be a long haul. One of Mayor Bloomberg's more controversial rezoning plans goes before the City Council for a public hearing today.

The Bloomberg administration wants to rezone about 20 blocks of the Coney Island waterfront to allow apartment towers and hotels as ...

New York, NY —

The state's highest court has announced it will hear arguments on the use of eminent domain at Atlantic Yards in October. The Court of Appeals says it'll review a lower court decision made last month that permitted developer Bruce Ratner to move forward with the ...

New York, NY —

Thousands of the city's unionized construction workers have agreed to accept lower wages for the promise of more work. The latest concession goes further than a labor agreement from last month that froze wages and limited overtime.

The Building and Construction Trades Council wouldn't give out ...

New York, NY —

More than 40 people gave the board of the MTA board their two cents worth on the Atlantic Yards project at a meeting yesterday. But WNYC's Mathew Schuerman reports that many of its supporters have financial ties to project's developer Bruce Ratner.

Thirty-two people spoke in ...

New York, NY —

Two state agencies are spending this week revising the deal that would bring the Nets basketball team and a massive real estate development, to Brooklyn.

The board of the MTA is expected to vote this morning on a new payment schedule, that would allow the developer ...

New York, NY —

The MTA board is expected to vote this morning on a new payment schedule for the developer of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn.

The Empire State Development Corporation yesterday moved to allow Forest City Ratner to pay the MTA just $20 million to start work, ...

New York, NY —

The MTA is expected to unveil a new agreement to sell the development rights above one of its rail yards in Brooklyn. In 2005, Real estate developer Bruce Ratner promised to pay the MTA $100 million and build a state of the art rail yard ...

New York, NY —

Some of the toughest parts in big public works projects come when government agencies, each with their own turf, have to work together. To celebrate one collaboration that's worked out well, the MTA took WNYC's Matthew Schuerman on a tour yesterday of an unfinished subway ...

New York, NY —

Contractors finished excavating a cavern underneath the Port Authority Bus Terminal in six months. The job was supposed to take up to three years.

But Chief Engineer Joe Trainor says they have to beat some internal deadlines, if they want to finish the project on time.

TRAINOR: ...

New York, NY —

The City Planning Commission is expected to approve the administration's rezoning proposal for Coney Island this morning. It would create a city-owned amusement park in an area where privately owned parks are dying. But as WNYC's Matthew Schuerman reports, the rezoning process is the easy ...