Streams

Matthew Schuerman

Editor, WNYC

Matthew Schuerman appears in the following:

Taking the Sea-Line to the Atlantic

Monday, May 17, 2010

Sea Turtle on the 7
Image courtesy of Robert Martore and Matthew Malina

Over the past nine years, hundreds of New York City's old, graffiti-covered subway cars have made their final trip: from the top of ...

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Port Authority Plans to Build Wind Farm

Monday, May 17, 2010

The Port Authority is planning on creating a wind farm on one of its shipping piers in New Jersey. The five windmills would help power the port's cargo operations.

A private company would build and maintain five 288-foot-high wind turbines. They'd be located on the New Jersey side of Upper New ...

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Walder: Let's Close Down Lines for Subway Repair. Oops -- Never Mind

Thursday, May 13, 2010

MTA Chairman Jay Walder gave transit reporters a good story this afternoon. Then, within hours, his press office had taken it away.

At the end of an informal briefing about budget cuts, a reporter asked Walder about the city and state comptrollers deciding to audit the way the MTA disrupts ...

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Judge in Station Agents Case Questions MTA Stance

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

The state judge hearing a case affecting hundreds of subway station agents reacted skeptically to the MTA's arguments in a court appearance today. Judge Salliann Scarpullo repeatedly asked the authority's lawyers why they didn't hold additional public hearings this year on their plans to close dozens more subway station booths.

While ...

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MTA Starts Laying Off Subway Agents

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority laid off 260 subway station agents today as part of efforts to address a nearly $800 million deficit. Because of seniority rules, most of those who received pink slips had worked for four years or less.

Sadeque Ahmed, a Bangladeshi immigrant with two children -- one just ...

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Investigation Into Ferry Crash Continues

Monday, May 10, 2010

Federal investigators have finished their third day investigating Saturday's Staten Island Ferry crash -- but have yet to draw any conclusions about what caused it.

A member of the National Transportation Safety Board, Robert Sumwalt, told reporters that the the ferry's crew appeared to be trying to control the ferry in ...

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Judge Blocks MTA Layoffs

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Today was supposed to be the day that laid-off MTA station agents turn in their uniforms, but WNYC’s Matthew Schuerman has confirmed that a judge issued an injunction last night blocking the move. He joins us live from the courthouse where a hearing is set to take place.

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Injunction Suspends MTA Layoffs

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Hundreds of laid-off MTA station agents who were expecting to turn in their uniforms are reporting to work instead. Late last night, a state supreme court judge issued a temporary restraining order preventing the closure of station booths. This morning, another judge continued the order until Monday so that both ...

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More Layoffs at the MTA

Thursday, May 06, 2010

The MTA is announcing even more cuts. Another 1,000 positions will be eliminated. Spokesman Aaron Donovan said layoffs are likely, though the exact number isn't known. New York City Transit is cutting 116 cleaning jobs -- meaning that subway cars that once were cleaned at each end of their run ...

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Atlantic Yards Project Hit With Another Legal Challenge

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

A former Prospect Heights property owner says he still owns air rights over a small parcel where the Atlantic Yards arena is being built.

Peter Williams filed a lawsuit Tuesday. He says the state took his property by eminent domain but forgot about air rights he acquired above an adjacent building ...

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As a Hospital Falls, a Fabled Building Is Saved

Monday, May 03, 2010

The demise of Saint Vincent's hospital means that at least one part of its real estate portfolio will be saved: the fabled O'Toole building -- a white scalloped 1960s-era low-rise on Seventh Avenue.

The hospital won special dispensation last year to demolish O'Toole, even though it's in a landmarked district. ...

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Xerox at Center of E-Z Pass Labor Dispute

Saturday, May 01, 2010

The MTA, Port Authority, and other government agencies are getting involved in a labor dispute at a private company, Xerox, that runs an E-Z Pass call center.

Xerox has been resisting efforts by 300 workers in Staten Island to form a union, but the agencies have been reluctant to take sides ...

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MTA Tests Cameras to Deter Illegal Use of Bus Lanes

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

New York City Transit will try out mobile video cameras in a move that may eventually lead to ticketing more drivers who illegally use bus-only lanes. Over the next 10 months the agency will test the cameras by mounting them on the front of two buses on the Bx12 line ...

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MTA Track Supervisor Killed by Third Rail

Monday, April 26, 2010

An MTA track worker was killed this morning in Far Rockaway, Queens after coming into contact with the electrified third rail along the A line.

James Knell, 45, was a track supervisor for the past nine years and a New York City transit employee for 13. He was part of a ...

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MTA to Conduct Audit After Security Key Breach

Monday, April 26, 2010

Transit officials say they will conduct "an immediate audit" of subway emergency gate keys, to try to keep them from being copied and sold. This comes after the Daily News reported that gate keys have been copied and are widely available.

Thomas Prendergast, president of New York City Transit, ...

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MTA Revises Spending Plan

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The MTA has trimmed $2 billion from its five-year capital spending plan. A state board rejected an earlier version of the plan last year, saying it didn't explain where all the money would come from. WNYC's Mattthew Schuerman has more.

REPORTER: The proposed capital plan outlines hundreds of projects that ...

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The MTA's Tortured Path to Subway Security

Friday, April 23, 2010

In early July 2005, three bombs exploded on London trains and buses killing 52 people. Almost immediately, politicians and newspaper editorial boards began attacking New York’s transit authority for being unprepared for a similar terrorist attack. Six weeks later, the MTA announced a $215 million contract to Lockheed Martin for ...

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The Atlantic Yards Fight: Why the Last Holdout Settled

Thursday, April 22, 2010

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Daniel Goldstein, founder of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (Photo by Matthew Schuerman)

After seven years of fighting the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn, the last remaining holdout is leaving. Daniel Goldstein, founder of the group Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, which filed several lawsuits to halt the project, has reached an agreement with developer Forest City Ratner. Goldstein will get $3 million and says he’ll leave May 7. 'It was never my goal to get that kind of settlement,' Goldstein says. 'It was never my goal to settle.'

The Atlantic Yards project withstood numerous court challenges by Goldstein and his supporters, including a decision last year by the state Court of Appeals, ruling that the use of eminent domain was justified. Also, while neither the full City Council nor state legislature voted on the plan, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and three governors (George Pataki, Eliot Spitzer, and David Paterson) all supported it.

In this interview with WNYC’s Matthew Schuerman, Goldstein discusses why he did settle, what the deal means to him, what he’s learned from his long battle, and whether it was worth it.

[MP3]http://audio.wnyc.org/news/news20100422_goldstein_full.mp3[/MP3]

Matthew Schuerman: After six, maybe seven years of fighting this project, why today did you agree to leave?

Daniel Goldstein: On March 1 the state of New York took ownership of my home, and personally all that was left to fight over was how long I would have to live in my home, how long it would be before the state evicted me from what has been my home for almost exactly seven years now. And there weren’t a lot of good choices for me personally, and a decision I made today after about five hours of being in court with the other side and with the judge was that it was time for me to settle with New York State to leave my home. And what they wanted was for me to do it quickly, and that’s basically what was settled today. I would leave on May 7, and they would pay me to do that, and pay me the compensation for my apartment that I once owned but they now own.

MS: So can you tell me how much are you making on this deal?

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Last Atlantic Yards Holdout Agrees to Move

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

After seven years of fighting the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn, the last remaining holdout is leaving.

Daniel Goldstein was a website designer when he moved into a converted warehouse in Prospect Heights. That was just months before one of the largest developers in the city, Forest City Ratner, announced that ...

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Prohibition-Era Bar to Close in Brooklyn

Monday, April 19, 2010

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(Photo by threecee)

Freddy's Bar, the prohibition-era watering hole in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, is closing April 30. In addition to serving as a local drinking spot, Freddy's is also a performance space and lies in the footprint of the Atlantic Yards ...

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