Capital New York

On May 24, the reporters move back into City Hall, after having been relegated to a trailer parked in front of the building for the duration of renovations.

Room 9, located on the first floor directly opposite the City Council speaker's office, will once again be occupied by daily print and wire reporters. Room 4a, in the basement, will primarily be occupied by reporters for online-only publications, including Politico, DNAinfo.com, Examiner.com and Capital New York. Newer outlets, like City & State, will be there too.

The New York Times, the Daily News, and the New York Post will be in Room 9, where they will each have three reporters. (The News has two right now, while their bureau chief is out on maternity leave.)

The Wall Street Journal, which now has a Greater New York section, will have one reporter there, as will the Associated Press and Newsday. Reuters will have two.

amNew York, which just hired a new City Hall reporter, will not have a seat at City Hall. Neither will Gothamist or Buzzfeed, both of which have increased their capacity recently for original reporting.

@DavidLeg12

David Seifman, the Post's bureau chief, has been covering City Hall since 1982. He's the dean of the City Hall press corps and the guy who helps reporters roast Michael Bloomberg every year at the Inner Circle Show and holiday party.

He has access to Bloomberg's inner circle, but reports with a healthy dose of skepticism. His weekly column appears on Sundays.

His desk will be in Room 9.

@JoshMargolin

Margolin went to the Post in December 2010 from the Star-Ledger, where he won a Pulitzer for McGreevey reporting, and has been in the trailer outside City Hall since May 2011. 

He recently wrote a front-page story about an unreleased report commissioned by the Bloomberg administration that detailed problems with the city's emergency-call centers.

Margolin co-wrote a book called The Jersey Sting. He also helps out on "The Good Wife."

His desk will be in Room 9.

@SallyGold

Originally from New Jersey, she worked for the Staten Island Advance (on its very good, short-lived politics blog) and was hired by the Post in 2008. She's broken stories about the U.F.T.'s unhappiness with Christine Quinn, trouble with former finance commissioner Martha Stark and the real reason for former deputy mayor Stephen Goldsmith's departure.

Her desk will be in Room 9.

@ErinLEinhorn

Einhorn is a force: Blunt at press conferences and an adept digger.

She took over as bureau chief from Adam Lisberg, who left for City & State (before becoming a spokesman for the M.T.A.).

It was Einhorn's interview with John Liu's mother during the 2009 comptroller's race that called into question Liu's claim of having worked in a sweatshop when he was a child.

Einhorn decided not to continue the weekly politics column started by her predecessors, giving her more time to research and investigate City Hall.

She wrote a book about her mother's escape from the Holocaust, called The Pages in Between. This American Life featured it.

Her desk will be in Room 9.

@NYDNTinaMoore

She's the acting bureau chief until Erin Einhorn returns from maternity leave. Moore was on the News' investigative team and worked in the police shack.

She used to work in Pennsylvania (Philadelphia Inquirer, Patriot-News, Associated Press) and started her career in West Virginia.

One notable story Moore wrote was about a man who did time in prison for a crime he didn't commit after telling the police, in anger, that his name was Shawn Carter (otherwise known as Jay-Z).

She also broke the story about the Bloomberg administration studying whether or not people denied government services wound up in homeless shelters.

@ReuvenBlau

Originally from Colorado, Blau reported for the Chief Leader, the weekly broadsheet focusing on municipal labor, from 2001 to 2008. He left there for the New York Post, and after two years, he was hired away by the News. Back in February, he co-wrote a story about a union leader's profanity-laced speech to employees that required several bleeps before being published.

He once subjected himself to an interview with LukeFord.net and was asked, "So, where were you in the social pecking order in high school?"

His desk will be in Room 9.

@DavidWChen

Chen is the Times bureau chief.

He spent more than a month knocking on doors and talking to people, often in Mandarin, who were, unbeknownst to them, listed as donors to John Liu's campaign. 

In 2008, Chen wrote about Rep. Anthony Weiner being a tough boss and having a high turnover rate for staffers. Later, Weiner told me he thought the Times was becoming "tabloidy." (This was well before Weiner himself set a new standard for tabloidy.)

Before moving to City Hall, Chen wrote about housing and New Jersey politics for the Times. He used to work at the San Jose Mercury News.

Chen's desk will be in Room 9.

@KateTaylorNYT

The Times poached Taylor from the Journal just before that paper launched its much-anticipated Greater New York section. Before her six weeks at the Journal, Taylor reported for the New York Sun, covering the arts.

She's among the fastest Tweeters in the press corp, even though she uses an iPhone.

Her desk will be in Room 9.

@Grynbaum

He's the newest addition to the Times City Hall desk. Before joining the team, he was on the transit beat, where he caused a stir with his 2007 report on Bloomberg's habit of being chauffered to the subway.

While an undergraduate at Harvard, he interviewed an upper classman who had just launched a web site without any thought of making money.  Grynbaum joined Facebook four years later.

His desk will be in Room 9.

@EdithHonan

Edith Honan was based in 4a before the renovations at City Hall. From there, she covered courts and whatever big stories were happening in New York politics. She's written about rappers in court and diplomatic fights at the United Nations.

Originally from Connecticut, she now lives in Brooklyn.

Reuters has one desk in Room 9 and one in Room 4a.

@ChrisReuters

Chris Francescani has written for New York magazine and the New York Post, and spent nine years at ABC working on their digital operation. His first day at work for the network was on September 11, 2001. 

One executive director at ABC said Francescani "was willing to forgo his assignment if it meant disrespecting the men" in the firehouse he was reporting on during 9/11. Francescani won a Peabody award for his coverage.

One of my favorite leads from a Francescani story: "Was Bob Dylan looking for the home where Bruce Springsteen wrote 'Born to Run' in 1974 when he was detained by police near the Jersey shore last month?"

He's from Manhasset, studied in Boston, and joined Reuters eight months ago. 

Reuters has one desk in Room 9 and one desk in Room 4a.

@MichaelHwrdSaul

He was the bureau chief for the Daily News and left the City Hall beat to cover the 2008 presidential campaign. In January 2010, he got picked up by the Journal when they launched the Greater New York section.

He's covered Mayor Michael Bloomberg for years, and has been subjected to some notable barbs from the mayor.

During Bloomberg's latest budget presentation, Saul tried asking the mayor about councilmembers' complaints about proposed cuts. Bloomberg cut him off and said, "They weren't elected to run the city," before predicting that Saul would continue reporting their comments anyway.

He recently wrote about protesters who constantly heckle Christine Quinn.

His desk will be in Room 9.

@MaggiePolitico

Maggie Haberman helped break the story that sunk Herman Cain's campaign, covered Hillary Clinton's 2000 senate campaign, and seems to be able to read Rudy Giuliani's mind.

Before joining Politico as a senior reporter, she wrote the for the New York Post, taking a brief interlude to write for the Daily News.

Media Bistro thinks she looks like Tina Fey. Others suggested she is like Ida Horowicz, the reporter in the movie Ides of March, played by Marisa Tomei. A star, either way.

Her desk will be in 4a.

@ColvinJ

At press conferences, she's been known to type with one hand and take photographs with the other, which comes in particularly handy at multimedia-forward DNAInfo.

Originally from Canada, Colvin did her undergraduate degree at Columbia, got a masters from the London School of Economics and picked up another masters (in journalism) from Columbia. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, New York Press and Daily News.

Recently, she filed a 1,010-word story about Christine Quinn's wedding, along with a 37-picture slideshow. When I left the event, Colvin was furiously typing her story while seated on the sidewalk. Dateline: "MEATPACKING DISTRICT".

She played Kirsten Gillibrand in the Inner Circle Show.

Her desk will be in 4a.

@SamanthaGross

City Hall may seem a little too quiet for her, after she covered the political and media firestorm around Terri Schiavo in the final weeks of her life. 

Covering the Bloomberg administration is an orderly matter by comparison: reporters sit and wait to get called on, first asking on-topic and then off-topic questions.

Her twitter feed is refreshingly earnest. She grew up lives in Brooklyn and lives in Chelsea.

Her desk will be in Room 9.

@chrisbragg1 

Originally from Denver, Chris Bragg reported on politics in Colorado before coming to New York. At CityandStateNY.com, Bragg keeps tabs on local races and publishes a useful roundup of political news each day. His work primarily appears on CityandStateNY blog, The Notebook. Last year, he won the Writer of the Year award from the New York Press Association.

Recently, he broke a story about a Jewish stalking horse. (Who knew!)

He'll be in 4a.

@bkColin

He launched a very smart, relentlessly updated site about Brooklyn politics that became a necessary read for anyone interested in the topic. It drew the attention of Brooklyn politicians and Politico called him a person to keep an eye on.

He was hired by the Observer last December to write for the Politicker, which he described as "a classic New York blog." 

He tweets late into the evening and often brings a tripod to press conferences, so his footage is smooth and steady, unlike some other people's. He's a native of California and his background is in tech.

He'll be in 4a.

He plays the harmonica and writes for the news outlet founded by the mayor.

The Times once wrote about his coverage of the mayor, on the premise that it must be awkward for him. But if that's the case, Goldman doesn't show it. He asks sharp and very productive questions at press conferences and writes fairly. Also useful: Goldman has a law degree and a good understanding of finances.

His desk will be in Room 9.

Michael Harris writes for Examiner.com, which he joined in 2008. He briefly worked for Assemblyman Micah Kellner and was a spokesman for a group advocating for better transportation access for physically challenged commuters. Harris himself uses a wheelchair.

He is a graduate of Brooklyn College (ask him about his senior thesis) and was once criticized by Mayor Michael Bloomberg when his tape recorder disrupted a press conference. The Times wrote about the incident, Harris held a press conference on the steps of City Hall, and the mayor made amends.

His desk is in Room 4a.

He's been a fixture in City Hall for decades, often referred to as a "gadfly," for lack of a more precise term. He writes an opinionated blog and likes to refer to the mayor as "Bloomie" and the Council speaker as "BloomQuinn".

The mayor largely ignores him, despite his regular attendance at press conferences and events on the City Hall steps. But he made a pretty significant contribution to the City Hall press dynamic when he was part of a suit that forced City Hall and the New York Police Department to revise rules and to make it easier for bloggers and independent journalists to get press passes.

As in years past, Room 4a will have open desks that can be used by credentialed reporters visiting for the day. He will sometimes be there.

Rich Lamb started with WCBS in 1978, the year there was an 88-day newspaper strike. According to his official bio, his first story was titled, "Brooklyn Polar Bear group takes icy dip". That was February 1978.

Lamb has an encyclopedic knowledge of City Hall, the building. (There used to be a jail in the basement and the original architects never thought anyone would see the back of the building, according to Lamb.) He's a reliable standout at the Inner Circle.

He files from the radio room, next to the City Council members lounge, on the first floor.

The legendary 1010 WINS reporter has been with the station longer than most of his listeners have been alive. He started as a newspaper reporter with a local paper that went from weekly to daily to out of business.

Unfailingly nice, Brooks sometimes jokes about other people needing to retire. He's recently begun taking photos and filing them along with his radio stories.

He'll file from the radio room, next to the City Council members lounge on the first floor.

Room 9 reporters, who must exist together in extremely close quarters, are particular about behavior. 

The old Room 4a was messy, and was sometimes used for storage by reporters and whoever was in charge of this podium.

The atmosphere in Room 4a was casual. 

My mom is a retired teacher and once found my desk in 4a. She later told me I had to clean the place.

At night, when you couldn't see the flypaper hanging from the ceiling or abandoned boxes of notebooks, the place actually looked kind of nice.