Aaron Naparstek
AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.
Recent Posts
Crips and Bloods Feeling the Pinch of Rising Gas Prices?
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As if the Los Angeles bike scene weren’t intense enough, the L.A. Times reported a gang-related bike-by shooting yesterday. Time to trade in the 22’s and hydraulics for a Schwinn?
New Bike Markings for North Greenpoint
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Tipster Ryan Lee sends along some photos of new bicycle lanes being marked on Manhattan Avenue in North Greenpoint, Brooklyn today. He writes that the new lanes stretch from Ash St. to Greenpoint Ave. on both sides of the street and bike boxes are going in at the intersections. As always, you can find lots […]
Happy Birthday, Vélib
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Here’s another transportation policy success story from France. The Vélib bike-sharing system celebrates its one-year anniversary today. In April, Streetfilms’ Elizabeth Press was in Paris to learn more about it. Here is her video and report: On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world’s largest self-service "bicycle transit system" called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike […]
Et Tu, Mister Softee?
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Mister Softee set up shop on the Prince Street bike lane near the corner of Broadway this weekend. Note the pedestrians squeezing through the narrow strip of sidewalk between the ice cream truck and the subway railing. Prince Street, you may recall, was slated to go car-free on Sunday’s all summer long until the SoHo […]
Want a New Public Plaza in Your Neighborhood? Apply Now.
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Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan unveiled the Department of Transportation’s New York City Public Plaza Program last night at the Pratt Institute in Manhattan. Through the program, DOT aims to transform "underused streets into vibrant, social public spaces" throughout New York City. To create and run these new public plazas DOT is seeking to partner with local […]
Welcome to the Livable Streets Network
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After months of hard work by the outstanding tech team at The Open Planning Project, here’s the new web site. We hope you like the new design and that you’ll find the new features useful. A quick tour: The first thing you may want to do is sign up and become a member to take […]
Streetsblog Will Be Offline Wednesday Morning
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Dear Streetsbloggers, We will be offline starting tomorrow morning as we transition Streetsblog to its new design. Barring unforeseen technological catastrophes, we aim to have the new site up and running by the end of day Wednesday. We apologize in advance for depriving any of you junkies of your daily fix of headlines, news and […]
Get a Sneak Peak at Our Big Redesign and Give Your Feedback
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One of the reasons I haven’t been posting here much lately is that I’ve been working with the staff at the Open Planning Project on a pretty substantial redesign for Streetsblog, Streetfilms and the New York City Streets Renaissance web sites. In addition to giving our sites a new look and feel, we are bringing […]
Help Wanted: Identify the Best Livable Streets Blogs. $20/Hour.
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Update: Thanks everyone. The position has been filled. If you’d like to help out as a volunteer, we’d appreciate that as well. Using del.icio.us, bookmark your favorite blogs "livable-streets-network." Are any regular Streetsblog readers available for a part-time project? As part of our forthcoming redesign (more on that soon) we are looking to build a […]
Do Alternate Side Parking Rules Increase Traffic Congestion?
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Our regular babysitter Laura, an R train commuter, is out of town this week. Nicole, the woman providing us with back-up nanny service for our 1-year-old, travels to our house, in Park Slope, in a mini-van. This morning she noted, quite happily, that there was so little traffic on her way from Ocean Parkway […]
Chrysler: Let’s Ruin America!
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Looks like Chrysler has figured out a novel way to move their 2008 model gas guzzlers off the lot. Sign up for their new "Let’s Refuel America!" credit card and they’ll lock in the price of gas at $2.99/gallon for three years. That’s right, it’s a 36-month guarantee that you don’t have to think about […]
Amsterdam? Copenhagen? Nope: NYC.
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The first thing I thought of when I saw this photo was the famous H.G. Wells quote, "When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race." A city where distinguished gentlemen commute to work by bike is a city where I am happy to live. […]