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
Opposition Brewing to DOT’s Proposal for 9th Street Bike Lanes
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Tonight, 6:30 pm at Old First Church on 7th Avenue and Carroll Street, the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 hosts a blockbuster follow-up meeting to the "One-Way? No Way!" extravaganza of March 15. While I haven’t managed to get a look at DOT’s proposal, we know a few things about it: It will […]
A Community Workshop to Re-envision Grand Army Plaza
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All across the city neighborhood groups are coming together to re-envision and plan their own communities. In the last few months we’ve seen valuable community-planning processes taking place in Hell’s Kitchen, the Meatpacking District and, to a certain extent, along Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. People aren’t waiting around for real estate developers or city […]
Ungrateful Liberal Scum, “We Do Not Summons Our Own.”
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A certain sense of entitlement emerges in the UncivilServants comments section. Posted verbatim, no spelling check: I have no intensions of ever parking legally whenever I am in NYC. It is a perk that has been in standard practice since the end of time. It is not the officer’s fault that the NYPD does not […]
City Council Fiddles While New York City Chokes on Traffic
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Brooklyn Council member Lew Fidler (above) is circulating an anti-congestion pricing resolution urging Mayor Bloomberg to oppose any form of road pricing. Fidler’s resolution appears to be a shot across the bow in preparation for the mayor’s forthcoming Long-Term Planning and Sustainability speech. Last week, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff hinted that the speech would include […]
Meet the New Boss
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Multiple sources say that Mayor Bloomberg has chosen Urbitran Chairman and CEO Michael Horodniceanu as New York City’s next transportation commissioner. Iris Weinshall’s last day on the job will be Friday, April 13. No word yet on when the official announcement will be.
Mayor Bloomberg at the Crossroads: Who Will Run DOT?
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With DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall set to depart city government in three weeks, sources say that Mayor Michael Bloomberg is close to announcing her replacement. The Mayor’s choice will have a profound impact on day-to-day neighborhood life as well as the City of New York’s long-term future. Though the DOT commissioner job search has barely […]
DOT Makes the Case for Bike Routes Parallel to W. Houston St.
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Last Tuesday night Ryan Russo and Josh Benson from the Department of Transportation presented a plan to Manhattan’s Community Board 2 to create a safer east-west bike route across Lower Manhattan. With three cyclists having been killed on Houston Street over the last two years and major reconstruction of the street currently underway, members of […]
Doctoroff Sets Stage for Something Bold, Creative & Expensive
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O Yesterday, Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and MTA President Lee Sander delivered a pair of one-two speeches at the annual meeting of the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council. Sadly, the report I wrote up yesterday afternoon was eaten by my blog software. It was really good too. Much more entertaining than this one. What are […]
New Sheriff in Chinatown
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The Fifth Precinct in Lower Manhattan has a new commanding officer, a local boy, Dep. Inspector Gin Yee, and he’s not afraid to tow some cars, even if they belong to his co-workers. In fact, he’s already towed 15 cars, 12 of which belonged to NYPD officers. Downtown Express reports: David Eng, who co-owns Fong […]
Coverage of Last Night’s Park Slope Meeting
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Big Crowd of Slopers Turn Out to Jeer One-Way Proposal (Gowanus Lounge) 400+ Slopers Deride DOT Plans for Sixth and Seventh Avenues (Yards Report) Slope Weighs One-Way Byways (Voice) Board votes down one-way proposal (Brooklyn Paper) Jonathan Barkey photos
DOT’s Park Slope One-Way Presentation
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Above is a bootlegged copy of DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia’s Park Slope one-way traffic presentation. Though the plan is supposedly all about improving pedestrian safety, you can see for yourself that it is almost entirely concerned with the movement and flow of motor vehicles and the calculation of "vehicular level of service." In this […]
Brooklyn to City Hall: Give us Planning Not Traffic Engineering
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Last night the transportation committee of Community Board 6 fully and unequivocally rejected the Department of Transportation’s proposal to transform Park Slope, Brooklyn’s Sixth and Seventh Avenues into one-way arterials. I am a member of the commitee and typically we have about 15 people in the room. A big meeting will be 35. Last night, […]