Aaron Donovan
Before he began blogging about land use and transportation, Aaron Donovan wrote The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund's annual fundraising appeal for three years and earned a master's degree in urban planning from Columbia. Since then, he has worked for nonprofit organizations devoted to New York City economic development. He lives and works in the Financial District, and sees New York's pre-automobile built form as an asset that makes New York unique in the United States, and as a strategic advantage that should be capitalized upon.
Recent Posts
Transportation Alternatives Volunteer Night – Mailing Party
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Join New York City’s advocates for cyclists and pedestrians as they spread the word about their important work at their Volunteer Night mailing parties. Activities include stuffing envelopes, folding t-shirts and sending out campaign materials with fellow activists.
The Weekly Carnage
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Fatal Crashes (15 Killed This Week; 316 Killed This Year) Brooklyn: SUV Jumps Curb, Killing Pedestrian, Striking Bakery (Daily News) Brooklyn: Cyclist, 17, Doored, Then Run Over by Bus (NY Post, Newsday) The Bronx: Hit-and-Run Truck Driver Kills Cyclist, 30 (NYT, NY1) Manhattan: 2 Killed in Separate Uptown Crashes (NY Sun, NY Post [scroll]) Manhattan: Commuter Bus […]
Riverside Ride
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Join Time’s Up! on bicycles or skates for a totally safe, magical, evening ride in Manhattan. As with their Moonlight Rides, they’ll share the tranquillity of Central Park, plus we’ll add the lovely tree canopy and grand vistas of the Hudson River from Riverside Park. The scenic tour continues down the greenway to the lovely […]
Times Up! Video Night
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Come out for a night with the Time’s Up! Video Collective and members from the Glass Bead Collective and Team Spider. Join us for video, food, surprises, and a Q and A afterwards. WATCH THIS! Part 1.August 2004 NYC Critical Mass on the eve of the RNC protests. Part 1 deals with the excessive police […]
Manhattan Community Boards 4, 5 and 6 Hold Joint Hearing on Congestion Pricing
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Manhattan Community Boards 4, 5 and 6 are holding a public hearing on Mayor Bloomberg’s congesion pricing proposal. The public is invited to attend and present testimony.
Manhattan Community Board 8 Transportation Committee Discusses Congestion Pricing and Upper East Side Bike Lanes
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Manhattan Community Board 8’s transportation committee will hold a discussion of congestion pricing (expect a discussion of the "border effects" of East 86th Street) and on bike lanes planned for segments of East 89th, 90th and 91st Streets.
Book Review: Twenty-Three Years to Save the Planet
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When George Monbiot, the popular columnist for the UK’s Guardian newspaper, gets interested in something, he digs and digs until he’s found what he’s satisfied is the truth. Monbiot is interested in global warming, and presents in Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning (U.S. Edition: South End Press, May 2007) a heavily footnoted 215-page brisk and compelling case for why […]
The Weekly Carnage
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Photo: Steve Silverman/NY Post Fatal Crashes (12 Killed This Week; 301 Killed This Year) Dix Hills, L.I.: Doctor Traveling 120 M.P.H. Killed on L.I.E. (NY Post) Related: Cops: He Was Speeding, But Maybe Not That Much (Newsday) Brooklyn: 18-Month-Old Run Over in Driveway; Driver Leaves (NY Post, Newsday) Related: Tearful Funeral (Newsday) Related: Nassau County Debates Backup Safety Bill (Newsday) […]
Brooklyn Greenway Initiative Benefit
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A personal note from Aaron Naparstek: When I first met Brian McCormick, Milton Puryear and Meg Fellerath in the spring of 2002, they were picking up trash and planting tulips alongside a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway off-ramp in Cobble Hill. I asked them what they were up to and they told me that they were working to […]
Will the Revitalized High Bridge be Bike-Friendly?
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This is a guest post by Susan Murray, author of the Urban Naturalist. The High Bridge, a graceful stone and steel bridge, reminiscent of the great Roman aqueducts, spans the Harlem River between parks in Washington Heights and the Highbridge neighborhood in the Bronx. Erected in 1848, decades before the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, it […]
The Perfect Argument for Congestion Pricing
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The Staten Island Advance ran an article last Thursday about a "perfect storm" of crushing Staten Island-bound traffic on the Gowanus Expressway and the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. To give you a sense of the frustrated tone of the article, it was entitled "21-Month Nightmare: Agency Offers Zero Solutions for Verrazano Lane Mess." Here’s how it began: […]
Transportation Alternatives’ 3rd Annual Summer Benefit
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Honoring Mark Gorton, recipient of the 2nd Annual Gurin Award for Improving Biking and Walking in New York City Seasonal menu and wine pairing. Vegetarian option will be available. Special thanks to Village Restaurant and Chef Stephen Lyle.