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
The Weekly Carnage
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Fatal Crashes (19 Killed This Week; 89 Killed This Year) Patterson, N.Y.: 2 Mothers Killed in Head-On Collision (Journal News) Related: Dozens Pay Respects to Victim (Journal News) Queens: Man Survives Crash but Killed in Hit-and-Run (Daily News) Related: Hit-and-Run Driver Nabbed; Faces 4 Years (Daily News) Related: Family Rage Over ‘Accident’; Injured Woman’s Feet Amputated (WABC 7) Huntington, L.I.: 3 […]
Help Wanted at DOT: Creative Thinkers Encouraged to Apply
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Chairman of the City Council Transportation Committee, John C. Liu, praised outgoing DOT commissioner Iris Weinshall and called for an innovative thinker as her successor. You’ve already weighed in on what you’d like to see in the next DOT commissioner. Now members of the City Council and Transportation Alternatives have weighed in too, with a press conference […]
Panel Discussion: New York Neighborhoods and the Impact of Development
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Since Robert Moses’s time, there has been a paradigm shift in the way development takes place in New York City. This panel will address the nature of that shift and explore how present-day developers and public agencies address such key issues as the design and scale of projects, local participation in decision marking, and the […]
Panel Discussion: The Roads Taken and Not Taken: Robert Moses and Transportation
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A distinguished panel of transportation experts will examine Robert Moses’s legacy of roads, bridges, tunnels and highways in the context of today’s transportation and transit agenda, stressing strategies for addressing the city’s current traffic problems and future demand for expanded and improved mass transit. Panelists will include Richard Ravitch, former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation […]
Panel Discussion: The Wars of the Moses, Battles Won and Lost
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Henry Stern, director of New York Civic and former parks commissioner, will lead a panel discussion on Robert Moses and the controversies that surrounded him, including such issues as parks and what could be built in them, race and class, and the role of community members in the decision-making process. Joining Mr. Stern will be […]
The Best Laid Plans: Planning New York’s Future from Moses to Bloomberg
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Robert Moses masterfully knit together his vision for New York and its surroundings but resisted the development of a formal master plan for the city’s future. The discussion will consider the role of planning in the city in Moses’s time and today in light of Mayor Bloomberg’s recent announcement of the city’s first comprehensive sustainability […]
Hilary Ballon Gallery Talk: Robert Moses
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Join curator and architectural historian Hilary Ballon for a gallery talk that will give a comprehensive overview of the exhibiton Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Road to Recreation, followed by a book signing of the accompanying publication Robert Moses and the Modern City: The Transformation of New York (W.W. Norton, 2007, co-edited with […]
Panel Discussion: Interpreting and Misinterpreting Jane Jacobs: New York and Beyond
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Jane Jacobs was a vocal opponent of Robert Moses’s plans and a leader of the movement to preserve Greenwich Village and other Manhattan neighborhoods. She went on to become a leading urban theorist. This panel discussion will examine the principles that Jacobs espoused and how they have been applied. Introduced by the author and founder […]
Brooklyn CB1 Transportation Committee Meeting With Presentation on Money Available for Pedestrian Safety
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On the agenda for Brooklyn Community Board 1‘s regular Transportation Committee meeting is a presentation by Scott Codey and Lauren George of Citizens for NYC, regarding the New Yorkers for Better Neighborhood Awards program. There is money available to communities for projects like traffic noise reduction, pedestrian safety improvements, and more.
RSVP Deadline for Grand Army Plaza Community Planning Workshop
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Today is the day by which you must RSVP in order to participate in the March 10 Grand Army Plaza community planning workshop "Rethinking Grand Army Plaza: Bringing Communities and People Together," sponsored by the Grand Army Plaza Coalition.
Rethinking Grand Army Plaza: Bringing Communities and People
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The Grand Army Plaza Coalition was formed in March 2006 when community stakeholders (area residents, cultural institutions, and advocacy groups) rallied around a common belief: that Grand Army Plaza falls short of its potential as a hub for transit, culture, and recreation. Specifically: This city can devise a solution that considers equitably all of the […]
Congestion Pricing for New York? Lessons from London
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Speaker:Malcolm Murray-ClarkDirector of Congestion Charging, Transport for London Discussant:Robert E. PaaswellDirector, University Transportation Research Center and CUNY Institute for Urban Systems