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
New Traffic Island Makes News, Takes a Beating
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Here’s the scene at the corner of Grand Street and the F.D.R. Drive, where motorists exiting the expressway turn 90 degrees onto the local street. The DOT recently installed this modest pedestrian refuge island, which sparked an outcry from area residents, who complained that the island was hard to see. This island is great. It slows the cars making […]
The San Francisco – Golden Gate National Recreation Area: Lessons for New York’s Harbor District
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National Parks are a distinctively American idea, but it takes people to make them happen. Amy Meyer, co-chair of People for a Golden Gate Recreation Area, and author of the recent book New Guardians for the Golden Gate: How America got a Great National Park, will discuss how Bay Area activists succeeded in preserving all […]
Community Planning Workshop: Gansevoort Market Streetscape
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The Gansevoort Market Historic District attracts new visitors and businesses every day. This makes the neighborhood vibrant and exciting. But it also adds pressures to the streets and sidewalks. You can help make the neighborhood safer for pedestrians, more efficient for vehicular traffic, and more attractive to the public at large. Please join the Greater […]
New York’s Next Great Place – Governors Island Park Design Forum
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Governors Island Alliance and the AIA New York Chapter, APA New York Metro Chapter and the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects, in association with the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation (GIPEC) and Governors Island National Monument are pleased to invite you to a forum on the development of the […]
The Weekly Carnage
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Fatal Crashes (19 Dead This Week; 5 Dead This Year) New Jersey: 9 Die Across State in a Long Weekend of Crashes (Star-Ledger) Related: NYC Officer, 2 Daughters Killed as SUV Veers Off Highway (Daily News) Related: SUV Rams Sedan, Killing 2 in North Bergen (NYT) Bronx: Man Drives SUV Into Crowd, Kills Boxer, Flees (NYT) Related: Victim Savored […]
Hells Kitchen Design Workshop
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Project for Public Spaces will lead teams of residents on a field trip to key intersections in Hells Kitchen, where the participants will propose solutions to redesign the blocks.
Ninth Ave. Renaissance Forum: Less Traffic, Better Streets
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Ninth Avenue Renaissance invites you to attend a town hall meeting on traffic congestion in Hell’s Kitchen. Expected speakers include Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, Tim Tompkins of the Times Square Alliance and Fred Kent of Project for Public Space, but most of the agenda remains focused on community input. Co-sponsored by: Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer […]
Manhattan Community Board 8 Transportation Committee Evaluates Proposal for Barriers/Bollards on Park Ave. Pedestrian Refuge Islands
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Come voice your support for pedestrian safety improvements on the Upper East Side! This is an issue Streetsblog’s own Glenn McAnanama has pushed to the forefront (as seen here on Streetsblog and in The New York Times).
Setting the Agenda on Pedestrian Safety
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On the evening of Saturday, January 10, 2004, Peter Hornbeck, 26, stepped off the curb at Park Avenue and 96th Street and was struck by a Chevy Suburban traveling 74 miles per hour. The SUV, being driven by a 26-year-old man from Queens who had had his license revoked years earlier, dragged Hornbeck for a block as Hornbeck’s friends cried out in […]
5 Borough Bicycle Club General Meeting
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5BBC members Ken Coughlin and Brian Hoberman will warm up the evening with a travelogue and photo album from their trip to Sweden and Denmark this past summer. They will provide practical information on self-contained bicycle touring, shipping bikes by air, and rail transportation in a foreign land. 5BBC hopes to serve authentic Scandinavian refreshments. […]
Documentary Screening and Discussion: ‘Brooklyn Matters’
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Brooklyn is distinctly different and yet such an important part of New York City. The name itself brings to mind tree-lined streets, finely carved rowhouses and beautiful churches and diverse communities, rich in cultural life and ethnic heritage. On the upswing, vibrant and rebuilding itself, Brooklyn faces a new challenge-an uncommon development, designed by world […]
The Weekly Carnage
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Fatal Crashes (18 Dead This Week) Port Jefferson Station, L.I.: Teen Kills Passenger, Charged With DWI (Newsday) Related: Bereaved Uncle Forgives Driver – ‘Just a Terrible Accident’ (NY Post) Related: Driver Out on $150K Bail, Victim’s Mom Outraged (Newsday) Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island: 3 Peds, 1 Passenger Die in 4 Crashes (Newsday) Related: 3 Crashes Claim 3 Lives; 2 Arrested (NYT) Farmingdale, L.I.: Man […]