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
RSVP Deadline for ‘Contactless Smart Cards for Transit Fare Payment: A Paradigm Shift’
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Today is the RSVP deadline for Dec. 6th’s panel discussion at NYU: "Contactless Smart Cards for Transit Fare Payment: A Paradigm Shift."
Last Day of ‘Habitats: Celebrating the Revitalization of the Historic Gowanus Canal’
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Artists, scientists, community organizers, and cultural commentators come together to create a collective vision of a sustainable habitat. Instigated by Eidolon Culture, Habitats provides a model for dialogue between urban developers and environmentalists through conferences and panels, participatory and collaborative art, and educational programs. With community efforts leading to cleaner water, the Gowanus Canal area […]
‘Contested Streets’ Screening and Panel Discussion: ‘What Can Be Done About Traffic in New York City?’
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Following Sierra Club NYC‘s monthly general membership meeting will be a special showing of Contested Streets, a new documentary showing the way to livable, gridlock-free streets — from the Battery to the Bronx, from Staten Island to Coney Island. After the film, a panel discussion of NYC transportation issues by: City Councilman John Liu, chairman of […]
The Weekly Carnage
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Brooklyn: S.U.V. Hits Mother and 3 Children, Killing Boy (NYT) Related: Driver: I Didn’t Know I Killed Boy (Daily News) Related: Mother, in Coma, Clings to Life (NY Post) Carteret, N.J., Family of 3 Killed in SUV Crash in Pennsylvania (Star-Ledger) Putnam Valley, N.Y.: Girl, 13, Killed in SUV-Truck Crash (Journal News) Queens: 3 Dead in Four-Car Pileup (Daily […]
The Citizen Engagement Gap – Crisis or Opportunity?
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A roundtable discussion sponsored by the Environmental Partnership for Sustainable Development, featuring presentations by leaders from Central and Eastern Europe in addressing environmental challenges through citizen engagement. Project for Public Spaces has been partnering with the Czech Environmental Partnership for over ten years. We are enormously impressed with their work as well as their partner organizations […]
2nd Annual Green Brooklyn Conference: The Sustainable City
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Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment is excited to present the 2006 Green Brooklyn Conference: The Sustainable City, sponsored by Consolidated Edison. With discussion panels, hands-on workshops, and exhibitor tables; the conference will bring new energy and excitement to discourse on the built and natural environments and how to transform Brooklyn and all of New York […]
Election Day
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Don’t forget to vote today. Polls in New York City are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Visit the New York City Board of Elections Poll Site Locator to find out where to vote.
Panel: ‘Contactless Smart Cards for Transit Fare Payment: A Paradigm Shift’
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MTA New York City Transit is exploring an option that permits payment of fare at the point of entry using a standard, bank-issued contactless smart card device. This is a paradigm shift from traditional approaches to fare collection in which transit agencies issue fare media and tickets that are integral to a stand-alone, custom-designed fare […]
Traffic Relief Press Conference
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On October 12th, NYC DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall spoke at Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer’s transportation forum and shocked conference attendees with her promise to promote "aggressive pedestrianization" measures and to move as many people as possible out of cars and into more efficient modes of travel, like buses and bicycles. Two weeks later, the […]
The Weekly Carnage
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Manhattan: Boy, 16, Mowed Down on Highway (Daily News) Related Heartless Hack Knew He Hit Kid – Passenger (Daily News) Middletown, N.J.: 2 Dead in Crash Involving School Bus (Star-Ledger) Woodbridge, N.J.: Chlorine Tanker Flip Closes Turnpike Exit (Star-Ledger) Queens: 1 Dead, 1 Hurt in Truck Horror (Daily News) United States: SUV Fatalities Are on a Roll […]
Bogota and Beyond: A New Model for Urban Planning and Development
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Enrique Peñalosa has become internationally recognized as a political leader and visionary who "walks the walk" regarding issues of social equity, sustainability, and civic participation. As mayor of Bogota from 1998 to 2001, he oversaw the transformation of a major city beset by many of the problems that face other cities in the developing world: stark […]
T.O.D. in Brooklyn: Turning Parking Lots into Housing
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Some reading ahead of tomorrow’s big Transit-Oriented Development forum at NYU… Public attention is focused on Atlantic Yards and condo towers under construction or planned from DUMBO to Long Island City, but the Brooklyn real estate boom is having subtler but equally profound effects on neighborhoods just outside the radar, and these changes are tremendously beneficial from a regional planning perspective. […]