Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.
Ben Fried
Recent Posts
Productive Exchange of Ideas Breaks Out at Fort Greene Plaza Workshop
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The reports are in, and it seems like Fort Greene residents were able to have a productive workshop with NYC DOT and the Fulton Area Business Alliance (FAB) last night to discuss the new public plaza planned for Fowler Square. A reader informs us that aside from a few minutes of haranguing from a few […]
Tonight: Help Shape the Future of Fort Greene’s Fowler Square
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NYC DOT, Council Member Tish James, Community Board 2, and the Fulton Area Business Alliance are hosting a community workshop tonight to gather ideas for a new plaza at Fowler Square — the triangle formed by Fulton Street, Lafayette Avenue, and South Elliot Place in Fort Greene. In addition to lending your expertise as the […]
NBBL Press Releases vs. NBBL
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Like a reanimated corpse, the PPW bike lane lawsuit is stumbling on a little while longer, as NBBL appeals Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan’s dismissal of the case. The surreal part of the spectacle this time around is that bike lane opponents are basically repeating what they said last year, even though their own […]
Unlocking the Potential of the New Jackson Heights Plaza
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Earlier this month you might have noticed a few press accounts about merchants in Jackson Heights who think a new public plaza on one short block of 37th Road is crimping their bottom line. The plaza is actually part of a much broader plan to improve street safety, speed bus trips, and reduce traffic congestion […]
Six Lies the GOP Is Telling About the House Transportation Bill
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The transportation-plus-drilling bill that John Boehner and company are trying to ram through the House is an attack on transit riders, pedestrians, cyclists, city dwellers, and every American who can’t afford to drive everywhere. Under this bill, all the dedicated federal funding streams for transit, biking, and walking would disappear, leading to widespread service cuts […]
Spot the Celebrity Bike-Share Planner
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It was another evening of hands-on bike-share station planning at Manhattan Community Board 2 last night, as New Yorkers hunched over maps of SoHo and Greenwich Village, marking the best places to site bike-share kiosks. If you live or work in the bike-share service area, you really ought to mark your calendar for the station […]
When Cops and Placard Holders Set the Tone for Transportation Coverage
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Today’s Jim Dwyer column in the New York Times is a nice little encapsulation of everything that can go wrong when NYC’s press corps turns its attention to matters of transportation. The slug for the story on the metro section homepage reads: “New York often resorts to revenue-raising expedients like a lucrative new campaign to […]
Security Video of Fatal Hit-and-Run Doesn’t Match NYPD Descriptions
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It took a lawsuit from the family of Mathieu Lefevre to pry information from NYPD regarding the hit-and-run crash that took his life. Now they have reason to believe the police are still withholding vital evidence. Last week, Streetsblog reported that NYPD had released a detailed description of how the crash unfolded, supposedly based on […]
LeBron James Bikes to Work “All the Time”
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This Twitter photo of LeBron James biking to American Airlines Arena before facing off against Derrick Rose and the Chicago Bulls last night has gone viral on sports news sites all over America. There are some interesting sociological currents swirling around LeBron James, bike commuter. While the photographer labeled James a “manchild” for taking to […]
Adding Neighborhood 20 MPH Zones Isn’t a Zero-Sum Game
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The Brooklyn Paper ran one of its trademark neighbor-vs.-neighbor stories today, turning a weekend public workshop about implementing a 20 mph zone in Park Slope into an occasion for more conflict-driven reporting: Greenwood Heights activists claim drivers heading south on Sixth Avenue already speed up once they cross the Prospect Expressway and hit a five-block […]
Say Hello to Luna Blue Evans-Snyder
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Introducing the newest member of the Streetsblog family… Luna Blue Evans-Snyder was born the afternoon of January 13. She weighed in at 6 pounds, 12 ounces. As you might imagine, Tanya’s byline is going to be a little scarce over the next several weeks. If you’d like to send her well-wishes and recommendations for a […]
Trucker Struck Mathieu Lefevre With Driver’s Side Tire Before Leaving Scene
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The hit-and-run truck driver who killed cyclist Mathieu Lefevre last October struck the victim with his front driver’s side tire, according to a description in NYPD’s investigative file shared by Lefevre’s family. The description, based largely on video evidence police obtained in December, raises serious questions about the driver’s claim that he was not aware […]