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
Judge Dismisses PPW Bike Lane Lawsuit: Open Thread
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Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Bert Bunyan has ruled in favor of the city in the Prospect Park West bike lane case, dismissing the plaintiffs’ lawsuit on the grounds that they did not file before the statute of limitations had run out. We will have more for you tomorrow, Streetsblog readers. If you care to peruse […]
What We Learned From the Daily News Bike Lane Debate
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Earlier today I participated in a live chat debate on the topic of bike lanes, hosted and moderated by Celeste Katz. The chief sparring partner for supporters of bike lanes was Alex Nazaryan, who sits on the paper’s editorial board and joined a group of cyclists for an uneventful ride across the Manhattan Bridge the […]
Shocking Video of the Manhattan Bridge “Battleground”
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Before we get to the recap of today’s live chat about bike lanes on the Daily News’s Daily Politics blog, let’s rewind a little further. Yesterday morning Alex Nazaryan, a member of the Daily News editorial board, joined me, Doug Gordon from Brooklyn Spoke, and a few other cyclists for a bike commute over the […]
Bike Lane Chat With the Daily News Now Underway
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Okay, today’s bike lane debate is about to get started. You can participate over here.
Today at Noon: Bike Lane Debate at the Daily Politics
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Today at noon I’ll be venturing over to the Daily News’ Daily Politics blog to participate in a live chat about bike lanes. The debate, which the Daily News has assigned the unfortunate title “Bike Lanes: Good or Evil,” was prompted by the paper’s editorials on cyclists using the wrong side of the Manhattan Bridge […]
Revealed: Council Member Tish James Tells Us Where She’s Been Biking
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Streetsblog caught up with council members Tish James and Brad Lander for a few minutes at Saturday’s “Building Bridges Bike Day” in Grand Army Plaza. James and Lander represent districts with some of the highest bicycling rates in the city, and they’re getting some mileage out of the local bike infrastructure themselves: Lander arrived via bike, […]
Broad Coalition Urges Cuomo to Enact Transit Lockbox
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If not for Albany’s theft of $260 million in dedicated transit tax revenues over the past two years, the sweeping service cuts enacted by the MTA in 2010 might have been avoided. Transit riders can’t afford a repeat. With the MTA on track to take on even more debt, squeezing its operating budget for years […]
Summer Streets 4, Part Two: Photos and Open Thread
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For your viewing pleasure, a few shots from the iconic Midtown stretch of Summer Streets this weekend, courtesy of reader Jeff Prant: You can share your Summer Streets photos by uploading them to Flick and adding the “Streetsblog” tag.
Summer Streets Forecast: Sunny and Beautiful
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Looks like it’s going to be gorgeous out for the second Summer Streets installment of 2011. Shutterbugs: To add your Summer Streets photos to our Flickr pool, label them with the “Streetsblog” tag. Graphic via weather.com
The Daily News Has Got to Stop Printing Cyclist Stereotypes
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One of the enduring mysteries of the NYC transportation media landscape is how the Daily News opinion page can be so on-target with its transit pieces, and so far off the mark when the topic turns to bicycling. Last week, the opinion writers published this excellent takedown of the joint John Liu/Tom DiNapoli MTA audit […]
How Many Obstacles Does It Take to Stop NYPD Sidewalk Parking?
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This is the generous new sidewalk extension at the five-way intersection of Washington Avenue, Park Place, and Grand Avenue in Brooklyn. Here you can see bell bollards protecting the added pedestrian space between Washington, on the left, and Grand on the right. I live around the corner, and I can’t say enough about how much […]
Cuomo: College Should Be Priced Rationally. Roads? Not So Much.
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At a press conference today, Governor Cuomo touted a new plan to introduce a “rational” pricing mechanism to help the state provide critical resources to New York residents. He was talking, of course, about SUNY tuition, which will be structured to rise five percent a year for the next five years. As for introducing a […]