Aaron Naparstek
AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparsteks journalism, advocacy and community organizing work has been instrumental in growing the bicycle network, removing motor vehicles from parks, and developing new public plazas, car-free streets and life-saving traffic-calming measures across all five boroughs. Naparstek is the author of "Honku: The Zen Antidote for Road Rage" (Villard, 2003), a book of humorous haiku poetry inspired by the endless motorist sociopathy observed from his apartment window. Prior to launching Streetsblog, Naparstek worked as an interactive media producer, pioneering some of the Web's first music web sites, online communities, live webcasts and social networking services. Naparstek is currently in Cambridge with his wife and two young sons where he is enjoying a Loeb Fellowship at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. He has a master's degree from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Naparstek is a co-founder of the Park Slope Neighbors community group and the Grand Army Plaza Coalition. You can find more of his work here: http://www.naparstek.com.
Recent Posts
Janette Sadik-Khan: A Reason to Love NYC in 2007
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New York Magazine’s third annual "Reasons to Love New York City" issue hits newsstands this week. Reason #35? "Because the Head of the Department of Transportation is a Cycling Radical." While I’m not so sure that’s a completely accurate description of the Commish, Anthony Weiss nicely sums up the change underway at DOT: Nobody in […]
New Spin: Save the Mayor’s Congestion Plan by Modifying It
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Congestion Mitigation Commission chairman Marc Shaw has a big job ahead of him. Newsflash from Crain’s New York: Congestion pricing is politically challenging: While I don’t think any Streetsblog reader will be shocked by that big scoop, there are still some interesting tidbits in here. The Traffic Mitigation Commission has a new mandate, Greg David […]
Running the Christmas Tree Gauntlet
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Dear DOT Commissioner Santa-Khan, All I want for Christmas next year is a new set of rules encouraging tree vendors to set up shop on the street in curbside parking space rather than jamming up New York City’s crowded, holiday-season sidewalks. Sincerely, Aaron Photo: Lars Klove, Sixth Avenue and 13th Street, Manhattan.
Highlights of the “Equal Tolls, Unequal Access” Discussion
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April Greene reports on Monday’s congestion pricing panel discussion at the New School: "And now the last of the bald men will speak," said Jeffrey Risom, an urban designer at Gehl Architects of Denmark, as he took the podium at Monday night’s congestion pricing panel at the New School. Indeed, all four panelists did possess […]
Reinventing Grand Army Plaza: What Are Your Ideas?
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The Grand Army Plaza Coalition (GAPCo) and the Design Trust for Public Space are launching an "Ideas Competition" called Reinventing Grand Army Plaza. Building on GAPCo’s on-going effort to re-envision this historic Brooklyn crossroads, the Ideas Competition will solicit new, creative proposals for Grand Army Plaza’s re-design. Top submissions will be exhibited in the summer […]
Is the Mayor Reading Streetsblog on His Bloomberg Terminal?
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Cities won’t wait for national governments to solve their pressing problems, argues Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City in this week’s Economist: In developing the climate-change strategies that underpin PlanNYC, we drew on the experiences of Berlin for our renewable-energy and green-roof policies; Hong Kong, Shanghai and Delhi for our innovative transit improvements; […]
Unlike the Knicks, “New York’s Team” Takes the Subway to Work
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We already know that the New York Rangers’ center Sean Avery loves riding his bike. Now we learn that forward Brendan Shanahan and several other teammate take the subway to the office. From yesterday’s New York Times: "Still, Shanahan, a 20-year veteran, said he liked the atmosphere in the Rangers’ half of the empire. He […]
Shoup Dogg, Parking Policy Cult Hero, Fills Fordham Auditorium
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Click to play Streetsblog’s Donald Shoup theme song:[mp3]shoop30.mp3[/mp3] Spencer Wilking reports: There’s nothing more blessed to the New York City driver than finding an open parking spot. Donald Shoup, professor of Urban Planning at UCLA, would like New Yorkers to reconsider that ideal. The parking policy cult hero addressed a crowd at Fordham’s Pope Auditorium […]
Blinding Headlights Make Part of West Side Greenway Unusable
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Blinding headlights make cycling difficult on a mile-long uptown stretch of the Hudson River Greenway. Lars Klove is a professional photographer who lives way uptown and uses the Hudson River Greenway to bike to and from his apartment on 183rd Street just about every day. Now that it is getting dark earlier in the evening, […]
Highlights of Yesterday’s Traffic Commission Meeting
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| View | Upload your own Deputy Commissioner Bruce Schaller’s team at the Department of Transportation has been taking ideas offered up by Traffic Mitigation Commission members and running them through NYMTC’s regional traffic model. Schaller’s job is to help the Commission determine how effective each of these ideas will be in cutting traffic and […]
NYC Car Commuters Are Wealthier and Cops All Drive to Work
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I’m not sure that this particular set of facts matters one bit to Traffic Mitigation Commission member Richard Brodsky, who claims to represent the little guy in the congestion pricing debate, but New York City’s Independent Budget Office released a report today demolishing the argument that pricing is unfair to the poor and working class […]
New Grand Army Plaza Concept is “Brilliantly Obvious”
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In the most recent issue of the Architect’s Newspaper, Editor-in-Chief William Menking has some very enthusiastic things to say about the Grand Army Plaza Coalition’s project, Rethinking Grand Army Plaza (download the proposal here) which was recently awarded a 2007-2008 Design Trust fellowship. Menking writes: This past month I served as a juror on the […]