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
Pricing Friends and Foes Find Common Ground in Shoup
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Matthew Schuerman at the Observer reports that New York City congestion pricing opponents sought to commission UCLA urban planning guru Donald Shoup to do a study of New York City’s parking policies. Shoup declined their request. Presumably, congestion pricing opponents hoped a Shoup study might show that New York City could solve some portion of […]
New Ninth Avenue Separated Bike Path is Already in Place
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The unprecedented new physically-separated bike path running along Chelsea’s Ninth Avenue has already been set up using temporary materials. The Department of Transportation is billing it as New York City’s "street of the future." New York 1 reported yesterday: Bicyclists have a new lane to use in Chelsea, and the city is hoping to expand […]
DOT Minds the GAP
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With city workers pouring concrete in the background (and StreetFilms’ cameras rolling), New York City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan announced pedestrian and cyclist improvements for Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza yesterday. The plan calls for 11,000 square feet of new, landscaped pedestrian islands, a separated bike path, new crosswalks and pedestrian signals. The redesign […]
Fresh Direct Responds to Environmental Critics
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FreshDirect, the company that has built a grocery empire, in part, by using New York City’s free, public streets as their virtual warehouse, sent out an e-mail yesterday to let customers know of five new environmental initiatives the company is undertaking. While the company’s non-union truck drivers may still be double-parking, creating traffic congestion […]
MTA Chief Lee Sander Talks Congestion Pricing in Queens
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MTA CEO, Queens native and LIRR commuter Lee Sander received a warm reception then "faced some tough questions when he addressed a combined meeting of the Saul Weprin and Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Clubs on Thursday in Hollis Hills" last Thursday, the Queens Chronicle reports: Although he was welcomed back by old school chum Councilman David […]
Portland Sees Explosive Growth in Bicycling
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Clever hedge fund managers have figured out ways to make money off of weather futures, the electricity grid and quite a few other unlikely sources. What I want to know is if anyone can help me find a way to invest my retirement savings in bicycling in Portland, Oregon. According to the latest numbers, it’s […]
Meat Market Plaza is Open for Business
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The interim redesign of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street is done. Tables, chairs, planters and some of those giant granite blocks from DOT’s Bridges Division have been set out as multipurpose bollard-bench-tables atop a gravelly, earth-tone pavement surface. What was very recently one of the longest and most hectic pedestrian crossings in Manhattan, and no […]
More Park(ing) Day: San Fran Rolls Out the Parkcycle
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I was pretty sure that New York City had San Francisco beat for this year’s Park(ing) Day, what, with the children’s reading hour and the on-street gymnasium in Brooklyn; Staten Island and Queens getting in on the act; and German tourists frolicking on the sod in front of the MoMA (all captured by StreetFilms, […]
Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission Opens for Business
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Westchester Assembly member Richard Brodsky on Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal: "My problem is that I don’t understand what you’ve proposed." "This is going to be interesting," Straphangers Campaign Senior Staff Attorney Gene Russianoff said as he waited for the start of yesterday’s inaugural Traffic Congestion Mitigation Commission meeting. "Usually with these things, the fix […]
Traffic Mitigation Commission Meeting Pre-Spin
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Ahead of this afternoon’s opening meeting of the 17-member Traffic Mitigation Commission, the Campaign for New York’s Future sends along a press release noting two recent studies about the impact of traffic congestion on the region’s health and economy: NEW YORK, September 25, 2007 – The following may be attributed to Michael O’Loughlin, Director of […]
New York City Ate My Bicycle
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Streetsblog reader Stephen Kling submits the following: I pedal my little folding bike to the Metro North station every morning, fold it up, and ride the train from Larchmont to Grand Central, nearly every morning, then glide downtown to Union Square. My fellow commuters eye me warily over their Wall Street Journals. Clearly, I’m a […]
If Cyclists Think They’ve Got it Bad in NYC, Check Out L.A.
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If you’re a New York City bike commuter and you’re feeling down about all of the pot holes, rude, dangerous drivers, and cops clipping locked bikes off of street furniture, two recent stories in LAist, the Los Angeles version of New York City’s Gothamist, might make you feel better: Hollywood Bus Driver Attacks Cyclist, LAPD […]