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
StreetFilms: Park(ing) Day 2007
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Clarence Eckerson may have set an all-time speed record for the production of this inspiring StreetFilm on Park(ing) Day 2007. It’s a good one. Seeing pre-schoolers participating in an outdoor music class — in a parking space — on Brooklyn’s busy Cortelyou Rd., you definitely get the feeling that Park(ing) Day has, in just a […]
Upper West Side Livable Streets Advocates: Mark Your Calendar
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Monday, September 246:00 to 9:30 pmJohn Jay College899 Tenth Ave. (at 58th St.)RSVP to westsidestudy @ hshassoc . com or (917) 339-0488 Do you have thoughts about improving the bicycle, pedestrian and transportation environment on the Upper West Side? In conjunction with Councilmember Gale Brewer, the Department of Transportation would like to hear your thoughts, concerns […]
Myrtle Ave. Parking Spot Becomes a Park and Classroom
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The first round of Park(ing) Day photos are coming in. Here is a public space reclamation project currently underway on Myrtle Avenue in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn. Blaise Backer, executive director of the Myrtle Avenue Brooklyn Partnership explains: A Pratt Institute Industrial Design class is holding class in the space from 9:30 to 12:30, getting feedback […]
Why is There a Picnic in My Parking Spot?
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Park(ing) in Park Slope, Brooklyn, May 6, 2006. The sign says, "Public space reclamation in progress." Today is International Park(ing) Day, the day when urban dwellers all around the world reclaim on-street parking spaces for purposes more creative and life-affirming than private motor vehicle storage. If you found a bunch of kids playing in an […]
NYC Gets Its First-Ever Physically-Separated Bike Path
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The Department of Transportation revealed plans for New York City’s first-ever physically-separated bike lane, or "cycle track," at a Manhattan Community Board 4 meeting last night. The new bike path will run southbound on Ninth Avenue from W. 23rd to W. 16th Street in Manhattan. Unlike the typical Class II on-street bike lane in which […]
Congestion Pricing Q&A With Rohit Aggarwala, Part 4
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DOT’s Dani Simons and City Hall’s Director of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Rohit Aggarwala, at a joint hearing of Manhattan Community Boards 4, 5 and 6 on July 9; one of many public hearings where Bloomberg Administration officials have met with communities to discuss congestion pricing. Tonight, Brooklyn Community Board 6 hosts a similar public […]
Congestion Pricing Q&A With Rohit Aggarwala, Part 3
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Rohit Aggarwala, New York City’s Director of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, sat down to answer some of the more frequently asked questions about Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for a three-year congestion pricing pilot program. Below is the third part of our four part interview. Here is Part 1 and Part 2. Aaron Naparstek: Mayor Bloomberg’s plan […]
Congestion Pricing Q&A With Rohit Aggarwala, Part 2
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Rohit Aggarwala models the latest in Long-Term Planning & Sustainability chic: Gray flannel, subway token cuff links, Columbia U. class ring and a global warming mug: Pour a hot drink and coast lines disappear. This is the second segment of a four-part interview with New York City’s Director of Long-Term Planning and Sustainability, Rohit Aggarwala. […]
Congestion Pricing Q&A With Rohit Aggarwala, Part 1
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Too many unanswered questions. Among New York State Assembly Democrats, that has been one of the most frequent criticisms of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal for a three-year congestion pricing pilot project in New York City. Last month, Lower Manhattan Assembly member Deborah Glick said that she and her colleagues were “confronted with a dearth of information […]
German Town Chooses Human Interaction Over Traffic Signals
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Driving (carefully) with Dutch "shared space" guru and traffic engineer Hans Monderman. While battles rage here in New York City over signs and markings and the segregation of the public right-of-way for different types of users, yet another Northern European town is ditching its traffic control devices altogether. Spiegel reports that as of September 12, […]
D.C. to Establish Bike Parking Requirements
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A Washington D.C. city council member has proposed legislation that would establish bike parking requirements for residential and commercial buildings. The Washington Examiner reports: The measure mandates that all apartment buildings with more than eight units provide one bicycle parking space for every four residential units, demands that commercial landlords deliver enough bicycle parking to […]
Parking Enforcement is the Killer App
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On Tuesday we highlighted a Times of London story about the London borough of Westminster turning to an airline-style variable pricing system in an attempt to make up parking revenue that has been lost since the introduction of congestion pricing. CNet is reporting that Westminster has figured out another way to make up the lost […]