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
Happy Labor Day Weekend
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Enjoy the long weekend and recharge your batteries. If you’re working to make New York a more livable city, it’s going to be a busy Fall. May these photos from Utrecht, Holland inspire you… I know I parked in here somewhere… Three generations on wheels. Evening rush hour downtown. Texture. Not afraid to ride in […]
City Promises $5M in Ped Safety Improvements at Mural Opening
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The mother and grandfather of James Rice. With weeping family members and the ghostly, smiling images of three boys watching over them, city officials and elected representatives joined 100 community members on a Brooklyn street corner Tuesday evening to pledge "Not one more death." State Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Assembly member Joan Millman and representatives […]
Trek: A Bike Maker Flexes Some Advocacy Muscle
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One thousand Trek Lime "cruising bicycles," waiting for riders. David Vandenberg of Transportation Alternatives recently returned from Trek Bicycle’s 2008 sales meeting in Madison, Wisconsin where he reports the manufacturer of Lance Armstrong’s high-tech racing bike is positioning itself as corporate America’s leading bicycling advocate: Billed as "major product announcement," Trek President John Burke unveiled […]
Brooklyn Traffic Calming Mural Unveiled
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Groundswell Community Mural Project and Transportation Alternatives unveiled a mural yesterday evening at Third Avenue and Butler Street in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. Conceived by local youth and facilitated by artists Christopher Cardinale and Nicole Schulman, the ghostly, three-story tall painting pays tribute to three young boys; Victor Flores, Juan Estrada, James Rice, and the 28 […]
Celebrating a Car-Free Afternoon In Prospect Park
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Yesterday was the first day of a car-free evening rush hour on Prospect Park’s East Drive. Car-Free Park advocates and Transportation Alternatives members manned the barricades at the Park Circle entrance, reminiscing over more than a dozen years of activism and organizing. That’s StreetFilms’ Clarence Eckerson holding the "Thank you DOT" sign above. Below, T.A.’s […]
Queens Leaders Fight Safety Fixes for Fatal School Crossing
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DOT plans to simplify a dangerous Queens intersection where a school teacher was killed last December. Here we go again. As we recently saw on 9th Street in Park Slope and 91st Street on the Upper East Side, yet another "complete streets" project is coming under fire from community leaders, this time in Queens. This […]
First-Ever Electronic Bus Status Display Installed in Manhattan
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A camera phone-toting tipster reports seeing workers installing what appears to be New York City’s first-ever real-time bus status display board this morning inside a bus shelter at First Avenue and E. 14th Street along the M15 route. We’ll put in some calls to the MTA and DOT to get the details. Unfortunately, for now […]
DOT Seeks Assistant Commissioner for Congestion Pricing
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Here’s a job listing you’re not going to find on Craigslist Westchester or in the Queens Tribune: The New York City Department of Transportation’s new Office of Planning and Sustainability is (or was) looking for an Assistant Commissioner for Congestion Pricing. Salary: $130,000 to $150,000. No word on whether you get a government-issued parking placard […]
Survey Finds That Buffered Bike Lanes Are Better
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A buffered section of Manhattan’s 8th Avenue bike lane. Bike lanes that separate bicyclists from motor vehicle traffic are safer and encourage more bicycling, according to a recent survey by Transportation Alternatives. The survey of 147 cyclists was conducted along the 8th Avenue bike lane in Manhattan, one of the few bike paths to integrate […]
Lew Fidler Laments Impending Loss of Parking Permit
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The Daily Politics’ Liz Benjamin captured this little off-the-cuff gem in her interview yesterday with Brooklyn Council member Lew Fidler. Fidler, who called the 17-member congestion pricing commission "a sham," is emerging as one of City Council’s most outspoken congestion pricing critics: "I am not retiring, but I have not decided what I’m going to […]
A Brooklyn Parking Lot Becomes a Neighborhood “Living Room”
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Paint a Parking Lot, Put Up a Paradise A StreetFilm by Nick Whitaker Running time: 2:45 StreetFilms has some excellent video coverage of the Dept. of Transportation’s launch of its Public Plaza Initiative in Brooklyn’s DUMBO neighborhood last week. The before-and-after images are particularly compelling. What once nothing more than a parking lot and illegal […]
Video Shows Dangers of Upper East Side Bike Plan
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The City’s plan to stripe a bike lane across the Upper East Side continues to generate "controversy." I put that word in quotes because, well, check out the video above and see for yourself what all the fuss is all about. The video was filmed on a beautiful Saturday afternoon at about 2:00 pm, theoretically, […]