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
Bloomberg Stadium Foes Urge Silver to Support Pricing
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Then: "Honk No" to Mayor Bloomberg’s plan. Now: Stop honking and pay $8. Bloomberg’s West Side stadium foes are now his congestion pricing friends. Manhattan Community Boards 4, 5 and 6 are holding a joint public hearing on the PlaNYC congestion pricing proposal tonight at 6:00pm. In an interesting twist of politics, the West Side […]
If Albany Lawmakers Don’t Go Back to Work, NYC Loses
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Sounding frustrated, Mayor Bloomberg said in his radio address this weekend that it would be "absolutely ridiculous" for state lawmakers to leave hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funds to another city by rejecting New York City’s congestion pricing plan. Opponents of Mayor Bloomberg’s plan, like State Assembly Member Denny Farrell, a Democrat from Northern […]
Richard Brodsky: Working for the Public or the Parking Industry?
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Westchester Democrat Richard Brodsky has emerged as the State Assembly’s leading critic of Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan. Later today Brodsky will release a report on the steps of City Hall characterizing the Mayor’s congestion pricing plan as a regressive tax that puts most of the burden on poor and middle-income drivers (and ignoring the […]
Mayor and Assembly Headed to a Showdown Over Pricing
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City Hall and the New York State Assembly may be headed to the biggest showdown since Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton met on the dueling grounds at Weehawken (crossing the river back then was free but you had to use a row boat). Erik Engquist and Anne Michaud report in today’s Crain’s Insider: MAYOR MICHAEL […]
Today: Dueling Congestion Pricing Press Events
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State Assembly Member Richard Brodsky (D-Westchester) is releasing his report on Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal on the steps of City Hall today at 2:00 pm. Billed as "the first thorough, independent, and fair-minded" analysis (Apparently, the Partnership for New York’s two-year study wasn’t thorough and Bruce Schaller’s massive body of research wasn’t independent […]
7/7/07: The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook
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The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook is the official companion volume to today’s Live Earth concerts, 24 hours of nonstop concerts broadcast from around the world on 7/7/07. It’s a fun little book, meant to connect with a younger audience via tongue-in-cheek suggestions, practical advice, factual information, and imaginative, bluesky solutions for climate change. […]
Good Stuff in This Week’s Mobilizing the Region
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Finally, we get to see just how much former executive director Jon Orcutt was tamping down the high-powered talent at the Tri-State Transportation Campaign. The latest issue of Mobilizing the Region is jam-packed with good articles. Here are some highlights (and, yes, I’m kidding about Orcutt but serious about this week’s MTR being really good): […]
Brooklyn Greenway Initiative Benefit This Thursday
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When I first met Brian McCormick, Milton Puryear and Meg Fellerath in the spring of 2002, they were picking up trash and planting tulips alongside a Brooklyn-Queens Expressway off-ramp in Cobble Hill. I asked them what they were up to and they told me they were working to create a waterfront greenway for Brooklyn — […]
T.A.’s Dani Simons to Join the DOT Dream Team
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Dani Simons, Transportation Alternatives’ Director of Communications will be joining Bruce Schaller, Jon Orcutt and Andy Wiley-Schwartz at New York City’s Dept. of Transportation. She starts next week. No word yet on what her title will be but rumor has it that she will be helping DOT launch some sort of new blog. Bring it […]
Blogger Launches Petititon to Revive Dormant Subway Tracks
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With the city promising to improve mass transit via congestion pricing revenue, Gary Reilly, author of neighborhood blog, First and Court has started a petition asking the MTA to restore express subway service on the F line and to extend the V line for local service to Brooklyn: The petition, which you can sign […]
Meatpacking District Will Get a Makeover
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A rendering of the proposed Gansevoort Plaza, looking southbound. Major public space improvements are on the drawing board for Lower Manhattan’s old Meat-Packing District. Ian Dutton, Houston Street bike safety organizer, professional airline pilot and Streetsblog reader has the report: Last year, community groups came together as the Greater Gansevoort Urban Improvement Project to develop […]
Gov’t Employee Parking at the High Bridge Rec Center
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A tipster sends along this snapshot of the parking lot… I mean, sidewalk, outside the High Bridge Recreational Center prior to the meeting last night to discuss plans for the revitalized High Bridge. The talk inside, she says, "was much more encouraging" than the government employee parking situation outside.