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
How Many New Yorkers Actually Commute to the CBD by Auto?
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If you are planning to write a letter urging your local City Council Member to support Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing proposal, the chart below will be useful to you. Based on 2000 census data, it shows the percentage of New York City workers who commute to work by car into Manhattan south of 60th Street […]
A Portland Neighborhood Reclaims its Streets
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Streetfilms‘ Clarence Eckerson was in Portland recently where he caught up with a neighborhood "Intersection Repair" project. New York City will experience a similar community-driven street reclamation project later this summer. A number of groups will be coming out to repair the Brooklyn intersection where a 4-year-old boy was run over and killed by the […]
Introducing Streetsblog Contributor John Kaehny
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If you noticed an increase in the quality, depth and number of my Streetsblog posts in recent weeks, it’s not because I suddenly got smarter or started working harder. Some of the savviest and most interesting items that we have published in recent days had my byline on them but were, in fact, ghost-written by […]
Streetsblog Publisher Puts up $250K to Push PlaNYC
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Mark Gorton, founder and executive director of the Open Planning Project, the publisher of Streetsblog, has agreed to match up to $250,000 in donations to a Transportation Alternatives campaign promoting Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC 2030. Today’s Crain’s Insider reports: It is the largest known individual effort to help support the plan. The organization began its fund-raising […]
New Quinnipiac Poll Measures Opinion on Congestion Pricing
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Quinnipiac has a new survey out this morning showing that 90 percent of New Yorkers feel that traffic is a "serious problem" but a majority of voters, by a 56 to 37 percent margin, oppose Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to charge $8 to drive in to Manhattan south of 86th Street. The poll also shows a […]
Congestion Pricing: Joan Millman is Not Convinced
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State Assembly Member Joan Millman’s Downtown and brownstone Brooklyn district includes some of the most politically progressive, environmentally-conscious and traffic-choked neighborhoods of New York City — neighborhoods that have been clamoring for traffic relief for years. Yet, Millman is, for now, opposed to Mayor Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan. In a letter sent to constituents who […]
Debunking the Attack on Congestion Pricing
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As The Politicker’s Azi Paybarah reported yesterday, the anti-traffic relief group, "Keep NYC Congestion Tax Free" re-released its report, "Congestion Pricing in the Central Business District: Let’s Look Hard Before We Leap." Commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the study calls into doubt the benefits of Mayor Bloomberg’s proposed congestion pricing scheme, with some […]
Jessica is Lappin’ up the Congestion Pricing Anxiety
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At a City Council transportation hearing yesterday Manhattan City Council Member Jessica Lappin expressed anxiety about the effects of congestion pricing on her Upper East Side district. The ill-informed Lappin, who clearly has not read Donald Shoup’s 750-page masterwork, The High Cost of Free Parking, asked DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan if the city would be […]
Hail the Yassky Cab: All NYC Taxis to be Hybrid by 2012
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The Today Show cast, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Yahoo! executive and Council Member David Yassky stand with a gas-electric hybrid Ford Escape SUV taxi this morning. Though members of my immediate family claim that it is the most mind-numbingly boring of all 500 cable channels available in our home, I’m a big fan of NYCTV […]
Pricing is Alive. JFK Rail Link and SMART Fund May be Dead.
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Annie Karni reports in today’s New York Sun that the outlines of a congestion pricing bill may be hammered out in Albany before Memorial Day, though not exactly as Mayor Bloomberg initially proposed. Karni writes that MTA executive director Lee Sander would prefer to see the $3.75 billion earmarked for a direct rail link from […]
Eyes on the Street: Brooklyn’s Fifth Avenue Street Fair
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As Robert Guskind at Gowanus Lounge writes, "We like the Fifth Avenue Fair because, while you can score tube socks and sunglasses, most of the local businesses come out and represent." Check out his photo set on Flickr.
Alternative Uses for Curbside Parking Space, Circa 1941
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This striking color photograph was snapped on Broome Street near Baruch Place (a street that vanished beneath the Bernard Baruch housing project) on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, September 27, 1941. The photo is part of the Charles W. Cushman collection at Indiana University. A tip of the hat to Kevin Walsh’s outstanding Forgotten […]