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
Tell Marty Markowitz You Support DOT’s 9th Street Plan
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If you live in or around Park Slope, Brooklyn, then please take just a minute to click this link and send a fax to Borough President Marty Markowitz expressing your support for DOT’s traffic safety plan for 9th Street. As we’ve reported here on Streetsblog, the Department of Transportation has put forward a thoughtful and […]
Sadik-Khan is Next at DOT
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Employees at the engineering consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff were recently informed that senior vice president Janette Sadik-Khan will be leaving because she has been selected by Mayor Michael Bloomberg as New York City’s next Department of Transportation commissioner. She is reportedly due to start work on May 14. Today’s Crain’s Insider reports: Insiders say Janette […]
SoHo Car Owners Mobilizing to Save Parking, Fight Bike Lanes
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The SoHo Alliance is at it again. The neighborhood organization that specializes in persecuting street vendors and artists rather than helping to figure out ways to carve out a bit of street space for them and all of the people over-spilling SoHo’s sidewalks, is now mobilizing against the City’s plan to install new bike lanes […]
Pedi Politics
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On Monday, April 23, the day after Earth Day and the Mayor’s Long-Term Sustainability speech, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to hold a decisive vote on Intro. 331-A, a law limiting and restricting pedicabs. Mayor Bloomberg vetoed the bill but rather than going back and trying to improve the legislation by, say, simply increasing […]
More 9th Street Residents Weigh In on DOT’s Plan
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The north side of 9th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues: Always lots of double-parking. As a resident of 9th Street who is strongly in favor of DOT’s plan, I am disappointed that a small group of my vocal neighbors are able to claim to speak on behalf of my neighbors and me. I ride […]
Department of Judith
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At her final staff meeting, Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall told the assembled that City Hall is still looking for a "transportation person" but has not reached a final decision. First Deputy Commissioner Judy Bergtraum will be named as Acting Commissioner until the deal is done. Rumor has it, however, that a deal is […]
Why Hasn’t Mayor Bloomberg Announced Her Replacement?
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Department of Transportation Commissioner Iris Weinshall’s last day on the job is this coming Friday, April 13.
CB6 Asks DOT to Find a Final Solution to the “Bicycle Problem”
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Community Board 6 was grumpy about the idea of bike lanes on 9th Street. At last night’s Community Board 6 meeting in Brooklyn DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia’s "One Way? No Way!" proposal was shot down decisively, the Grand Army Plaza bike and ped improvements passed unanimously, and the 9th Street pedestrian safety, traffic-calming and […]
DOT’s 9th Street Plan: Frequently Asked Questions
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Print this DocumentNinth Street at Eighth Avenue in Park Slope, outside of Dizzy’s Diner. The Department of Transportation’s plan for pedestrian safety, traffic-calming and bike lane for Park Slope’s 9th Street is causing quite a bit of anxiety. Some of this angst, clearly, has been generated due to DOT’s failure to bring community stakeholders into […]
Manhattan CB2 Approves DOT’s Prince/Bleecker Bike Plan
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Last night the transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 2 voted 8 to 1 to: Continue to push for the construction of a Class I bike lane on Houston Street. Oppose the construction of left-turn bays on Houston Street. Support DOT’s plan for additional bike lanes and the removal of nearly 200 parking spaces on […]
Who Opposes A Plan for Safer, More Livable Streets and Why?
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The scene in front of Dizzy’s Diner on 9th Street and Eighth Avenue. Park Slope’s 9th Street corridor, with Prospect Park on one end and the Battery Tunnel on the other, has long been known as one of the most dangerous streets in the neighborhood when it comes to car crashes. In March 2004 two […]
We Must Imagine a Future Without Cars
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From Alternet, the following is an excerpted version of James Howard Kunstler‘s recent speech to the Commonwealth Club of California, well worth reading in its entirety. An audio stream of the speech is also available: Two years ago in my book The Long Emergency I wrote that our nation was sleepwalking into an era of […]