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
The Plan: Making Brooklyn’s 9th Street Safer for Everyone
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Below is a sketch of DOT’s plan for 9th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. We think it’s a great plan deserving of support. The new configuration narrows a notoriously dangerous four lane road down to two travel lanes and adds a median with left-turn bays and a pair of bike lanes with three-foot buffers. The […]
Updated Version of DOT’s 9th Street Plan
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Above is the latest version of DOT’s plan to improve pedestrian safety, install traffic-calming and stripe bike lanes on 9th Street in Park Slope. If you like this plan and live or work within the boundaries of Community Board 6 or Park Slope, or if you just use 9th Street as a pedestrian, motorist, cyclist […]
Take a Minute to Fax in Your Support for DOT’s 9th Street Plan
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Crash counts show that 9th Street is one of the most dangerous streets in Park Slope, Brooklyn. On March 29, DOT came before the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 and put forward a plan to improve pedestrian safety, smooth out traffic flow and create bike lanes along Park Slope’s 9th Street. From a […]
Take Action: Support the Prince/Bleecker Bike Route Plan
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Ian Dutton and community leaders speak out at an August 30, 2006 rally for bike safety on Houston Street. This comes from Ian Dutton, a member of Manhattan’s Community Board 2 who has been fighting to improve bicyclist safety on Houston Street: Those of you who have been following the saga know that last year, […]
Park Slope Passes on Traffic-Calming, Ped Safety & Bike Lanes
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Gowanus Lounge reports on the debate over DOT’s 9th Street redesign plan at last night’s Park Slope Civic Council meeting. The Civic Council voted overwhelmingly to "table" a plan that would provide the neighborhood with improved pedestrian safety on one of the most hazardous streets in the area, enhanced cyclist safety along a key access […]
Primeggia’s One-Way Safety Claims Are Based on 1970s Studies
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DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael Primeggia on March 15: "I know that two-way streets are less safe." A couple of weeks ago, following the epic, 650-person "One Way? No Way!" public meeting in Park Slope, Brooklyn Papers columnist Gersh Kuntzman accused his fellow Park Slopers of being "closed-minded, anti-intellectual whiners" for rejecting DOT Deputy Commissioner Michael […]
Resolved: More Traffic Congestion & Automobile Dependence
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Brooklyn City Councilmember Lew Fidler and a small group of his outer borough colleagues have put forward Resolution 774 "calling upon the Mayor of New York City to oppose the institution of any form of congestion pricing." The resolution is based on a March 2006 report commissioned by the Queens Chamber of Commerce that was, […]
Tonight: Help DOT Build a River-to-River Bike Connection
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DOT wants 20th and 21st Streets to be Lower Manhattan’s prime river-to-river bike route. If you are interested in contributing to the development and improvement of New York City’s bicycle network, show up at this meeting tonight: The transportation committee of Manhattan Community Board 6 will hear a presentation by Josh Benson, the Department of […]
Sneak Peek at DOT’s Plan for Park Slope’s 9th Street
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Note: Below is the most recent update of DOT’s 9th Street plan. DOT’s press office just called to say that there is no consipracy to hide the plan for 9th Street. They sent it to me a few days ago but it got stuck in their e-mail inbox. Doh! Download the presentation as a PDF […]
Should DOT Install Separated Bike Lanes on 9th Street?
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I will not be able to attend tonight’s big meeting in Brooklyn so I really hope that someone will ask DOT about this and report back on what they say: At the big Houston Street bike lane meeting a couple of weeks ago, DOT’s Ryan Russo and Josh Benson told Manhattan’s Community Board 2 that […]
Vanderbilt Avenue: The Model for DOT’s 9th Street Proposal?
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As noted elsewhere, tonight the transportation committee of Brooklyn Community Board 6 will consider a plan by DOT to redesign 9th Street from Third Avenue to Prospect Park West in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Ninth Street is a very wide street for the number of vehicles that actually use it. Overly wide streets may tend to […]
A Tale of Two DOT Plans
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Looking down Park Slope’s 9th Street at Prospect Park West. They call this "excess capacity." A lot of different things are happening on 9th Street in Park Slope, Brooklyn. It’s got some gorgeous residential blocks, a bus route, a busy bustling commercial district including a post office, grocery store, car service storefront and lots of […]