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
UncivilServants.org: Cleaning Up Illegal Permit Parking
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In New York City, a privileged class of workers numbering in the thousands breaks the law every day by using government-issued permits to park their personal vehicles wherever they want. They disrupt traffic, create safety hazards, and degrade quality of life and, yet, no matter how much people complain, nothing ever seems to change. One […]
Defending “The Bailey’s” Right to Kung Pao Chicken and an SUV
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DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall and her husband Senator Charles Schumer enjoy a meal with The Bailey’s. This week’s New Yorker has a Jeffrey Goldberg Talk of the Town piece about Senator Charles Schumer’s new book, Positively American: Winning Back the Middle-Class Majority One Family at a Time. Schumer’s protagonist is an imaginary, average middle-class American […]
StreetFilms: One Way is the Wrong Way
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StreetFilms: One Way is the Wrong Way Running time: 5 minutes 10 seconds In Park Slope, Brooklyn, the Department of Transportation has put forward a plan to convert a pair of two-way neighborhood avenues to one-way operation. DOT says that the plan is designed strictly "to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the street," but […]
DOT’s Park Slope Proposal: Is this Atlantic Yards Planning?
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Last week, DOT quietly revealed that it was planning to narrow Fourth Avenue and transform Park Slope, Brooklyn’s Sixth and Seventh Avenues in to one-way streets. Agency officials say that the the changes are being proposed for no reason other than "to make it safer for pedestrians crossing the street." Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues […]
PlaNYC 2030 Project “Tearing Things Up” at City Hall
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A tipster tells us of a particularly vigorous screaming match in City Hall last week between Deputy Mayor Dan Doctoroff and a career civil servant who must remain nameless. "You wouldn’t know it from outside appearances," the tipster says, "but the 2030 Project is really tearing things up inside City Hall right now. It’s a […]
Correction…
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On Thursday, March 8, in a story titled The New York City Parking Boom, we incorrectly reported that New York City’s Economic Development Corporation is funding part of the $500 million Flushing Commons development project in Queens. The situation is actually a bit more nuanced. The EDC is facilitating the sale of city property to […]
One Way? No Way. Send a Message to City Hall.
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Park Slope Neighbors, a group that I co-founded and work for, has organized a petition drive in response to the Department of Transportation’s plan to turn Sixth and Seventh Avenues into one-way streets. Volunteers were out on the streets this weekend. The petition reads: To the New York City Department of Transportation and New York […]
Insta-Bus Rapid Transit for Lower Manhattan
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The Daily News and New York Sun have more details on DOT’s plan to speed up buses on Broadway south of Houston Street.
DOT Proposes Solution to Houston Street Cycling Danger
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In response to the deaths of three cyclists on Houston Street in two years and the ensuing community pressure to make the area safer for biking, the Department of Transportation is proposing to establish two new bike lanes along streets running parallel to traffic-heavy Houston Street. DOT’s plan seeks to transform Bleecker and Prince Streets […]
Quick Bus and Ped Improvements Coming to Lower Broadway
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Nope, that’s not Lower Manhattan. It’s an example of a "bus bulb" in Edgewater, Chicago, a neighborhood known for its thoughtful planning and pedestrian-friendly streets. Tomorrow, the Department of Transportation will make the first public announcement of its Lower Manhattan Transit Priority Plan. We don’t have all of the details but the redesign plan for […]
City Finally Finishes Eight-Year-Long Truck Study
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Yesterday, the Department of Transportation announced the publication of its Truck Route Management and Community Impact Reduction Study. The study, which began over eight years ago (PDF), recommends the establishment of an Office of Freight Mobility, new educational materials and public outreach efforts, improved street signs, better enforcement, and some policy and regulatory changes — […]
Brooklyn to Bloomberg: Include Local Stakeholders in Planning
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Below is a letter from the Park Slope Civic Council to Mayor Bloomberg and local elected representatives regarding the City’s plan to transform Sixth and Seventh Avenue’s into one-way streets. It’s lengthy but it’s worth a read (and full disclosure: I’m a trustee of the Civic Council): Park Slope Civic Council March 7, 2007 Dear […]