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
DOT’s Park Slope Plan Requires Community Board Support
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Crain’s reporter Erik Engquist gets some more information about the Department of Transportation’s plans to convert two Park Slope Avenues into one-way streets. DOT’s press office is now saying: DOT would like to change Sixth and Seventh Avenues to one-way streets to simplify the turning movements at intersections along the Avenues which would enhance safety […]
Why Is DOT Reorganizing Park Slope Traffic? Because.
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Last Wednesday we learned about the Department of Transportation’s plan for a major reorganization of traffic flow through Park Slope, Brooklyn. In Streetsblog’s comments section, Andy Wiley-Schwartz of Project for Public Spaces asked: What problems are DOT’s traffic engineers trying to solve with this particular set of solutions? Or, to put it another way: What […]
Commissioner Weinshall Agrees: Two-Way Streets Calm Traffic
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While Michael Primeggia, DOT’s Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Operations is trying to sell one-way mini-highways through Park Slope as a pedestrian safety improvement, his boss, DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall, is hawking the exact opposite. On Thursday, March 1, at the City Council Transportation Committee oversight hearing on the Mayor’s Long-Term Planning initiative, Weinshall touted two-way […]
There’s No Such Thing as “Free Parking”
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Free parking, it turns out, isn’t free. A new study by transportation guru Bruce Schaller finds that free parking in Manhattan’s Central Business district is responsible for a significant amount of New York City’s staggering traffic congestion. Schaller’s new study, Congested Streets: The Skewed Economic Incentives to Drive Into Manhattan (PDF), finds that free parking […]
DOT Explains New Traffic Solution. But What’s the Problem?
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The Department of Transportation’s press office sends along this response to the story we broke yesterday about the agency’s plan to revamp Fourth, Sixth and Seventh Avenues running through Park Slope, Brooklyn: DOT has proposed changing 6th and 7th Avenues to one-way streets which we believe will have many benefits including simplifying the turning movements […]
DOT Commissioner Water Cooler Chatter
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Sources say… Janette Sadik-Khan is a front-runner to take over as DOT Commissioner after Iris Weinshall leaves the job on April 13. "It’s her job. She just has to decide whether she wants it." Joan McDonald, senior vice president at the Economic Development Corporation, has been ruled out. She will not get the job. Dan […]
DOT’s Plan for Park Slope Traffic “Improvements” Confirmed
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We have more details and official confirmation of DOT’s proposed changes for three Avenues running through Park Slope, Brooklyn. Brooklyn Community Board 6, which runs one of the better community board web sites out there, has posted its agenda for the next Transportation Committee meeting: Presentation and discussion of a proposal by the Department of […]
DOT to Propose Radical New Traffic Plan for Park Slope
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Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue: a pedestrian- and bike-friendly, two-way, neighborhood Main Street. New York City’s Department of Transportation is getting set to propose a major change in the way cars and trucks flow through the avenues and streets of Park Slope, Brooklyn.Sources say that the plan will include the following: Fourth Avenue, a major six-lane […]
No Parking Slope
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The B67 bus veers around a double-parked van blocking a car parked in front of a fire hydrant as a Bugaboo-pushing nanny strolls by Councilmember David Yassky and Transportation Alternatives director Paul Steely White calling for more sensible parking policy this afternoon in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Every drivers knows that it can be nearly impossible […]
3 Peds Hit on 9th Ave. 2 Dead. Mayor Mike: Where Are You?
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Like Third Avenue in Brooklyn, Manhattan’s Ninth Avenue is emerging as one of New York City’s new "Boulevards of Death." This afternoon, the Clinton / Hell’s Kitchen Pedestrian Safety Coalition, the community group that has been organizing the Ninth Avenue Renaissance project, broadcast the following news and call to action: Dear Neighbors Seventy-five percent of […]
Mass Movement on Two Wheels
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Chris Carlsson, one of the original founders of the Critical Mass bicycling movement, writes, "a funny thing happened during the last decade of the 20th century. Paralleling events that transpired a century earlier, a social movement emerged based on the bicycle." Heck, I couldn’t have said it better myself. Carlsson’s article appeared in an academic […]
Introducing StreetFilms.org
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Clarence Eckerson and the New York City Streets Renaissance Campaign are proud to introduce their newest project, Streetfilms.org, the video blog, or vlog, if you will: