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
Robert Novak Cited in Possible Hit-and-Run
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Politico is reporting that conservative columnist Robert Novak, a.k.a. "The Prince of Darkness," hit a 66-year-old pedestrian with his black Corvette this morning in Washington D.C. and then drove away. Some of the facts don’t quite seem to add up just yet — specifically the part about the Novak not knowing he hit someone and […]
Print This
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Thanks to Anil Makhijani, the Open Planning Project’s crack web developer, it’s now a whole lot easier to print a Streetsblog story. Click the little printer icon below. You’ll get a web page formatted 8.5 x 11 with all of the links annotated at the bottom as footnotes. Check it out.
Al Gore Connects the Dots
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“We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that’s got to change.” — A Generational Challenge to Repower America, Thursday, July 17, 2008.
Highway Funding: The Last Bastion of Socialism in America
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Matthew Yglesias over at The Atlantic points us to this eye-popping chart from A Better Way to Go, a USPIRG Education Fund report published in March 2008. Download the report here. It’s a good one to have on-hand. A few factoids to accompany the chart: Since 1956, federal, state and local governments have invested nine […]
Richard Florida: Decline of the Burbs is Not Just About Gas Prices
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Via Planetizen, Richard Florida argues the decline in the popularity of suburbs is not just a product of rising oil prices, but a result of a new "spatial fix" that is reorganizing how and where people live their lives. From Florida’s column in the Globe and Mail: What’s happening here goes a lot deeper […]
Rising Demand for Transit Could Be a “Turning Point”
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CNN broadcast yesterday a relatively in-depth piece on U.S. cities scrambling to meet rising demand for mass transit. With a fight over billions of dollars of federal transportation funding set to heat up immediately after the swearing-in of the next president, this may very well be the most important transportation policy story of the next […]
Happy Birthday, Vélib
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Here’s another transportation policy success story from France. The Vélib bike-sharing system celebrates its one-year anniversary today. In April, Streetfilms’ Elizabeth Press was in Paris to learn more about it. Here is her video and report: On July 15, 2007 Paris debuted the world’s largest self-service "bicycle transit system" called Vélib outdoing previously designed bike […]
Welcome to the Livable Streets Network
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So, here’s the new web site. We hope you like the new design and that you’ll find the new features useful. A quick tour: First things first: Sign up and become a member to take advantage of all the features of the Livable Streets Network. The log-in box is there in the upper right corner. […]
Get a Sneak Peak at Our Big Redesign and Give Your Feedback
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One of the reasons I haven’t been posting here much lately is that I’ve been working with the staff at the Open Planning Project on a pretty substantial redesign for Streetsblog, Streetfilms and the New York City Streets Renaissance web sites. In addition to giving our sites a new look and feel, we are bringing […]
Chrysler: Let’s Ruin America!
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Looks like Chrysler has figured out a novel way to move their 2008 model gas guzzlers off the lot. Sign up for their new "Let’s Refuel America!" credit card and they’ll lock in the price of gas at $2.99/gallon for three years. That’s right, it’s a 36-month guarantee that you don’t have to think about […]
Cleveland Indians Ace Cliff Lee: The Southpaw Straphanger
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Cliff Lee’s $4 million arm hangs from a subway strap. With a 6-0 won-loss record and a 0.81 earned run average, Cleveland Indians southpaw Cliff Lee is, for the moment, the hottest pitcher in Major League Baseball. HIs delivery is so smooth, so perfect looking, it’s hard not to think Sandy Koufax. Last Wednesday, Streetsblog […]
Feds Launch New Pedestrian Safety Program
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The federal government is launching a new pedestrian safety initiative that is apparently modeled on LADOT’s "Watch the Road" Campaign. The Onion reports: WASHINGTON-In an attempt to address rising pedestrian deaths, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration launched a new educational outreach program Monday to encourage people to "Get The Fuck Outta The Road." The […]