The 96th Street Sidewalk Nibblers

10:17 AM EDT on June 8, 2006

Enjoy the new Clarence Eckerson film, "The Sidewalk Nibblers."

"Erosion of cities by automobiles entails so familiar a series of events that they hardly need describing. The erosion proceeds as a kind of nibbling." --Jane Jacobs

The New York City Department of Transportation and MTA recently announced plans for a big, new subway station with elevators in the middle of Broadway at 96th Street.

While the new station is a great improvement, the plan subtracts 9 feet of sidewalk space on both sides of Broadway. Not an inch of space, however, is taken away from motorists.

The plans were drawn up and have, essentially, been finalized before the community had even had a chance to look at them or discuss them. The DOT and MTA continue to refuse to make the details of their plans public.

"It seems like every time there's a conflict between cars and pedestrians, the pedestrians lose." -- Ken Coughlin

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.

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