Congestion Pricing Opponents’ Press Conference

11:30 AM EDT on July 15, 2007

On Sunday, July, 15, 2007 neighborhood opponents of the Mayor’s Congestion Pricing plan will hold a rally and press conference at City Hall to protest the Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to tax cars going into the City’s central business district.

The theme of the press conference, to be led by State Senator Ruben Diaz Sr. of The Bronx, is the failure of the Mayor’s plan to address the air quality in those neighborhoods that are experiencing a severe asthma problem. As Senator Diaz says; “With all due respect to environmentalists, I cannot understand how these plans can be made without an environmental impact study being conducted first. There are many questions that have been left unanswered, and we need to have a thorough review of the matter before implementing any plan of action.

Joining Senator Diaz will be scores of neighborhood kids, community leaders and elected officials. The rally will focus on the need for the City to develop a full city-wide traffic congestion plan; and to build up the transit infrastructure before any congestion tax is imposed on the City’s middle class.

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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