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Hillary Feels Staten Island’s Pain on Traffic

12:55 PM EDT on August 14, 2006

While transportation issues are clearly not very high up on Mayor Bloomberg's agenda, at least one New York elected official is acknowledging that the city has major traffic problems in need of big solutions. At last week's Staten Island Chamber of Commerce breakfast, Clinton focused almost exclusively on transportation issues, according to the Advance:

From scorning Staten Island's inadequate mass transit system and the average commute time of 44 minutes, to applauding recent funding for the defunct North Shore rail line, Sen. Hillary Clinton yesterday assured borough residents that their traffic and transit concerns are not being overlooked in the nation's capital.

"Staten Island also has the longest average commute in the nation," Clinton said incredulously. "You know, when I got that statistic I double-checked and tripled-checked. ... I thought to myself, 'Wow, that's saying a lot.'"

Mrs. Clinton followed the tone set by Chamber CEO Linda Baran, who emphasized the lack of mass transit during her introductory remarks.

"Simply put, we need to get people out of their cars and off the roads," Ms. Baran said.

Emphasizing the borough's transportation woes seemed a successful tactic for Mrs. Clinton, from the standing ovation she received.

Aaron Naparstek
AARON NAPARSTEK is the founder and former editor-in-chief of Streetsblog. Based in Brooklyn, New York, Naparstek’s 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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