Eyes on the Street: Prospect Park, Brooklyn

10:34 AM EDT on October 9, 2006

A Streetsblog tipster notices that Prospect Park motorists seem to be unindoctrinated in the ways of the Litterbug:

Since I have been training for this half marathon, I have been doing more running in Prospect Park than bike riding the last few weeks. Each of the last three times I have run in the park I have seen at least one motorist throw trash out their window.

The most egregious was someone going up the back hill about 100 feet in front of me who launched an empty can of Sunkist soda to the curb while driving.

Then Tuesday a woman was waiting at the red light (near 3rd Street exit) and had just finished throwing a Jolly Rancher wrapper out the window. Since I was running right by I slowed and said, "You gotta be kidding?" She said, "What?"

I said, "You just littered."

She said, "Mind your own f***in business."

Once again, I think this anecdote proves the people using our Parks as shortcuts don't care or respect the Park like the people who use the Park as a Park.

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.

Eyes on the Street: Prospect Park, Brooklyn

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