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One Way? No Way. Send a Message to City Hall.

10:00 AM EDT on March 12, 2007

Park Slope Neighbors, a group that I co-founded and work for, has organized a petition drive in response to the Department of Transportation's plan to turn Sixth and Seventh Avenues into one-way streets. Volunteers were out on the streets this weekend. The petition reads:

To the New York City Department of Transportation and New York City Council Members David Yassky and Bill de Blasio:

We the undersigned Park Slope Neighbors demand that the planned conversion of 6th and 7th Avenues to one-way traffic flow be stopped:

  1. One-way avenues are unfriendly to neighborhood life. They lead to increased vehicle speeds and greater danger for pedestrians and cyclists.
  2. Our communities must be included in the City's planning processes. Community participation makes city government better. Neighborhood stakeholders have a much better understanding of local needs and problems than citywide officials can possibly ever possess.
  3. Changes like these should only be considered as part of a comprehensive, multi-modal, area-wide transportation plan. Re-routing more traffic through one neighborhood street or another in 2007 does not address or contribute to NYC's long-term goal of reduced automobile dependence.

Man, I couldn't have said it better myself! If you want to help send the message, you can sign the petition right here.

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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