Congestion Pricing

Streetsblog Publisher Puts up $250K to Push PlaNYC

Mark Gorton, founder and executive director of the Open Planning Project, the publisher of Streetsblog, has agreed to match up to $250,000 in donations to a Transportation Alternatives campaign promoting Mayor Bloomberg's PlaNYC 2030. Today's Crain's Insider reports:

By Aaron Naparstek

10:46 AM EDT on May 25, 2007

It is the largest known individual effort to help support the plan. The organization began its fund-raising initiative last week and has already raised $150,000, including Gorton’s match. The money will be used to boost support for congestion pricing in key neighborhoods with online and grassroots organizing and advertising in local papers. Gorton founded the Lime Group, which operates businesses in finance and software,notably Lime Wire, the world’s most popular file-sharing service.

Meanwhile, when he’s not busy re-engineering New York City’s streets, Gorton does battle with the recording industry.

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. He was also one of the original cast members of the "War on Cars" podcast. You can find more of his work on his website.