Aaron Naparstek

Scientists Unnerved by Speed of This Summer’s Arctic Melt (NASA, NYT) U.S. Parking Policy is a Boondoggle and an Environmental Disaster (Salon) Developer Plans Light Rail “People Mover” on Manhattan’s West Side (Post) Brooklyn’s Grand Army Plaza Gets Ped and Bike Improvements (Post)  Flashback: Community Groups Push to Reclaim Grand Army Plaza (StreetFilms) Mike and … Continued

Bloomberg: Parisian Bike-Sharing Program Might Not Work in NYC (NYT) Bloomberg: “Fascinating”; “We have to do the same thing.” (Post, News) Original Miss Moneypenny Dies; Congestion Charge-Hating One Still Kicking (BBC) Rising Gas Prices Generating Civil Unrest Worldwide (NYT) Frank Bruni: Sidewalk Dining in NYC Like Picnicking in the Holland Tunnel (NYT) Impaired Driver Kills … Continued

Clever hedge fund managers have figured out ways to make money off of weather futures, the electricity grid and quite a few other unlikely sources. What I want to know is if anyone can help me find a way to invest my retirement savings in bicycling in Portland, Oregon. According to the latest numbers, it's a serious growth industry.

The interim redesign of Ninth Avenue and 14th Street is done. Tables, chairs, planters and some of those giant granite blocks from DOT's Bridges Division have been set out as multipurpose bollard-bench-tables atop a gravelly, earth-tone pavement surface. 

I was pretty sure that New York City had San Francisco beat for this year's Park(ing) Day, what, with the children's reading hour and the on-street gymnasium in Brooklyn; Staten Island and Queens getting in on the act; and German tourists frolicking on the sod in front of the MoMA (all captured by StreetFilms, of course). Then I saw photos of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsome admiring Rebar Group's Parkcycle -- literally, a pedal-powered park on wheels -- and I realized that we had been foiled again. Back to the drawing board New York City Park(ing) fans. We've got 12 months to come up with something better than this...

Westchester Assembly member Richard Brodsky on Mayor Bloomberg's congestion pricing proposal: "My problem is that I don't understand what you've proposed."

Ahead of this afternoon's opening meeting of the 17-member Traffic Mitigation Commission, the Campaign for New York's Future sends along a press release noting two recent studies about the impact of traffic congestion on the region's health and economy:

Streetsblog reader Stephen Kling submits the following:

55 Years After William Vickrey, MTA Interested in Off-Peak Discounts (NYT, Sun) Transit Fare Hikes Are a Regressive Tax (2nd Ave Sagas) “Traffic Mitigation Commission” Meets Today for the First Time (CityRoom) UK Towns Plan a £350 a Year Tax on Workplace Parking Spots (London Times) Researchers Test Pay-As-You-Drive System to Replace Gas Taxes (Planetizen)  … Continued

If you're a New York City bike commuter and you're feeling down about all of the pot holes, rude, dangerous drivers, and cops clipping locked bikes off of street furniture, two recent stories in LAist, the Los Angeles version of New York City's Gothamist, might make you feel better: