One Way, No Way: An Early Streetsblog Success

In March 2007, Streetsblog founder and editor-in-chief Aaron Naparstek, was slipped a secret plan by the NYC Department of Transportation to turn several pedestrian-friendly commercial avenues into one-way, autooriented drag strips in Park Slope, Brooklyn. “I posted the plan on Streetsblog,” said Naparstek, “and started covering the issue.”

When the plan was presented at a local community board meeting, 700 opponents to the one-way street conversion showed up. The crowd, much larger than the 35 to 50 typical of these meetings, was too large to enter the auditorium. A group in an anteroom listening to the meeting over a speaker turned a tablecloth into a makeshift petition. “It was really pretty staggering and clear, at that moment, that something fundamental was changing in NYC,” said Naparstek.

The community board ultimately rejected the proposal.

Lean more at Streetsblog: Brooklyn to City Hall: Give us Planning Not Traffic Engineering