Keynote presentation for the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition in Palo Alto, California, April 17, 2012.

1. Hacking the City
Aaron Naparstek
Silicon Valley Bike Coalition
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Palo Alto

2. Honku: Where it all began…
Clinton Street, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn.

3. Life on Clinton Street.
PBS “Life 360” with Michel Martin, July 2002.

4. One day the honking pushed me over the edge.

5. Honking doesn’t solve this problem.
(Note: This isn't Clinton Street. It's Broadway. Same problem.)

6. Eggs on the street.

7. The incident left me shaken.

8. I realized I needed a new solution.

9. You from New Jersey
Honking in front of my house
In your S.U.V.

10. When the light turns green
Like a leaf on a spring wind
The horn blows quickly

11. Gas-guzzler flying
little American flags
the Saudis thank you

12. Your Ford Explorer
on a never-ending quest
for a parking spot

13. Honku goes viral.

14. Oh, Jeezus Chrysler
What's all the damned honking, Ford?
Please shut the truck up

15. What keeps me from just
pelting your honking auto
with rotting garbage?

16. You don't like honking?
Then why live in the city
tilting at windmills

17. I came out of the closet.

18. The virtual “Lamppost.”

19. People start brainstorming solutions

20. Honku was, literally, the Talk of the Town.

21. The obvious next step: Book deal.
Who will play me in the movie?

22. My first livable streets activism.
PBS “Life 360” with Michel Martin, July 2002.

23. And on the second day He said,
"Let their be light."
And so it was.

24. Windshield Perspective.
TK
Cartoon by Ian Lockwood.

25. Our planning, design and engineering was producing this.
Typical Midtown Manhattan street scene, circa 2005

26. And producing this…

27. So how do we make change?

28. We organize.

29. Another way to make change:
Be the change.
Hack the city.

30. An inspiration: Park(ing) Day
Rebar Group's first Park(ing) installation in San Francisco, Sept. 2005

31. The Park(ing) concept really resonated.
“Public space reclamation in progress.”
May 2006, Park Slope, Brooklyn.

32. Rebar turned Park(ing) Day into an open source project.

33. Park(ing) Day
2006
47 parks
13 cities
3 countries
Midtown Manhattan

34. Park(ing) Day
2007
200 parks
50 cities
9 countries
Athens, Georgia

35. Park(ing) Day
2008
600 parks
100 cities
13 countries
Indianapolis, Indiana

36. Park(ing) Day
2009
700+ parks
140 cities
21 countries
Krakow, Poland

37. Park(ing) Day
2010
800+ parks
183 cities
30 countries
Buenos Aires, Argentina

38. Park(ing) Day
2011
975 parks
162 cities
35 countries
Ahmedabad, India

39. Park(ing) Day World Map
Antarctica remains un-reclaimed.

40. Park(ing) becomes official city policy in San Francisco
Spring 2009, San Francisco launches the Pavement-to-Parks program

41. San Francisco calls them “parklets.”
Today there are 24 "parklets,” including 2 mobile parklets.

42. New York City also implemented a version of Park(ing)
August 12, 2010, NYC's launches its Pop-Up Café program.

43. Park(ing) becomes official city policy in NYC
Pearl Street
50-Seat Pop-Up Cafe
in Lower Manhattan's
Financial District

44. A new way of designing streets and public spaces.
Before After
Broadway at 34th Street, Herald Square, Manhattan.

45. Car-Free Broadway at Times Square
Before After

46. A faster, cheaper more feedback-intensive design process.
Before After
Phase 1 of “Castro Commons,” in San Francisco.

47. “Lean Design” and “Agile Development” for cities.
Phase 2 of “Castro Commons.”

48. The city is the original social media.
Giant chessboard in the middle of Broadway at Herald Square.

49. The Livable Streets Movement.
Me and my son on the Prospect Park West bike lane.

50. Being the change.
The Naparstek boys on their Onderwater Tandem family bike.