There’s One Week Left. Help Us Make Our Summer Goal

Friends,

This summer, Streetsblog has been reaching out for help to fill a gap left in our budget. This funding drive doesn’t have the giveaways, bells, and whistles of our end-of-year drive. It’s a simple ask to our readers to help us do what we do best: deliver the news and views you need to understand what’s happening in our Capitol and cities.

The response has been fantastic—as it always is—and with one week left in the campaign, we’re almost three-quarters of the way there. If you’re already sold and ready to help us hit the finish line, fantastic. You can make a donation here to support Streetsblog Los Angeles, Streetsblog San Francisco, Streetsblog San Diego, or Streetsblog California.

In short, while readership, video viewership, and the number of donors have all increased this year, we are suffering from a deep drop in foundation support, to the tune of $100,000. (It was $125,000 in previous posts, but one major donor surprised us.) Thanks to some belt tightening and the increase in reader donations we’ve almost balanced the budget, but we’re still just a couple thousand short.

[It may not seem like a lot of money, but those couple of thousand dollars are the difference between our team focusing solely on our work as writers and editors in the two months between now and the elections, and having to divert at least some of that attention to fundraising.]

In Los Angeles, the mayoral contest is one of the highest-profile races in the country. How would things change if Councilmember Nithya Raman wins? The mayor controls not just city departments, but also four of the thirteen seats on LA Metro’s Board of Directors. As the election has heated up, Mayor Karen Bass has tried to thwart Raman’s populist campaign with bold promises, such as making Metro free for riders. Is that plan even possible?

In San Francisco, it’s all about the ballot measures. Bay Area voters will decide whether or not to support its transit agencies through a regional measure and another just for Muni bus and rail. The polling looks good, and another part of the Bay passed a measure this spring to support the SMART train, but you never know how things will shape up—especially with push back from oil shills.

If that’s not enough, there’s also a measure that would require the city to rip out Sunset Dunes park and turn it back into a highway. Streetsblog has strongly denounced this measure, in part because voters have already voted to support the park twice!

Streetsblog California is tracking ballot measures up and down the state, including, of course, the insane lengths that advocates and state legislators had to go to get a transportation tax on the fall ballot in Fresno County. Fresno isn’t the only place with measures coming up, and Streetsblog would like to cover them all.

And Streetsblog San Diego is still getting its feet underneath it and will be announcing some new reporters in the coming weeks. If you’d like to support our burgeoning efforts there, click here to get started.

If you’ve gotten this far, you know Streetsblog is important. Why not lend us a hand in meeting our fundraising goal so we can stay focused on the election ahead?