L.A. Streetsblog 2012 End of Year Fundraising Letter

(If you already know you want to donate to help support L.A. Streetsblog, you can skip the pitch. Click here to go to our donation page. Don't forget to select "Los Angeles") Friends, If you’re on this mailing list, you’ve doubtless been inundated with fundraising requests over the past several weeks. If you’re tapped out, or just tired out, read on anyway. You’re either a Streetsblog reader or supporter, and you deserve to know what a great year we had in 2012, even if we can’t talk you into a donation today. The ask for cash is all the way at the end of the message. I’ll give you warning before we get there. Los Angeles Streetsblog is a unique hybrid organization, both media outlet and advocacy organization. However, no matter how you view our work, 2012 has been a banner year. As a publication, we’ve bucked the media trend towards shrinking staff and have dramatically expanded our coverage. In 2008-2011, L.A. Streetsblog had one paid writer who did his best to cover the entire county. In 2012, we added “bureaus” in Boyle Heights, Long Beach and South Los Angeles and a columnist in Santa Monica. As a result, our readership boomed, nearly doubling last year, and our reach expanded beyond City Hall and Metro headquarters into the community. And it’s been in the community where we’ve had our biggest impact. After all, it was not the groundbreaking 45 minute interview with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa that attracted the largest readership and buzz on social media, but Kris Fortin’s profile of the Ovarian Psycos Bicycle Brigade. A Boyle Heights based all-female bicycling group that is redefining what advocacy means on the Eastside. And it wasn’t a lobbying effort in City Hall that got the Department of Planning to admit it needed new strategies to reach into South Los Angeles to draw people to meetings, but the reporting of Sahra Sulaiman. Incidentally, Sulaiman is teaming with bicycle organizations in South L.A. and Watts to lead the planners on a bike ride on December 8th. These are just some of the successes that our new community based reporting have won over the past year. But the next three months provide a unique opportunity to continue to advance the debate on Livable Streets issues. The Mayor’s Race and City Council race give us the chance to educate tomorrow’s political executive today. And the power of new media give us a chance to get their views and promises on record so we can remind them of what they said before they were elected. In addition to our regular work on Streetsblog and our commitment to expanding our community based reporting, the next three months will be spent covering the candidates and campaigns to insure that bicycling, pedestrian safety, transit, open space, public health and urban design are on the agenda. Be aware, the ask for a donation is coming. There are a couple of ways you can help us reach our goal of raising $10,000 before the end of the year. The easiest way is to donate directly through the website by clicking here. If you direct your donation to “Los Angeles” it will automatically come directly to us. If you prefer PayPal, you can donate directly to damien@streetsblog.org. All donations are tax deductible. If you prefer to mail a check, email me and I’ll send you our mailing address. Or, you can join us on December 8 at Orange 20 for ARTCRANK, a bike themed art and poster sale that benefits L.A. Streetsblog. You can read all about the event, here. We’re also looking for some volunteers to help at ARTCRANK. Please email me if you are interested. Or, you can join us at the L.A. Eco-Village for our “good bye and congratulations” party for Joe Linton. Yes, the advocacy legend and L.A. Streetsblog editorial board chair is in love and moving to New Jersey. He says he’ll be back, but just in case don’t you want the chance to say goodbye? You can get more details, here. In closing, let me thank you. Regardless of whether or not you can help us with a donation today, if you’re on this mailing list it means two things. First, you’ve already donated at one point to help us. Thank you. Second, it means you’re someone who cares about Los Angeles, cares about its health, cares about our safety. I can think of no group of people whose support means more to us. Wishing you well, Damien