The 2013 Social Media Expansion

(Images by our old friend Veronica Hernandez.)

While Livable Streets advocates around the country are buzzing with the news that Streetsblog Chicago will open tomorrow, we've been working hard on expanding the Streetsblog brand here in Southern California. No, we're not opening a new Streetsblog (yet...), but we do have a couple of exciting new ways to experience Streetsblog.

Streetsblog TV Socal - As we've been hinting for a couple of weeks, we've opened a Live Stream page we're calling Streetsblog TV. No, we're not going to broadcast everyday (at least not yet...), but we will broadcast candidate forums, press conferences and other live events throughout the year. The first event is tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m., the CD 11 Livable Streets Candidate forum. Bookmark the event page now, or follow us at
Streetsblog TV.

SoCal StreetsTube - We're not just going to store b-role or recording of live stream events, but over the next couple of months we'll be using our re-branded YouTube site to broadcast interviews via Google hangout and broadcast our own video series when a film has local interest but not national one. We'll still complete a couple of Streetfilms a year, but not every film is geared for a national audience. Wednesday morning we'll have the interviews completed with the CD 11 candidates and Thursday morning we'll have the entire debate.

Twitter and Facebook for "Long Beach Streetsblog" - It's perhaps the worst kept secret locally that our Long Beach reporter, Brian Addison, and I are trying to raise the funds to launch a Streetsblog for Long Beach that would be a completely unique website with daily news updates for the "most bike friendly city in America." To do that, we need to raise about $50,000 more in pledges and cash in hand, so we're not quite there yet. If you'd like to donate or have questions about advertising, email me at damien@streetsblog.org.

In the meantime, since Addison has already developed a strong following in Long Beach, we thoughts we should begin the branding on the two most popular social media channels. While we wait FOT LBSB, the outlets will announce new Long Beach stories on the L.A. Streetsblog website, progress reports on our efforts to raise that $50,000 and other news of import to anyone who lives, works or plays in Long Beach.