(You can still join us for our fundraiser. Email damien@streetsblog.org with an RSVP and get more details, here on Facebook.)
When we first launched Streetsblog Los Angeles in February of 2007, we were the first attempt to really franchise Streetsblog outside of its power base in New York City.
Admittedly, I struggled mightily those first few months. It's hard to put out a unique story everyday, and I was still learning Los Angeles as I went. I still wince when reading some of those stories. But despite my ham-fisted typing style in the early days, Streetsblog L.A. survived.
We survived losing our only funder in 2010, in no small part because all of you wouldn't let me go quietly into the night.
And now we're actually partially funded through January of 2015. It's hard to think that five years later L.A. would have moved so far from where it was in 2008 and that Streetsblog would have moved with it. In 2008, our audience was mostly other bloggers, Midnight Ridazz, transit advocates and Wendy Greuel.
Five years later, we can throw a party and have Metro Board Members, LADOT General Managers, L.A. City Council Members and a ridiculous list of L.A. advocates from SO.CA.TA, Trust South L.A., LACBC, East Side Riders, Sustainable Communities, Los Angeles Walks and more show up. Our readership has grown, although we have less Ridazz reading than we used to. Maybe that's why Sara Bond's articles have been so well received, her story topics are going back to what SBLA's roots looked like.
So yes, tomorrow night is our 5th birthday party. It won't be our last fundraiser of the year, we actually already have a couple more planned for this summer, but it will probably be our biggest. And Deborah is a heck of a cook.
But for those of you that can't make it and want to help us celebrate with a donation, I'm offering a special deal. Anyone who donates through the website in April of 2013 will get a special email post with five stories (for five years) that aren't common knowledge but add to the back story of what we do at Streetsblog.
Included in the five stories are: my first conversation with Bill Rosendahl, the April Fool's Story we scrapped for 2013, and why my bike is named "Gunpowder." You can donate now, or anytime, at http://la.streetsblog.org/donate. Remember to check the dropdown box to donate to "Los Angeles."
