When Streetsblog Los Angeles first began publication in 2008, one of our main resources was MidnightRidazz.com. Ridazz was a hub of activity, planning, and even advocacy. And of course there was a lot of off-topic discussions on everything from then-President George W. Bush to who you saw cycling on the street. Through the years, the website has evolved with bike cops checking in, Facebook stealing a portion of the traffic, and most of the original Ridazz moving on to other ventures.
But Midnight Ridazz survived and thrived. Until this weekend.
Due to some hacking that I don't really understand, you can read about it here on Roadblock's Facebook account, the website has been suspended.
The good news is, the website will be back. Roadblock has publicly stated the site will be live again, and a visit to Midnight Ridazz takes you to a simple sentence, "We will be back."
There's two ways you can help bring the site back quickly and better than before. First, if you're familiar with coding, you can volunteer some time to help. Contact roadblock@midnightridazz.com. Second, we can help them raise some funds to maybe move to a better hosting service...say one with a better firewall.
Midnight Ridazz accepts donations at through PayPal. Send donations to donate_to@midnightridazz.com. If you're looking to make a large donation and would like a tax deduction, email me damien@streetsblog.org and we'll see if we can help make that happen.
Even if you're not a fan of Midnight Ridazz, there's no doubt that the culture of group rides in Los Angeles was a rallying point that helped tip the debate in favor of complete streets. If nothing else, they deserve our help.
If you're not familiar with Midnight Ridazz, you can see archives of their website here and here. You can also read our profile of some of the original ride leaders from 2010 by clicking here.
