I'm pleased to announce that our national news site has a new name: Streetsblog USA. Say it with pride.
Why the change? Simply put, "Streetsblog USA" is a better reflection of the nationwide coverage that Tanya Snyder and Angie Schmitt are producing.
The new name was a long time coming. Streetsblog Capitol Hill launched five years ago, aiming to connect our readers to the important yet byzantine process of reauthorizing the federal transportation bill. At first there seemed to be a window of opportunity to pass a landmark piece of legislation. That changed when the Tea Party Congress came to power, and expectations for major policy reforms at the federal level deflated. There were still important fights to track on Capitol Hill, but they were all about playing defense. Transit and active transportation programs had to be protected from a hostile Congress.
Meanwhile, cities aren't waiting around to build safer, more multi-modal streets. Mayors are tossing aside the cars-first approach to transportation policy, local governments are shedding 1960s-era regulations that prioritize space for automobiles above space for people, and grassroots advocates are winning battles to bring down highways. With or without support from Congress, great ideas for city streets are popping up everywhere, and we want to help them spread. We also want to show all the ways that national, state, and regional policies foil this progress, and we've had no shortage of stories about state DOTs using federal cash to go on highway binges or regions sacrificing their future to build more sprawl.
So we've been doing all that for a few years now, and "Streetsblog USA" has been brewing for a while. The new name is really an acknowledgment that our publishing title needs to catch up with our published content. Streetsblog USA will continue to provide the mix of Beltway coverage and livable streets updates from around the country that our readers have come to rely on. We'll keep on looking for better ways to bring you Streetsblog content, like the new Talking Headways podcast, but the basic purpose, style, and scope of that content isn't going to change.
A few notes about the details. The location of the site is now usa.streetsblog.org. You may have to refresh your browser cache to see the new header graphic. We're wrapping up the new navigation graphics today -- pardon the temporary inconsistencies. As we complete the transition, all pages using the previous domain will redirect seamlessly to the new one. The @StreetsblogDC Twitter account will morph into @StreetsblogUSA later today. For everyone who subscribes to the RSS feed, the new URL you want is feed://usa.streetsblog.org/feed. If you subscribe to the daily email feed, you don't need to change a thing.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned. There are more changes coming to Streetsblog that we're really excited to share with you later on in 2014.
