(Welcome Roger Rudick! Roger is an excellent writer, a familiar name to SBLA readers, a steadfast livability advocate, and a friend. Also I welcome Streetsblog S.F. into the circle of the California Streets Initiative, the non-profit behind SBLA, Streetsblog California, Santa Monica Next and LongBeachIze. - Joe Linton)
Thanks for your patience, Bay Area readers. The blog posts will soon be flowing like you’ve come to expect, because after a competitive search, we’re pleased to announce that Roger Rudick is the new editor of Streetsblog San Francisco.
Roger is an experienced transportation journalist and activist who’s impressed us with his deep understanding of policy, lifelong commitment to better transit and safer streets, and superb writing.
As a reporter and producer, his transit coverage has appeared in the New York Times, PBS, and NPR. He’s filed dispatches on bike infrastructure from Rotterdam to Vancouver. And we’ve published his freelance work on Streetsblog USA, Streetsblog LA, and Streetsblog SF.
Roger currently splits his time between his home in LA and San Francisco, where he has worked as a freelance producer for KQED radio and TV. We are going to make the transition to his full-time stewardship over the course of the next few weeks, as he handles a permanent move to the Bay Area. During this interim period, Streetsblog SF will be updated regularly, with headline aggregation in the mornings and multiple original posts per week. We expect to reach full frequency, with daily original content in addition to headlines, in January.
We’re also going to be making a management transition, with Streetsblog SF moving from the organizational umbrella of OpenPlans, the nonprofit that publishes Streetsblog NYC and Streetsblog USA, to the California Streets Initiative, the nonprofit that publishes Streetsblog LA and Streetsblog California. We believe this switch will be advantageous for the day-to-day management of Streetsblog SF and allow for tighter coordination between all the California-based Streetsblog sites.
We’re excited about these changes and the future of Streetsblog SF. With the SFMTA starting to get into the swing of nimble street redesigns, the upcoming citywide expansion of Bay Area Bike Share, and the ongoing roll out of Muni Forward, the opportunity to transform San Francisco’s streets is as great as ever. The whole Bay Area is grappling with questions of how to handle surging growth while improving transit access, street safety, and housing affordability. Streetsblog SF has a major role to play in making the case for smart public policy to address these issues, and we’re thrilled to be working with Roger on this coverage.
As always, reader support is indispensable to Streetsblog SF. Reader contributions have kept the site going for several years now, and we’ll be starting up a pledge drive to give the site a solid financial footing in 2016. (You can give right now!) With your generous support, Streetsblog SF will be an influential voice for safer streets and effective transit in the Bay Area for years to come.
Ben Fried heads up OpenPlans and Damien Newton is the director of the California Streets Initiative.
