It is time to vote for your choice in the second 2017 Streetsie award: Journalist/Writer/Media of the Year. This Streetsie category is defined pretty broadly to include not just traditional media, but various means of getting livability messages out, from vlogging to research.
Voting starts today and will close on Wednesday, January 3, 2018 at noon. Reader voting accounts for one half of the scoring this year, with one quarter going to SBLA staff votes, and another quarter going to the SBLA steering committee vote.
Be sure to also vote in all the Streetsie award polls.
Peter Flax - Writing in the L.A. Times, The Argonaut, CyclingTips, Twitter, and elsewhere, Manhattan Beach writer Peter Flax has been the key voice in unmasking the mean-spirited crap behind this year's Playa Del Rey backlash. Flax has been an important bicyclist storyteller for a few years; this year he has been invaluable. His extended take-down of Justin Robert Purser's awful, deceptive trolling reads like the compelling true crime narrative that it is. Flax served on Bonin's Playa Del Rey task force, and told the sad tale of that disaster too.
Steve Scauzillo – Frequent Streetsie nominee Steve Scauzillo works the San Gabriel Valley’s environmental and transportation beats at Los Angeles News Group, where his byline appears in the Pasadena Star News and San Gabriel Valley Tribune. He continues to come at issues from a very down-to-earth urban environmental sensibility. His coverage of San Gabriel Valley livability - from bike traffic school to the 710 Freeway to the Gold Line to park-and-ride - continues to be excellent.
Lisa Schweitzer - USC Urban Planning professor Lisa Schweitzer, writing at her blog, has been a great general hellraiser and smart contradictory voice. Her The Smartest Boy Urbanist in the Room is required reading. She is also great on NIMBYs, YIMBYs, Measure S, transit, sexual predators, housing, data, and much more.
Honorable Mentions: The L.A. Walks blog is a great, principled (though too infrequent) news source; this Vista Del Mar piece nailed it! Urbanize L.A. is a dependable place for everyday reporting on development and transportation. Metro's The Source continues to set the standard for extensive agency reporting to let the public know what Metro's up to. Alissa Walker, who SBLA would nominate again if she hadn't already received her Streetsie, continues to speak the important truths at Curbed L.A. The L.A. Times Editorial Board has given a very high profile to several of its own great pro-urbanist anti-backlash pieces, as well as featuring other important livability voices.
Past Winners: Zachary Rynew, Laura Nelson, Nathan Lucero On My Bike in L.A., Alissa Walker, Ted Rogers Biking in L.A., and Brigham Yen
