SGV Connect 132: Streetsblog California Editor Melanie Curry

Note: Below we've included links to a few of the stories we mention in our conversation. Enjoy!

Damien Newton: Welcome to SGV Connect number 132. This is our first of the year, and one of our very special episodes. I'm Damien Newton. Chris Greenspon is doing the recording, and he said he's not going to talk much during this, but hopefully we can pull him out. We are here with the Editor of Streetsblog California, Melanie Curry.

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So, Melanie, I promised we'd kick it off with you ... why don't you tell us what we're doing here today.

Melanie Curry: Thank you Damien - for a lot of stuff - but thank you for introducing me. I am announcing my retirement from Streetsblog California today, with this podcast. That hurts. It's a pretty bittersweet moment, but it's time for me to retire, and that's what I'm doing.

Damien: We're going to be clear that she really loves all of us and isn't leaving for a better job.

Melanie: I'm definitely not leaving for a job at all. Right now I need a break.

Damien: I know from the handful of conversations I've had with people that everybody is going to miss you very much and appreciates very much all the work that you've done over the years and how great it's been to work with you, internally, at the staff level. The few people we've talked to outside of Streetsblog about this as we've been priming some of our funders say everyone's been very appreciative of all the work you've done over the years. I get to be the first one to say it publicly, I guess because we're actually recording this on Friday. This announcement is happening the following week, and you're not with us for much longer, though, because you're going to actually your first date of freedom is...

Melanie: January. 21st...22nd

Damien: Very good. 21st you passed the test.

Melanie: It's that Tuesday after the long weekend.

Damien: The official retirement date will be the 21st and you're going to be out of town then. So if people try to email you on the 21st it's going to say, sorry...

Melanie: Oh no, I'm gonna forward it to you! By the way, that's part of the announcement: our beloved leader, Damien Newton, is gonna be taking over the helm of Streetsblog California, and I'm really excited to see what you're going to do with it.

Damien: That's actually fifth on the topic list.

Melanie: Well, we can't leave people hanging. That's an important piece of information. Streetsblog California is not going anywhere.

Damien: And there will be an article that goes up on the 21st where I brag about my journalism career, so that people that aren't familiar with my work at Streetsblog don't totally freak out. But I think everybody knows that it's never going to be quite the same. You're the only editor Streetsblog California has ever had. It's true.

Melanie: Well, it's also been a long time. I've been doing this for 10 years, even a little bit more than 10 years.

Damien: I believe we famously had an anniversary party a couple months ago.

Melanie: We did. It was fun, yeah?

Damien: One of the themes of this podcast, and of the past couple weeks internally with us, has been how much we're going to miss you and how much your editorship has meant to us internally as a staff, as well as externally. And we have fun surprises for you. Oh, the first fun surprise is actually Chris Greenspon's predecessor, Kris Fortin, recorded a little something to talk about how much you meant to him as an editor and as a mentor over the years - the mentor he never had when he was stuck with me as his editor. And so Kris is returning to Streetsblog or to SGV Connect for this:

Kris Fortin
(time stamp 4:42)

Hi, everyone. Kristopher here. As some of y'all might know, I worked at Streetsblog, off and on, for about 10 years. During that period, I actually got a couple years working with Melanie while I was covering Orange County for Streetsblog. It was my first step back, returning to Streetsblog, after a couple of years away. I was dabbling in a local newspaper, did some community nonprofit work, and those years away really got me out of practice as a journalist. And so when I started working with Melanie, it was really the first time in my career I was trying to regain my belief that I could actually cover news effectively. But I was really lucky to get one of the best editors I've ever had to help me dust off that rust I had built up and also rebuild the trust in myself to do the job well.

She's one of the best kind of mentors one could ask for. Anyone rooting Melanie's coverage throughout the years could see a journalist with a really deep well of knowledge about the state's transportation, politics and policies, wonkiness... Melanie was there to help you make sense of the details, and she's a diligent watchdog, the hallmark of any capital reporter. And still, Melanie made time to spare to share her knowledge and experience with me. She would take time to talk over edits, figure out story angles together. You could feel she was excited to work with you, and she was invested in your growth as a writer and a journalist. Crossing paths with Melanie made me a better colleague and gave me an amazing example of how to be a leader. I'll always thank Melanie for that.

Melanie: Okay, I'm crying now. Yeah, actually, I just talked to Kris a couple weeks ago. He had some questions and me in my wonky way I was able to answer them, about California policy.

Damien: He texted me, and I was like, although I'm sure I'll be able to answer those questions in 10 days, I wasn't able to then, and I was very happy he reached out to you also.

Melanie: Actually, you know, Damien, you'll certainly be able to answer them in 10 years. It's an ongoing process. I have learned so much on this job.

Damien: All right, trying to keep things moving. As any good Bon Voyage sort of podcast would be, we want to reflect back a little bit on your work. I did tell you ahead of time that we were going to ask about some of your favorite stories, and I was hoping maybe you could tell us now what some of those favorite stories were: How they've concluded, or if they haven't concluded, how you think they're going to conclude? [See links at end of post]

Melanie: Okay, it's hard, because as I was looking back, I was kind of astonished at how many different things I have written about. But I'd say top stories as a group were the ones where I got to describe a fun event like Bike to Work day. I think I did that every year. So there's probably at least 10 stories about how much fun it is to hang out with bikey people. And there's the Bike Summits - those were always really inspiring. And I have a list, and I put it away somewhere, but there's all kinds of events that I've covered that just - they made me really happy. One of them was a bike ride on the new bridge across the San Francisco Bay. The Caltrans director at the time, Malcolm Dougherty, and his staff got in touch with me and said, "We're gonna do this bike ride, you want to go?" And I was like, "Yeah, sure." I expected there to be a bunch of journalists, and it turns out I was the only one. And not only that, but I knew my way around, so I had to guide them all on their bikes onto the bridge. That was so fun and empowering, I have to say, that was a good one.

And then there was the other event that I had the best time writing about: a protest against Prop 6, which was trying to repeal the gas tax. And it was in response to some elected official who said "They're going to make us ride our bikes! I can't do that with my hair and my heels!" And it was great. Senator Scott Wiener and Emeryville Mayor John Bauters got together, and a whole bunch of people joined them, and they put on wigs, and they put on high heels, and they rode through San Francisco. And not only was it fun to do, but it was fun to write about it, because they're both really strongly on point about the importance of advocating for good bike infrastructure. And they were not taking any crap about whether you could ride a bike in heels with hair.

Damien: I remember that one actually, too because it was such a fun one. Scott's always very photogenic, and he's not afraid to get a little laugh at himself or enjoy the moment to to help get his point across. So say another thing about some other favorite stories.

Melanie: Absolutely, I could go on for a while, but what I noticed was I wrote a lot about dumb things that people said, which was so fun. Oh, Damien, there's going to be so much for you to do, because elected officials, agencies, planning departments - there's all kinds of things that people just throw out there that are just not smart. So I maybe went a little too far. I mean, who allowed me to do this? But I would just quote people and and then put my opinion in there.

One of them was a California Transportation Commission meeting where the commissioners were really mean to the people from CalBike. Several advocates from CalBike had shown up to the meeting to talk about equity issues, and they had a couple of other things, and they were doing what advocates do, you know, there's a policy that's being considered, so they stand up and talk about it, and the commissioners to a person just attacked them for something completely different. They were asking them, why do you oppose bike registrations, for example. They didn't actually have a position on bike registrations. And why didn't you support SB1 - which was the gas tax - Why not? Why didn't you support it?

It was a very weird conversation, but being able to just listen and write about what they said, I think one of the things that it probably did was let the commission know that someone was listening to them and writing about them, and then, in a lot of ways, their conversations shifted after that because, because they knew they couldn't get away with that crap anymore. I mean, like, I'm not putting all the power on me. That's not true, but being a journalist, showing up and reporting on that kind of stuff, just letting them talk - it shines a light where, you know, who has the time to go and see that stuff and listen to it. No one would ever have known what they were doing to the CalBike people if I hadn't written about it. So that was fun. That was a lot of fun.

Damien: I think covering important meetings that are under-covered is one of the most important things Streetsblog does, absolutely. In another interview, I was once asked what I thought one of my favorite moments was when I was a Streetsblog LA editor. I was a half hour late to a transportation committee hearing for the city LA City Council. And I walked in, and I could see three city council members visibly deflate as I walked through the door, and I thought, yeah, they're pissed to see me.

Melanie: They would rather talk behind everybody's back, yep, yep. Well, okay, then I gotta say one more thing. I don't know if this is my favorite story, but there was that time the Transportation Commission chair said something he shouldn't have said into a live microphone. And seriously, like, I don't have that great of journalistic instincts, but I had three people call me and say, "Did you hear him say that?" And I realized, okay, well, it sounds gossipy, but I have to write about it, because he said it into a hot mic. He said something about he had to go and "beat the hell out of" - I think he was talking about the head of Caltrans. But you know, whatever it was, he didn't mean to say it. It was a big mistake, and that was his last CTC meeting. So it wasn't...

Damien: or I should say, it wasn't announced that it was his last CTC meeting at a time.

Melanie: Yeah, he had just been appointed chair, and, you know, he was part way into his term. So it wasn't because I said anything. I just put it in writing, and then it was out there, and then nobody could ignore it. So that was scary, that one was scary, but it wasn't me doing anything. I was just reporting.

Damien: You touched a little bit about how you were able to cover the Bay Area. And we have a Streetsblog San Francisco, which, right now you are sort of the second journalist for, because we've haven't fully brought on more staff for that publication, yet. Fingers crossed for 2025. Which is my smooth transition, to say we have some audio from Roger Rudick, the Streetsblog San Francisco editor.

Roger Rudick
(time stamp 14:41)

I'm happy for Melanie that she's decided to retire because, according to her, that's what it's time for. But I gotta confess, I've stayed up at night - at least for a few minutes at a time - thinking about who the hell am I going to call when I'm working on a story and it's like, I need somebody who knows Bay Area politics, so I can check to make sure that I'm not being too strident here, that my interpretation is correct. Like, you know, we don't work in a newsroom, but Melanie is the closest I've ever had to having someone across the room that I can yell out and say, hey, you know this interaction between Mayor Breed and Gavin Newsom, like, am I getting this right? Is this new state law, and the way they're trying to interpret it in the city of San Francisco, you know, am I getting this? Am I getting all the points on it? And I gotta say, you know, Melanie has about 1,000 times higher level of patience than I do. Her ability to sit through some of these grueling meetings and boil them down and sort of, you know, pull out the relevant information, I think is fantastic and unrivaled. And I know Streetsblog will carry on, but it's definitely going to suck for a while trying to figure out how to navigate without Melanie's help.

And, you know, on a personal level, like Melanie really took me under her wing. It's almost 10 years ago now, when I first came to the Bay Area full time, she just like showed me the ropes, showed me how to get through WordPress and all that weirdness and and to how to make Streetsblog work, how to do it every day. You know, she's been a real help all along. I wish I had a dime for every time I called Melanie up and she got me out of a spot where I just couldn't finish a post because I needed some more feedback on something. So I wish her well. I mean, I realize she's still going to be there, so I can still call her occasionally for some help, but she's going to be sorely missed, and I really don't know how we're going to replace her, but we'll try.

Melanie: Oh, you got me good. Goodness.

Damien: I think Roger may miss you most of all, to be honest, not that the rest of us aren't going to, but I know he really did rely on having you around to help on certain things. So again, Roger, we're trying. We're going to try to get you some more help up there this year, but we'll keep this focused on Melanie.

Melanie: Hey, I just got to say, this is a hard job, and working with our very small team - it's so important to have our team, all of you. Damien, both Chris/Kris, Roger, Sahra, Joe - without you guys... I've gotten so much wisdom and good feedback from working with you. The team is really important, and it's one of the things that I really appreciate about having worked at this job, this dream job, by the way.

Damien: Oh, that's nice. I had been joking with Marybeth, my wife, the other day that you came to us right out of planning school, and you never got a job as a planner.

Melanie: Yeah, I couldn't have made it as a planner. I needed this job. It had my name on it, Damien. Admit it.

Damien: Juan Matute - who was our board chair at the time, when I first said we had the money for this position, thanks to the Vida Feliz Foundation and the California Endowment - we should say their name like a dozen times during this podcast, for making this possible!. But you were the first words out of his mouth. I guess the UCLA magazine - was it Impact?

Melanie: No, it was called Access.

Damien: Access, the UCLA magazine [Editor's note: It was at UC Berkeley when Melanie was editor] you had worked on, the first two words out of his mouth were "Melanie Curry."

Melanie: I did not know that, but wow...

Damien: ...he said immediately that you were the right person for the job, and then you applied without me having to email you or anything. You were on the list, like if we don't get anyone good, Juan says I should talk to this person. But you applied on your own, and of course, then your name stuck out through the whole process.

So we talked about favorite stories. We can talk about least favorite stories that we've had to cover over and over, or maybe just once. I will tell people, I don't want to bias my writing too much for people, but I can't stand covering high speed rail.

Melanie: Okay, that was the top of my list.

Damien: Oh, great.

Melanie: It's super hard to write about this mega project that has been...I mean, the general media take on it is so negative and so anti-high-speed-rail that it's really hard to get any other take on it. So, yeah, we've had some fun. There was the "summer of high speed rail writing" at Streetsblog where the whole team was like, writing and writing about it. I think we did a good job. I seem to recall somebody even saying "Wow, Streetsblog's really on fire this summer," and it was fun because we were all doing it together.

But in general, that's just a very, very, very hard story, because the rest of the media continues getting it wrong, and it's frustrating to spend all our time correcting people like Ralph Vardabedian - and who's no longer at the LA Times, but even the people who've replaced him, their headline is like: "how did you come up with this headline?" Anyway, it's a big project. You will have to keep covering it because it's super important, and they are making progress, and they're facing some really big challenges with the new federal administration. And that's just the reality that we're gonna have to keep looking at and talking about. And we're gonna be our own little small voice going, "Hey, high-speed rail! It's good! It's happening!" While everyone else is like, "Oh, it's too expensive. We spend too much money. Blah, blah, blah," all the other crap that's out there about that.

Damien: I think high-speed rail is one of the stories that shows the value in Streetsblog. I've been told that legislators, when they get their packet of news articles about something before a meeting, sometimes Streetsblog will be the only positive story about high-speed rail in there, or sometimes the only factually correct one. So that when you hear legislators saying good things about high speed rail, a lot of times it wouldn't be happening if we hadn't been writing something good. Like we're not just the coverage, we're also the research for legislators that have to talk about it, that don't have a staffer that does transportation or regional transportation. So, like, it's an incredibly important story, but it's a really difficult one to write about, because, well, for all the reasons you mentioned.

Melanie: Yeah, well, keep it up. Damien, it's super key. Yeah, really important.

Damien: If I didn't keep it up. Roger would do all the writing about it. And that's that's not fair to San Francisco. So I need to, I need to stay on top of high-speed rail.

Melanie: Well, thank goodness Roger's on the team too, because he's really helped the rest of us keep on that beat too.

Damien: Yeah, and he's got an expertise, because he's a rail head, so he just likes talking about, like, train design and stuff like that. And, well: this engine can do this, and it's, like, "Awesome, Roger." So as we're talking about things we don't like covering, yeah, we have another smooth transition, because there's something that nobody likes covering which is going on in the world right now. Hopefully by the time this podcast comes up, it will not be something that people are talking about as much, because things will have gotten better. [Editor's note: sadly, not yet.] But we have Sahra on our next clip coming up well, and you'll you'll see what she's talking about, or it's pretty obvious.

Sahra Sulaiman
(time stamp 22:41)

I'm standing on the roof of my building watching the fire approach Mount Wilson as ash blows in. Literally, I'm being snowed on by ash from the Eaton fire, and I'm kind of annoyed that Melanie has decided that this is the moment that she wants to leave. We need her more than ever right now. She's been such a vital voice in tracking policies at this state level and keeping us all apprised of complicated processes that have shaped the landscape and brought us to this moment and to leave now - it's a really dirty move. Melanie, thanks so much, but I'm so grateful for everything that she's done, all of the light that she's shone into the cracks of arcane policy making, and how these decisions incrementally can lead us to a really dangerous place. Sorry, I'm not particularly articulate, just watching this go down, but it does make me grateful for everything that she's done, and for what a kind and thoughtful and generous colleague she has always been. I've learned so much from her. Her comments and edits on my work helped me think more deeply about the things that I was covering. So I'm so grateful for her and her voice, and I'll miss her so much. I mean, she's not dead for God's sake, but, I mean, you know, gonna miss her presence. Love you.

Melanie: Oh, my God, I love this team. Back at you, Sahra. Oh my goodness, yes, and yes, I mean, she hit the nail on the head there with like, I'm going back through the last 10 years of coverage. It's kind of amazing to see the ways that California has changed, the way its agencies have changed, and then also the way nothing has changed. We're all advocates for a better world. We want better conditions for people to not have to drive everywhere they go. And yet while in little pockets that's true, and we're working hard on different aspects of making that happen, that hard work isn't really showing on the ground, and it's scary because we do not have time to waste. And I see that so clearly that, you know, I don't even know what to do about it, because it's hard work and it takes too long to see results. And you know, when you talk about those stories that I think are some of my least favorites are the ones that I have written over and over and over again. Like: funding for the Active Transportation Program, up and down and up and down and out the door; and transportation funding at odds with climate goals. I have written so many articles about that and how there's these rules now that we need to align them, but they're not being aligned. The California Transportation Commission is still - they hate when I use the term rubber stamping, but they are still approving highway expansions.

Damien: You can say rubber stamping. You don't have to worry about offending them.

Melanie: I've used it anyway. I don't actually know why they complain, because it's true. That's what they're doing. I know, there's a loud argument from labor and business about, "we got to keep doing this the same way. We can't make change." And the status quo is still winning, and I don't know... there are changes, there are shifts. I keep telling people I notice that the agencies are leading with pictures of people on bikes. They're talking about supporting active transportation. I mean, it's the first thing they say, and their covers of their programs have a picture of someone on a bike - but it's still not showing up on the ground. So, yeah: frustrating. And the other thing that I noticed I have to say it was: I write way too much. Oh, my God, I had so much to say. I would delve into these wonky topics. Why? Why did you let me write 2300 word pieces? How did I get away with this?

Damien: They were good.

Melanie: Well, I wouldn't take any of the words back. I liked them too. But like who has the time to read these days?

Damien: I will say, honestly for me, during the pandemic, when you or Sahra were working on a piece for a couple days, or sometimes even a couple weeks, and you were like, it's going to be done today at like noon or two; I would sit on my email waiting because I wanted to be the one to proof it. I felt so privileged, and it was such a rare experience to get the first read of one of those really long, in-depth pieces that the two of you would put out. I mean, I'm not knocking anything that Joe and Roger have done, but they're trying to get stuff up every day. So they rarely put out pieces that are as in depth as some of the stuff that the two of you would put out. And I would sit there and just wait, like sometimes I'd even have a little coffee... I'd be sitting there with my little coffee waiting for that piece to come in so I could just sort of sit back and enjoy it. And that was my privilege for myself as one of the editors. And of course, by the time a piece like that got to me from either of you, it was, like, perfectly worded. And I was like, "one of your apostrophes is backwards" because I needed to say something to prove I had read it, but because there were no substantive comments. That was like my little pandemic gift to myself... clearing out time to be the first to get to read one of those.

Melanie: Wow, I thought my mom was my number one fan.

Damien: No, no, she's probably down the list. I'm sure she's on it.

Melanie: Oh, dear.

Damien: All right. Well, we are at the half hour mark. So do you have any advice for me as an incoming person trying to do this job? Or is there anything that you really think that I should be focused on that maybe wouldn't be on my radar? I mean, obviously the big stories, big ongoing things, the CTC, the legislature, Caltrans, especially their freeway addiction, high-speed rail, those things are obvious. But is there anything sort of more micro that I should be looking at?

Melanie: Gosh, that's a super hard question. I mean, every day I'm asking myself that, like, what needs to be covered now? What's the big thing and what's the little thing? There's going to be some tough stories coming up, for sure. But, you know, I would point out that there's, it looks like interesting stuff around the ATP in the budget is going to happen this year. Oh, yeah - I'm missing the governor's announcement about the budget right now. Hmm, I don't know if he's going to do anything about it, but in the legislature there's kind of an interesting push. I know that the CTC has been saying we need more money for the ATP, and the legislative reps are picking up on that. Dave Cortese is the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee. So listen to what they say. Just listen to what people are saying and definitely highlight the dumb things that people say, even if you don't comment, just make sure that people know that they're saying those dumb things.

Damien: That is my favorite Streetsblog article to write, because it is fast, it is easy, and they get read.

Melanie: It's also, like you said, it's informing people who don't have time to go to these meetings and they don't know what the conversations are at the Capitol about these really important policies. So you need to know if your representative doesn't know what they're talking about. There's a lot of my stories that address that, anyway.

Damien: If I were a better interviewer, I would have stopped us when we were talking about the CTC and Caltrans, because that's where our next clip picks up. So anybody that really cares about my interviewing skills and continuity, just forget like the last two minutes, and then we can hear from Joe.

Joe Linton
(time stamp: 31:50)

This is Joe Linton, the Editor of Streetsblog Los Angeles, giving my farewell two cents to Melanie Curry upon her leaving Streetsblog California. I have to say, I'm disappointed. I find it hard to imagine Streetsblog without the past decade that Melanie has dedicated to it, and she's a great person to work with who's helpful and knowledgeable and responsive and great. But really what Melanie has been able to do is to shed light on a lot of state processes that are difficult to track, things like the California Transportation Commission and just the workings of Caltrans and how their policies do and don't filter down to the locals and whatnot. So it's been fantastic to have someone listening in on the CTC's three-day-long meetings and reporting on that, and I think it's had a really positive effect. Some of the stuff said at the CTC filtered down into Los Angeles to help stop a really harmful freeway expansion project on the lower 710 that would have taken out hundreds of homes. So I wish Melanie well, and I am worried about how I'm going to track all the issues that I counted on her to track. So be well, Melanie and don't go away too far. Byebye.

Melanie: I'm not going to talk anymore.

Damien: I'm going to be regularly in touch with you, because I have to, as I try to navigate these things. You're going to remain in my speed dial. I'm going to spare an emotional on-air goodbye from me, because again, you'll be back in like, February from Utah, and I'll be like, how do you spell commission again? So I'm going to leave it to you, then. Do you want to have any last words for us? Or do you want to leave it at "I'm not talking anymore"?

Melanie: Oh, that's hard. Yeah. I mean, how do I wrap it up? This truly has been a dream job for me, absolutely. I mean, everything about it, including like working from home and kind of setting my own schedule and being able to express my opinions openly, without, someone telling me "you can't say that." It's been incredible, like, I am so spoiled, but it has also been an incredibly difficult job. Like, I'm wrung out by the end of the week. Over the last couple years, I've been like, waking up in the morning and going, is it Saturday? Oh, it's Saturday! And that's a bad sign. I was just like, I put too much into it, I suppose.

But writing, thinking, talking, it's all really hard. So even though I wouldn't have traded a moment of this job - I wouldn't even trade the really hard stuff - I'm glad to be taking a break for myself, and I hope what that does is give my brain a chance to step back and think a little bit more about what my role could be in terms of the work that we still need to do, because there's a lot of work we still need to do make this world a better place. Man.

Damien: I will say quickly, before we sign off, just to respond to one thing: you said that we never said that you can't say that or stifled your opinion. If you go back and look at old notes, we did say that to you for the first year or two, occasionally. For solutions journalism to work, obviously you need to have the expertise and even sometimes opinions of the person writing in the pieces, or else it just doesn't work. However, at the same time, knowing that one of our audiences was Caltrans and legislative staff that agree with us in theory, but you know, didn't want to buck the system. We had to have them trust you before we let your opinions start to slip more and more in.

And so there was an intentional strategy there. And I think that you can see how much trust you earned with the audience, not just the advocate audience, not just the people, the wonks audience, but the people in government audience, which was critical for Streetsblog California to be able to do everything it's been able to do.

Two things: as has been noted by all of the people who we interviewed, you're a fantastic journalist who does your homework and puts out great pieces. And the other thing is, you're a fantastic person, and so people don't doubt your motives and your heart, even if that comes through in your pieces. They know that you're someone who is trustworthy. No one gets it right all the time. You did way better than most, hopefully not too much better than I'll do it. But people not questioning the motives is an important part of solutions journalism really working, and it's been that trust that you grew with your audience is a key part of that.

Melanie: Yeah, and you know, since you mentioned them, I have to say that I really appreciate all the great work that advocates are doing in all of these organizations - Climate Plan, Greenlining Institute, CalBike, all of the bike coalitions - like all this really good research policy influencing that they're doing. And those are only a few of the groups. Agency staff kind of blows me away. Most of them, they are so hard-working, and they have to be so careful about what they say to me and to any journalist, because the leadership is, well, the leadership is something else. The leadership is elected and appointed, and they're political, so they're running on a different kind of engine, but the staff do the work, and most of them are so committed to the stuff that we're committed to, that I find that super inspiring. I just want to express my appreciation for that, and also acknowledge that they have a hard job too, because they can't just say the kinds of things that I can say. They don't dare - but I can say them.

Damien: All right, well. With that, thank you again so much for everything. It's not a hard goodbye, as I said. I suspect readers will see your byline every now and then going forward, but things will certainly be very different. And, echoing what everyone said and what I'm sure you're going to see in our comment section, your email box is going to blow up now. Thank you again for everything, and we'll talk with you soon.

Melanie: My heart is full.

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Below are links to a few of Melanie's favorite stories, lifted from her farewell post.

The Hair and Heels protest: Representative Diane Harkey complained that the gas tax would force people to ride bikes, and that she just couldn't do it "with the hair, and the heels!" Then-Emeryville Mayor John Bauters and State Senator Scott Wiener had a blast making fun of the notion that clothing prevented bike riding - by riding around San Francisco with a bunch of like-minded people, most wearing wigs and high heels. Of course it was all more complicated than that, and of course I tried to spell it all out - but the "Hair and Heels" protest itself was just fun. Here's one quote: "Wearing a long wig and high heels should be a pretty good way to get attention, although, this being San Francisco, the noisy group of bicyclists attracted only a modest number of stares. Did any of them realize that was their senator in the pink wig?"

Highlighting the dumb things leaders say and do:
Senate Transportation Vice-Chair Says Active Transportation Projects Increase Emissions. Right.

Debunking dumb oil industry arguments: Oil Industry Tries a New Tack, Blowing Smoke at CA's Climate Change Policies. I used words like "dimwitted" "cynical" "evil" and "wacky" to describe this backhanded oil industry campaign, and it was satisfying.

Exposing dumb (and dangerous) design decisions: Bakersfield Is Hoping Pedestrians Will Just Go Away. The solution to a dangerous crosswalk? Remove it! Nobody walks in... wait a minute.

Ripping apart really dumb ideas from legislators: A CA Bill Would Double the Size of Highways 5 and 99 and Remove Speed Limits. I got away with this ridiculous phrase, referring to the claim that greenhouse gas emissions are reduced when traffic moves quickly: "This pathetic justification is a very popular shade of lipstick among pigs these days."

It was fun to just report some of the mean things leaders said, adding a wee bit of snarky context: California Transportation Commissioners Question CalBike and the Need for an Equity Lens. This conversation just emphasized how hard it is to speak sense to power - and to be heard.

There was that hot mic at the California Transportation Commission. I simply reported what was said! And that turned out to be the last meeting of developer - oh, excuse me, my early notes said he was a farmer - Paul Von Konynenburg, who had recently been selected as chair of the CTC by the other commissioners.

Here's me arguing that everyone should love the things I love: Why You Should Care about Statewide Transportation Guidelines

…and really getting into the weeds about things that I think are important: Bill Would Dramatically Restructure Active Transportation Program

…and endlessly explaining the gas tax and induced demand and why you can't build your way out of congestion and our favorite alphabet soup, VMT-LOS-CEQA.