A Farewell to Elana Schor, and a Note About Our National Coverage

As regular readers of the Capitol Hill blog already know, yesterday
marked Elana
Schor’s last day covering the national transportation policy beat
for Streetsblog.

On behalf of the Streetsblog staff in New York, San Francisco, and
Los Angeles, as well as the Streetsblog Network, I’d like to share my
appreciation for Elana’s work over the past year. She created her beat
from scratch, and quickly became an indispensable daily read for Hill
staffers, administration officials, seasoned transportation wonks and
advocates of all stripes. When it came to national transportation policy
news, Elana scooped everybody.

If you’d like to keep up with Elana’s work, she’ll be writing for Greenwire, the environmental news
service. Be sure to check for her byline on the New York Times online,
which syndicates some Greenwire content.

Elana set the bar high for Streetsblog’s national coverage. With
the major national
transportation bill still brewing in Congress, there’s an urgent
need to continue her excellent work. Big stories are developing at this
very moment: A $2
billion transit operating aid bill could stave off disastrous
service cuts in dozens of cities; President Obama pledged
yesterday to pass major energy and climate legislation; and the
U.S. DOT’s livability program is increasingly becoming a
flashpoint for debate. On the local scene, state DOTs are still plowing
ahead with ill-considered highways, neglecting
opportunities to build infrastructure for walking and biking, and
allowing bridges
to rot until it’s too late to salvage them.

We’ve begun a national search for a reporter who can synthesize
local stories from across America with news from inside the beltway to
help make the case for transportation reform. While that search for a
full-time replacement progresses, we’re also looking for freelance
contributors to write lively, engaging stories to keep Streetsblog
readers up to speed on national issues. If you’re interested in writing
about the movement for green, equitable, 21st-century transportation,
send us your resume and a short note about your areas of expertise to tips@streetsblog.org.