It's been a challenging and fulfilling privilege to be the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco these past few months, but to my mind, our work has only just begun. San Francisco's livable streets movement has more momentum than ever, and we're counting on readers like you to help us continue to bring high-impact coverage that informs people and influences policy decisions.
With the launch of our spring pledge drive, we're bringing back our highly-popular PUBLIC Bikes giveaway for two more lucky supporters:
Donate $50 or more by June 1 and you’ll qualify to win a beautiful PUBLIC V7 or PUBLIC C7 bike! Donate by Monday, April 30 at midnight, and you'll qualify twice. Early birds get an advantage!
Reader support has been absolutely essential to sustaining Streetsblog San Francisco, and we're relying on your continued contributions to help us deliver high-impact coverage of the local movement for safe streets and effective transit. Here are a few examples of the recent impacts we've had and how your gift will help us continue to make a difference:
Shining a spotlight on the most prevalent dangers facing people walking and bicycling on our streets. Streetsblog provides perspective on dangerous driving behaviors that too often slip through the cracks of our legal system and get overlooked by the media. In February, we helped pedestrian advocates bring justice to an elderly man who was run over in a crosswalk by a driver who was initially let off without a penalty. With the attention Streetsblog helped bring to the case, an outcry for justice led the SFPD to issue a citation to the driver, showing that tolerating the brazen endangerment of people walking on San Francisco streets is unacceptable.
Shedding light on the need for progressive car parking policies. When the discourse in the media frames putting a rational price on parking as nothing more than a money grab, Streetsblog has stepped up to help inform readers and policymakers of the benefits of reforming outdated policies like free parking on Sundays, which the SFMTA Board of Directors voted to end this week. And when San Franciscans make better use of the street space our city devotes to parking, we're there to spotlight it.
Streetsblog SF continues to reach more and more readers, with more followers on Twitter today than any other original news source in the Bay Area.
We're grateful to our readers who stepped up in a big way to keep us going last year, and to PUBLIC Bikes, who has been a steadfast partner through its second successful year. Only with continued support from our readers can we provide high-impact local coverage connecting more and more people to the movement for sustainable transportation and livable streets.
Aaron was the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco from January 2012 until October 2015. He joined Streetsblog in 2010 after studying rhetoric and political communication at SF State University and spending a semester in Denmark.
What happened in West Portal was entirely predictable and preventable. The city must now close Ulloa to through traffic and make sure it can never happen again