Since we launched California Streetsblog a little over a year ago—scratch that—since we started statewide coverage under the Los Angeles Streetsblog banner two years ago, the tiny California team has worked hard to bring you information that you won't find elsewhere.
Among our regular coverage of what's happening in the state legislature, we brought a story, not reported elsewhere, that showed how a single legislator's agenda derailed efforts to make the California Transportation Commission more inclusive and better qualified to discuss transportation impacts to others besides the developer and business-focused interests that its members currently represent.
We also exposed an outrageously false but very public attempt to undermine the science behind California's climate change policies that was funded—they hoped quietly—by the state's biggest oil lobbyists.
We've written many stories about Caltran's work to shift from being a highway department to one that facilitates travel by all modes—a herculean effort to bring culture change to a giant, statewide agency, and one that should have profound impacts on the way we travel in the future.
We've covered the so-far unsuccessful struggle in the state legislature to find money for transportation in the face of shrinking gas tax revenues—and the opposing factions that make finding agreement on spending priorities difficult. We have also covered—and plan to continue reporting on—local attempts to fill the funding gap.
In between we've kept our readers updated on what's going on in the Sacramento Capitol, describing the ups and downs of current bills and reporting what people are saying at hearings related to sustainable transportation, climate change and environmental policy, and related issues of health, equity, and housing. Every day we collect and publish a list of daily headlines on statewide transportation issues, so you can track what other people are reporting on in the state.
Meanwhile we've been working to expand our coverage of parts of the state that get little attention, but face the same challenges and sometimes come up with innovative solutions we can all learn from. We report on the Central Valley, including the awesome buffered bike lanes in Modesto, the demise of Fresno's pedestrian mall, and efforts in Turlock to seek Active Transportation Program grants, a process that reflects the challenges every California community faces as they try to become bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly. We cover relevant and useful sustainable transportation stories in Santa Ana and Redding, and are expanding our coverage to include San Diego's sustainable transportation efforts. Your support helps us cover other parts of the state, including the Inland Empire, where freeway expansion is still going strong despite effects on local communities.
We want to bring you the most complete reporting on the state that we can, and we do it with few people and a very limited budget. You can keep track of all we do by subscribing to Streetsblog California in the top right corner of this page, and by following us @streetsblogcal on Twitter and StreetsblogCA on Facebook.
You can help us continue bringing you important stories by supporting Streetsblog California with a donation today. Click here. If you donate at least $75, we'll send you one of these beautiful, elegant T-shirts (both men's and women's styles are available). And whatever amount you donate will help us continue reporting on statewide issues that matter to us all.
