When we ask readers what they would change about Streetsblog San Francisco, the top result is always the same: they’d like to see more coverage. More coverage of transit agencies and elected boards, more coverage outside of the major Bay Area cities of San Francisco and Oakland, and of course more coverage of their favorite mode of transportation. And we’d love to do all of that, but the reality is it’s just not possible to cover everything with one full-time editor.
If 2026 is the year we’re going to change that, we need your help. Our plan is to identify, hire, and train a team of reporters to dramatically increase the amount of stories Streetsblog can cover. The expansion plan, which we’re calling the Citizen Journalism Initiative, is similar to the Documenters program run in the Central Valley by Frensoland and in Los Angeles by the LA Local.
But we’re not looking to expand to everywhere all at once. While we plan to bring this kind of coverage to communities and boards throughout the Bay Area, we want to launch in 2026 in two areas: one geographic (the East Bay) and one more issue based (transit agencies, specifically Muni and BART).
(Already convinced? Want to get a jump on our EOY fundraising drive? Click here to make a donation for general support, here for East Bay Expansion, or here for Increased Transit Coverage.)
To fund the new part-time team, we’re launching a pair of fundraising campaigns. To run this program the way that we’d like, we’ll need to raise enough to hire a full-time staff person to manage the team and help get their reports publication-ready. If we can show major donors that our fundraising campaigns are progressing, we believe that the grants for the manager position will follow. If for some reason we do raise significant amounts for these programs from your donations and are not able to fund a full-time position, the funds will be used as a pool to increase our freelance budget in the areas where the donation is designated.
Transit Agency Coverage
The Bay Area has a lot of transit agencies and 2026 is going to be a massive year for all of them. Advocates simply must get the signatures required to get the "Connect Bay Area Act" on the ballot. And then they have to get it passed to avoid severe service cutbacks.
As such, it’s critical for Streetsblog to create and maintain a presence at the public meetings where decisions are made. And once the measure is hopefully passed, we need to maintain that presence to ensure that agencies are living up to the promises they made to voters.
And all of that is in addition to our regular coverage. If you want to help us do that, click here to make a donation.
East Bay Coverage
There are 33 cities in the East Bay, including Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, Albany, Piedmont, Richmond, and Concord. Each of these cities has at least one board, committee or commission where decisions are made that impact how the city’s transportation network grows. We want to be able to cover all the relevant boards and commissions at some level, so that we know and can tell our readers what is happening where they live. If you want to support us so we can do that, click here and get started.
Now, if you don’t live in the East Bay and think our existing transit coverage is enough, then we encourage you to consider donating to the regular Streetsblog San Francisco fundraising webpage. We still need to raise about $35,000 annually from reader donations to maintain the full-time editor position.
As always, thanks for your support!
