Ben Fried

I'm pleased to announce that thanks to an outpouring of support these past two weeks, Streetsblog and Streetfilms are more than halfway to our goal of raising $25,000 by the end of the year. If you haven't given yet and you value the high-impact reporting and videos that we produce day in and day out, help put us over the top. As the headline suggests, we have another great item to give to a lucky donor this week.

The year-end pledge drive for Streetsblog and Streetfilms is in full effect. Thanks to everyone who’s contributed so far to support high-impact news, commentary, and videos that make the case for safer streets and sustainable transportation.

OpenPlans is pleased to officially launch our search for the next journalist to lead Streetsblog San Francisco. Thanks to the craigslist Charitable Fund, the Seed Fund, Mike’s Bikes, and the generous contributions of many, many readers for supporting our work in the Bay Area. (And thanks to Aaron Bialick for holding down the fort while we're in between full-time editors.)

Rail~Volution 2011 marks the first time since 2002 that this conference for all things transit and smart growth has taken place in the nation’s capital. When it comes to livability, Washington and neighboring Arlington County have some great stories to share with the rest of the country.

When you take a step back and look at the evolution of San Francisco’s streets, it is truly impressive how much has improved for pedestrians, cyclists, and the public realm since Bryan launched Streetsblog SF in 2009. Progress seldom happens as rapidly as we might like, especially when you’re taking on something as deeply entrenched as car-centricity, but the pace of change in San Francisco undoubtedly quickened after Bryan came on the scene. Parklets, protected bike lanes, a citywide pedestrian safety directive – none of that existed a few short years ago. Without the reporting, watchdogging, and analysis from Bryan and his staff, the state of livable streets in the Bay Area would not be what it is today.

I'm pleased to announce that Streetsblog is adding a new service: the Streetsblog jobs board. If you have a job opening in the fields of urban planning, transportation engineering, or livable streets advocacy, you'll reach a talented pool of people by placing the position on Streetsblog.

Attempts by U.S. cities to build Bus Rapid Transit systems tend to get stymied by a Catch-22: Most Americans have no experience riding great BRT, so mustering the political will to build full-fledged systems -- and reallocate the necessary street space from cars to buses -- is often fiendishly difficult. The results -- incremental bus improvements sold to the public as BRT -- are too watered down to showcase the full extent to which bus-based systems can attract riders and get people to switch from driving to transit.

Angie's on sabbatical this week attending the Knight Digital Media Center’s News Entrepreneur Bootcamp in Los Angeles. To help tide you over until she gets back, here's a clip from a northeast Ohio radio show she recently appeared on called "The Civic Commons." Inspired by a post Angie put together a few weeks ago (headline: "It's the Sprawl, Stupid: The Budget Buster No Ones Talking About"), this half-hour podcast features some heated debate about how the Cleveland region can put a stop to the hemorrhaging of residents and jobs from northeast Ohio:

Apologies for a little bit of self-promotion, but there are only about ten hours left to vote for Streetsblog in Treehugger's Best-of-Green awards. We're up for Best Transportation Website, and we stand out a little because Streetsblog is all about transit, biking, and walking, while the other worthy contenders are all largely about hybrid, electric, and low emissions cars.

Senator Chuck Schumer broke his long public silence on the redesigned Prospect Park West in New York City in dramatic fashion this morning, leading members of Congress on a two-wheeled tour of the physically separated bike lane that runs past his Brooklyn home. Schumer used the occasion to announce that he'll be introducing new legislation to promote investment in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure.