It was heartening yesterday when the CTA reversed last week's decision to kill the 31st Street bus route. Likewise, it's highly encouraging that the local transportation advocacy community has once again stepped up to give Streetsblog Chicago a new lease on life. Our loyal advertisers, sponsors and readers helped us raise a little over $50,000 to win a $50,000 challenge grant from from The Chicago Community Trust charitable foundation.
That's twice as much as The Trust has offered us in previous years, and the extra $25,000 will allow us to hire a new part-time reporter to increase our coverage of the South and West sides, communities of color, and women's transportation issues. Needless to say, we're very grateful to the foundation for doubling their support of our walking, biking, transit, traffic safety, public space, and development coverage. I especially appreciate the help of Michael Davidson, Senior Program Officer with The Trust, for once again advocating for our cause.
As always, we’re incredibly thankful for the steadfast Streetsblog booster who donated $10,000 to our fund drive, for the sixth year in a row.
There are were too many individual donors to give you all a shout-out, but I’d like to give a special thanks to the dozens of people who donated $100 or more, who were treated to a free pint and and a book about biking and/or urban planning at our fundraising victory celebration this evening at Revolution Brewing's Kedzie Avenue taproom. Thanks to Revolution Brewing for once again donating beverages for our victory celebration.
We received a generous donation of $500 from SRAM Corporation. In addition, I'd like to give a shout-out to our returning and new advertising sponsors: Keating Law Offices, FK Law, Boulevard Bikes, the Bike Lane, Uptown Bikes, On the Route Bicycles, Roscoe Village Bikes, GOGO Charters, Total Charters, National Charter Bus, the Active Transportation Alliance, and Ride Illinois.
I’d also like to thank our colleagues at the Streetsblog network for helping to promote our fund drive. Thanks also to Active Trans, the Metropolitan Planning Council, and other like-minded nonprofits for spreading the word.
Last but not least, I’d like to thank Streetsblog Chicago deputy editor Steven Vance and recent contributing writers Lynda Lopez, James Porter, Anne Alt, Igor Studenkov, Lisa Philips, Jeff McMahon, Charles Papanek, and Jeff Zoline.
Sorry if I've forgotten to thank anyone, but I truly appreciate that so many people came out of the woodwork to help out once more. Just as an outcry from the community helped save the #31 bus, the awesome support from Chicago's transportation has put more (low-emission, compressed natural) gas in our tank.
— John Greenfield, editor
