Great news! Once again loyal Streetsblog Chicago backer The Chicago Community Trust, the community foundation for the region, is doubling down on their commitment, offering us a $50,000 challenge grant if we can raise $50,000 though other grants, ad sales, corporate sponsorships, and donations from readers like you, with a deadline of December 1. Obviously, we’re very grateful for their unwavering support.
The Trust has been a crucial patron of the site since we launched in 2013 as part of the Streetsblog network, and its support became especially vital when we rebooted as an independent nonprofit in 2015. For several years they’ve offered us a $25,000 challenge grant, and last year they doubled that amount to allow us to hire reporter Lynda Lopez to expand our coverage of the South and West Sides, communities of color, and women’s transportation issues. Renewing their $50,000 commitment will allow us to keep operating the site at full steam.
Needless to say, Lynda has greatly enhanced our our coverage of policies to make our region a better place to walk, bike, and take transit, and promote safer, more efficient, more equitable, and more vibrant streets. In particular, she has been doing great work writing about affordable transit-oriented development, efforts to make transit more affordable for working-class residents; and intersectional topics like why violence against women and recent threats of an immigration crackdown are mobility justice issues.
Lynda is part of Streetsblog Chicago's largest, most talented team to-date. SBC cofounder Steven Vance recently took on a full-time job with a real-estate consulting firm and also runs the real estate site Chicago Cityscape, but he's still helping us out behind the scenes on technical matters, and serving as a sounding board for editorial decisions.
And we've got a great roster of regular freelancers. Courtney Cobbs, who moved to Chicago from Little Rock because she wanted to live car-free, has a contagious enthusiasm for promoting better public transportation and biking as a strategy to fight climate change. Lifelong Chatham resident James Porter has increased our coverage of South Side transportation matters and shared his insights from a lifetime of navigating the city on foot and CTA. And Igor Studenkov, who freelances for several other local news publications, has enhanced our transit and suburban coverage.
In addition to building a great crew, Streetsblog has recently racked up a number of wins for sustainable transportation including:
- Helping to get the Divvy expansion deal passed by debunking Uber's propaganda campaign
- Conducting research that contributed to an arrest for assaults on cyclists in Wicker Park
- Building support for an all-affordable TOD recently approved in Logan Square
- Getting the de-facto riverwalk biking ban overturned and pushing for continued bike access
In the past sponsors, advertisers, and readers like you have been a massive help in reaching the funding goal. With your assistance, I’m confident that we can win the challenge grant once again and keep the site going at full strength. If you appreciate Streetsblog Chicago’s hard-hitting daily coverage, please donate today. As always, a huge thanks for your steadfast support!
Click here to donate to Streetsblog Chicago via PayPal to help us win the $50K grant.
