Help us celebrate another funding victory at a Metra-friendly fire pit party on 3/19

Thanks to all of Streetsblog Chicago's funders, advertisers, and readers like you for helping us put another successful fund drive in the books. In addition to a $75K grant from The Chicago Community Trust charitable foundation, we raised more than $50K through other grants, ad sales and donations – see a more detailed breakdown at the bottom of this post. That will allow us to continue our coverage of walking, biking, transit, traffic safety, public space, and development issues for another calendar year.

All Streetblog Chicago readers and supporters are invited to celebrate with us at a free fundraising victory fire pit party hosted by our friends at CHAOS Brew Club in Chicago's West Town community.

Streetsblog Fundraising Victory Bonfire Party
Saturday, March 19, 8-11 p.m. (probably somewhat later)
CHAOS Brew Club
2417 W. Hubbard St., Chicago
Free
RSVP on Facebook if you like

CHAOS (Chicago Homebrew Alchemists of Sud) CHAOS is a not-for-profit that was formed  by friends from the Chicago Critical Mass bike ride "for educational purposes and dedicated to education about and enjoyment of home brew and craft beer." We'll be hanging out around fire pits in their lot, and the club will provide kegs of their tasty home brew, while a DJ spins relaxing electronic music. Non-alcoholic beverages will also be available, and you can feel free to BYO food, such as from nearby Chava's Tacos, 2333 W. Grand Ave. In the event of nasty weather, we will move the festivities indoors.

CHAOS is located just east of the Western Avenue station for Metra's Milwaukee District North, Milwaukee District Northwest, and North-Central Service lines. The location is accessible from the CTA's Grand Avenue and Western Avenue buses, and there's a Divvy station and bike racks in front of the Metra stop. Note that the station lies just outside the Divvy fee zone, so there are no per-minute charges for members to ride an electric Divvy bike there.

Shout-outs to Streetsblog Chicago supporters

The Chicago Community Trust obviously deserves special recognition for providing the $75K grant. They've been a key supporter of the site ever since we launched in 2013, so we're very grateful to their loyal support. Special thanks to Lauren Woods, program manager for the Trust’s Building Collective Power initiative, for facilitating the grant.

Big thanks also to the extremely loyal Streetsblog reader who chipped in $10,000 to fund the site, for the tenth year in a row.

In addition, we received generous donations from the TransitCenter foundation ($2,500) and SRAM Corporation ($500), which we greatly appreciate.

We’d also like to give a shout-out to our returning advertising sponsors: FK Law, Keating Law Offices, Boulevard Bikes, the Bike Lane, SHOFUR, the Active Transportation Alliance, Ride Illinois, Earth Rider Cycling, Homelight, and Roscoe Village Bikes.

Last but not least, I’d like to thank Streetsblog Chicago co-editor Courtney Cobbs, editor-at-large Steven Vance, and Latine communities reporter Ruth Rosas, as well as contributing writers and photographers Cameron Bolton, Richard Day, Amber Drea, Sharon Hoyer, Imelda March, Mia Park, James Porter, Eric Allix Rogers, Michael Podgers, Igor Studenkov, David Zegeye, and Jeff Zoline. These talented folks are obviously essential to keeping the site going strong.

Apologies to anyone I’ve left out — so many people stepped up to help over the last few months that I’m probably forgetting some of you. But the fact that we’ve received so much help from hundreds of different people during the campaign is truly a testament to the vibrancy of Chicago’s transportation advocacy community.

Thanks again. I’m looking forward to toasting another success fund drive with you at CHAOS Brew Club on the 19th!

— John Greenfield, co-editor