THAT TIME OF THE YEAR: Yes, We’re Starting our Annual Donation Drive Month (Hint, Hint…)

We can’t do it without you.

The first day of December means different things to different people — a birthday, perhaps, or the beginning of the long-awaited last month of the de Blasio era — but for us at Streetsblog, it’s always been the kickoff to our annual monthlong donation drive.

Admittedly, we’re a bit uncomfortable to go to you, dear reader, with our hat in hand asking for a few bucks, pesos, Euros or shekels to keep the lights on for another year. But then again, we have a lot to show for our efforts in 2021, thanks to all the support you gave us this time last year (hint!).

Who could forget these highlights:

• Newcomer Jesse Coburn distinguished himself with several investigations that garnered citywide attention, including his look at how city insurance rules fail to protect victims of taxi crashes; his deep dive into the NYPD’s failure to respond to 311 complaints against drivers (and the agency’s possible cover-up); and his breakthrough coverage of the high number of crashes committed by out-of-state drivers.
• Julianne Cuba churned out incredible coverage of the myriad city officials who failed Baby Apolline; a much-discussed story about a fight to make the Rockaway Boardwalk more accessible; an analysis of how city zoning rules encourage developers to add cars to neighborhoods; and continued her ongoing coverage of how the NYPD doesn’t do its job properly.
• Dave Colon conducted a series of surprisingly illuminating bike rides with several mayoral candidates; wrote a soup-to-nuts explainer of why congestion pricing is taking so long; offered an important take (or was that toke?) on whether it is illegal to smoke a joint and ride a bike; and reminded us all of the struggle to get street-safety improvements when car-loving pols don’t want to keep residents safe.
• Eve Kessler did a deep dive into how business improvement districts are way ahead of city officials in creating great public space; covered efforts to get garbage out of pedestrians’ way; and offered such consistent coverage of the LaGuardia AirTrain that eventually Gov. Hochul put an end to her predecessor’s pet boondoggle.
• And even editor Gersh Kuntzman knocked a few hard-hit singles and doubles by identifying the city’s speeding epidemic at the very outbreak of Covid; raising concerns about autonomous cars; riding fake progressives on the Upper West Side; looking at how dangerous roads are on the first day of school; investigating the hidden menace of out-of-state drivers; spearheading our coverage of NYPD disrespect for its neighbors; covering the city’s failure to rein in reckless drivers on Atlantic Avenue; fighting to preserve one of the pandemic’s lone bright spots, the 34th Avenue open street in Queens; and continuing his ceaseless battle to hold city officials accountable (looking at you, Dr. Dave Chokshi).

And don’t forget the publication of the latest edition of our “Field Guide to the Micro Mobility of New York City,” which helped reduce confusion about the exploding number of vehicles on the roadways right now (cover, right).

Meanwhile, over at Streetfilms, our sister organization, Clarence Eckerson Jr. was busy busy busy with these 2021 classics:

• He showed off the great new bike infrastructure in Montreal (and may have helped Mayor Valérie Plante win re-election).
• He started a series of profiles of our city’s top bike activist all stars, including films with Shabazz Stuart, CJ Wojtkowski and Lucia Deng.
• He demonstrated that some cities — in this case, Boston — know how to run good buses.

Plus so many more.

Your money also supported our band of freelancers, which this year meant having Christopher Robbins covering the mayor’s race. Could your donation fund more political coverage by the peripatetic scribe? Why, yes!

And our national treasure editorial cartoonist (and illustrator of the aforementioned Field Guide) Bill Roundy needs to get paid, too!

It was a busy, satisfying year providing coverage of issues that simply don’t get the attention they deserve from the mainstream (and better funded) press.

So whaddya say? With your help, we’ll do even better next year. So please bear with us this December, when all our stories will have the “Click here to donate” logo. Sure, it’s distracting, but that just means we need your help. Thanks in advance!

To donate to Streetsblog and Streetfilms, click here.