We launched our
Fall Subscriber Drive this week. If you count on The Urbanist to break down the latest news in urbanism and Seattle politics, we’re counting on you to chip in.
Twice a year, we run subscriber drives asking you to help #GrowTheUrbanist. A successful drive this spring allowed us to add our second paid employee: managing editor Natalie Bicknell Argerious. Beyond that, our nonprofit is sustained by an amazing group of volunteers. Through our subscriber drives, we hope to bolster our organization with more paid positions.
Monthly Meetup with Nicole Thomas Kennedy on October 12th
More organization capacity would allow us to expand our events programming, which includes our monthly meetup with Seattle City Attorney candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (NTK) on Tuesday October 12th. NTK is running an exciting campaign focused on reorienting the office away from criminalizing poverty and toward defending progressive legislation and prosecuting wage theft. That vision earned her The Urbanist Elections Committee's endorsement. The committee was super impressed with what NTK had to say in her endorsement interview, so check out her meetup talk to see for yourself.
Investing in Freelance Reporters
We’re looking to take on more campaigns and stories. More paid staff will make that possible. Already, Natalie has made a big difference, as we posted record readership last month. This drive, we've committed to put the first $2,000 we raise toward paying freelance reporters to further broaden our reach. I'm excited to announce thanks to our generous donors, we've already hit that mark!
Donor and Volunteers Appreciation Event Sunday at Peddler
As a thank you to our donors and volunteers, we're hosting a pizza party at Peddler Brewing this Sunday from 1pm to 4pm. Please RSVP so we can order enough pizza for everyone. It's a great chance to meet other urbanists from around the region and we're also raffling off some prizes.
We’re proud of our work, but, like Seattle, we have lots of room to grow. The right to the city should extend to all. That means housing for all, transit for all, and streets that all users feel safe on. We can get there together. With your support, we'll help lead the charge to pedestrianize streets, end exclusionary apartment bans and predatory delay, and build sustainable social housing all across the city. Join us in that fight.
Last subscriber drive, 94 readers donate or subscribed and we’d aiming to beat that mark this time. Please subscribe today!
But don't just take our word for it. Take it from Anna Zivarts, Director of the Disability Mobility Initiative and our fierce ally on the Move All Seattle Sustainably (MASS) coalition. This is her testimonial:
I am a proud supporter of the Urbanist. Here’s why.
Many years ago, reading the New York City version of The Urbanist — StreetsBlog — was the beginning of my education into transportation policy and politics. This was before Twitter, before Facebook was mainstream, and it was the first time I was able to see that there was a whole wonderful world of people out there who like me, didn’t believe driving and car-dependent communities were the answer. It took another 15 years before I was able to make mobility justice my full-time paid work, but it was reading that blog that made me start to try.
We need The Urbanist (and housing/land use/transit/enviro-justice blogs like it) in every community. We need them because this is how we include more people. This is how we create space for in-depth policy and political conversations that too often happen behind closed doors, with only the experts and credentialed planners. It’s time to start recognizing the lived experience of people who day in and day out move and breathe in our communities, and know how to create security, joy, freedom, and health. The Urbanist allows us to share in creating the communities we need.
