Damien Newton
Recent Posts
“Great Streets” in LA: Locally Driven, Uneven
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Despite Great Streets being a signature transportation project of Mayor Eric Garcetti, throughout the city the vision, outreach, and implementation are driven by the enthusiasm of the local City Council offices. Staff in the Mayor’s Office is working closely with each of the fifteen Councilmembers to create a Great Streets program that is locally-driven and […]
#DamienTalks Episode 12: Transportation Funding with Commissioner Yvonne Burke
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Today #DamienTalks with Yvonne Burke, former LA County Supervisor and current commissioner for the California Transportation Commission, about transportation funding issues in California. With the legislature due to come back soon to discuss the ongoing transportation funding crisis gripping the state, Burke lays out the case that California needs to find a way to raise […]
#DamienTalks Episode 11: Brian Addison, Long Beach Super-Reporter
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Today, #DamienTalks with Brian Addison, the former editor of the Long Beach Post and LongBeachize. Addison was recently named the “Best Online Journalist” by the Southern California Press Club for, in Addison’s own words, “writing about the city I love.” Placed between the shadow of the Los Angeles Megalopolis and the Orange Curtain, Long Beach […]
#DamienTalks Special Edition: Our New Central Valley Writer, Graham Wheat
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Today, Damien Talks with Graham Wheat our new Central Valley writer for Streetsblog California. Topics include:his life, transportation habits, journalism experiences and future-favorite-writing-projects. The Bakersfield native and resident has a lot of interesting views, including his big hopes for California High Speed Rail and what it can be for Bakersfield and the rest of the […]
#DamienTalks Episode 10: CalBike’s Dave Snyder
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This week, DamienTalks with Dave Snyder, the executive director of CalBike, about the current legislative session and generally about how things are going in Sacramento. Spoiler: so far, pretty well. But the biggest fish is still in the sea. The legislature will come back for a special session in August to try and deal with […]
Housecleaning: DamienTalks, and SBCA Seeks Steering Committee Members
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Now that Streetsblog California has been publishing for a couple of months, we have a couple of upgrades to the website to announce. First, #DamienTalks is going on a short hiatus until the last week of the month. We wanted to see how popular the podcast was and were doing it on the cheap to […]
#DamienTalks Episode 9: Ethan Elkind and the Fight Over LOS Reform
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Today #DamienTalks with Ethan Elkind, about the efforts to reform how the state measures transportation impacts of a proposed project. Currently, the state measures how a project impacts car travel time, but a change to state law will turn that rule on its head so that we’re encouraging projects that don’t produce more car trips […]
Amended Hit-and-Run Alert System Bill Sails Through Committee
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After last week’s warning that Assemblymember Mike Gatto’s legislation to create a “Yellow Alert” system was imperiled by Senate Transportation and Housing Committee staff and the California Highway Patrol’s (CHP) objections, there was a feeling of a looming showdown before today’s committee hearing. Assembly Bill 8 would create a system to use electronic road signs and the emergency alert […]
DamienTalks Episode 8: Safe Streets Santa Monica’s Richard McKinnon
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Good Data, it’s the Holy Grail of transportation reform advocates. Today, #DamienTalks with Richard McKinnon, the head of Safe Streets Santa Monica and a member of the local planning commission, about his organization’s efforts to bring data to an often emotional debate over street safety. Santa Monica is one of the more progressive cities when it […]
CHP Opposes Gatto’s Yellow Alert for Hit-and-Run Legislation
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Earlier this week, news slowly leaked out that the California Highway Patrol (CHP) was opposing Assembly Bill 8, legislation by Asm. Mike Gatto that would create a “yellow alert” system after deadly hit-and-run crashes. The system would use electronic road signs and the emergency alert system to notify people when a deadly hit-and-run crash occurred […]
Damien Talks Episode 7: Jim Stone on Vision Zero in San Diego
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Today, #DamienTalks with Jim Stone, the executive director of Circulate San Diego, about the recent announcement that the city will pursue a Vision Zero strategy for its transportation planning. Stone discusses the research and politics that happened behind the scene before this week’s announcement and what steps San Diego is taking to create a safe […]
Help Us Grow Streetsblog California. Donate Time or Money, Today!
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Streetsblog California has been publishing as a separate news site from Streetsblog Los Angeles and Streetsblog San Francisco for a couple of months now. While we are grateful for the support of the California Endowment in funding this effort, we feel the time is right to start building the infrastructure to support and grow this […]