Thank you to everyone who donated during our Fall Subscriber Drive. We gained 43 new subscribers and that goes a long way to making The Urbanist a sustainable institution.
We run on support from our readers. An expanded subscriber base means more coverage and advocacy; it means adding more staff eventually. As Owen wrote in his financial update: “If every person who visited the site donated just $3 a month we’d have enough to pay at least ten staff members very good salaries.”
We’re still a long ways from our goal of getting 1% of readers to donate. But, with your help, we can get there together. Fundraising drives can feel like eating your least favorite vegetables–something you have to do, but not a terribly enjoyable experience. Thanks to our drive kickoff with Charles Mudede and Cary Moon, we had some fun on the way and we have the video in case you missed it.
Subscriber drives are also a time for us to look back at some of our best work, as we did in the publication update. We’re proud of how we powered through a haunted house rollercoaster of a year, adapting to new pandemic realities.
The Urbanist Election Committee conducted its long hours of candidate interviews entirely online, and one of our endorsement meetings happened while Cascadia was choked in wildfire smoke. Nonetheless, the committee delivered the goods and endorsed an exciting slate of urbanist candidates and ballot measures.
Even in these challenging times, we’re still fighting so that everyone can have a right to the city. That means investing in housing for all, divesting from racist policing, sustainable green building, and prioritizing people walking, rolling, biking, and riding transit ahead of cars.
Thanks again to all of our donors. We can’t thank you enough for partnering with us in our work. It’s not too late to join them!
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrianizing streets, blanketing the city in bus lanes, and unleashing a mass timber building spree to end the affordable housing shortage and avert our coming climate catastrophe. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in East Fremont and loves to explore the city on his bike.