http://la.streetsblog.org/2014/01/03/and-the-winners-are/
By Damien Newton, January 3, 2014

Usually we do Streetsies a little differently than we did this year.
The rigors of the two job searches and restructuring Santa Monica Next
ate up more time than I thought so we narrowed down to just awarding
Streetsies to the four people who made the biggest impacts in 2013.
The reader’s vote, a vote of our Board of Directors and my vote each
held equal weight in determining the overall winners. Without further
adieu, here are the winners.
Politician of the Year: Pam O’Connor (Your vote, 2nd, Board Vote 1st, My Vote 3rd)
Santa Monica Mayor Pam O’Connor seems to be everywhere, advocating
for transportation sustainability, livable cities, and complete streets
policies.
She has served on the Santa Monica City Council for 20 years, the
Metro Board of Directors for 13 years, and the Chair of the Expo Line
Construction Authority. She served as President of the Southern
California Association of Governments, leading the unanimous adoption of
the region’s
Sustainable Communities Strategy,
a regional framework for transportation and land use sustainability.
She’s also on the board of ICLEI (Local Governments for
Sustainability), a non-profit group looking to provide technical
expertise and services to local governments looking to lead the
transition to more sustainable places.
What’s truly remarkable about Pam is that none of these elected or
appointed positions are full-time, as is the case with L.A. City
Councilmembers. Pam serves in her free time from her primary job as a
historical preservation consultant.
Pam describes herself as “car-light” as we have
proof that she’s an active Streetsblog L.A. reader and follows our social media. – Juan Matute
Civil Servant of the Year: Paul Backstrom (Your vote: 2nd, Board vote: 1st, My vote: 1st)

Paul Backstrom is front and center on transportation issues in Los Angeles.
A couple of years ago, I was talking to Tony Arranaga, then the
communications director for Bill Rosendahl, about Streetsies. Without
prompting, he enthusiastically endorsed Paul Backstrom, the
transportation deputy for the Transportation Committee Chair, as
symbolic of everything we look for in a Streetsie winner. Backstrom
didn’t win that year, but after twice finishing second in our balloting
it was past time to give Backstrom his due.
While Mike Bonin, who is now Backstrom’s boss in City Hall, is an
avowed transportation wonk, he is aided by a top notch staff helping
with transportation and planning issues with Backstrom at forefront.
When advocates need help advancing issues, fighting back bad
legislation, or just need advice on how to proceed; Paul Backstrom is
one of our first calls.
Even as I’m working on this paragraph, I have an email waiting in my
box from him. I’d bet dollars to doughnuts its a tip about a cool
project that’s coming to the Transportation Committee.
(Update: It was.)
Advocate of the Year: Jessica Meaney (Your vote: 2nd, Board vote: 1st, My vote: 1st)
There
are a lot of people that work tirelessly in Los Angeles to make the
city a safer and more attractive place to live. A handful of us are
lucky enough to have jobs that pay us to fight the good fight. Others
spend countless hours of their free time going to public meetings,
volunteering their free time, knocking on doors and doing everything
that needs to be done to change the culture and infrastructure of the
city.
And then there are those rare few that are so totally devoted that
they are both professional and volunteer advocates. One of the most
prominent in that group is Jessica Meaney.
As the local director for the Safe Routes to Schools National
Partnership, Meaney has assembled a powerful coalition to advance
pedestrian and bicycle issues in Los Angeles and beyond. Realizing that
it’s not enough just to be right, and not just enough to be mobilized;
Meaney has done both storming public meetings with an army of local
advocates and a mountain of statistics and information.
And more often than not, she wins. And not just because you would
have to be crazy to vote against making it easier and safer for kids to
walk to school.
Then at night (or in the middle of the day as in the picture above),
Meaney works as one of the Steering Committee for Los Angeles Walks, the
all-volunteer organization that focuses as a laser beam on pedestrian
issues. On a shoestring budget, L.A. Walks programs Walktober, WalkLAvia
and an awesome event where people dress as super heroes and help people
across the street.
Journalist of the Year: Alissa Walker (Your Vote: 1st, Board Vote: 1st, My Vote: 2nd)
Alissa Walker is a fine journalist. She’s written at
Los Angeles Magazine, the LA Weekly, Dwell, Fast Company, GOOD, T Magazine, and the
Los Angeles Times, and appeared on KCRW public radio show
DnA: Design and Architecture. Currently, She is the urbanism editor at
Gizmodo.
She writes about design, architecture, cities, transportation and walking. She’s a great writer. We all enjoy her work.
But what separates Walker from many journalists is that in addition
to her professional work, in her free time she’s become a sort of
defender of the new Los Angeles and not the car-culture obsessed city of
yesteryear. It’s hard work, but somebody has to do it.
From Gelato Baby to Walker in L.A., Alissa loves Los Angeles, loves
the city it’s becoming, and has helped move the city in the right
direction through her writing and publishing. We’re big fans of her
work, no matter where it appears, and always look forward to where her
work is going to pop up next.