Even as we continue to roll out polls for Streetsie categories, we’re happy to announce our first two Streetsie winners.

Assemblymember Miguel Santiago has won the “Elected Official of the Year” award. This is in large part for his work authoring and championing legislation that finally fixed a state law prohibiting pedestrians from entering an intersection if a countdown signal had begun flashing.  A.B. 390, which allows pedestrians to legally enter crosswalks during the countdown phase, went into effect on January 1.

Joining Santiago as finalists were the Mar Vista Community Council, Assemblymember Laura Friedman, and the Mid-City West Community Council. Both Mid-City West and Friedman received significant support from Streetsblog staff and board, but ultimately Santiago got the most votes.

The 2017 Streetsie award for journalist goes to Lisa Schweitzer for her excellent self-named blog. As noted in her nomination, the USC planning professor “has been a great general hell-raiser and smart contradictory voice. Her The Smartest Boy Urbanist in the Room is required reading. She is also great on NIMBYs, YIMBYs, Measure S, transit, sexual predators, housing, data, and much more.”

Also nominated were Peter Flax, the bicyling journalist who has done deep dives into the Anti-Road Diet and #RecallBonin stories on the Westside, and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune’s excellent transportation writer Steve Scauzillo.

Don’t forget, there is still time to vote in the Civil Servant of the Year poll, and we’ll have two more polls come online before the week is over.