2015 Highlights
2 Urban Girls has enjoyed an awesome 2015. We would like to say THANK YOU for supporting the blog and our show. Here are our best moments of 2015.
Most read 2 Urban Girls article
Our most read story of the year was on the Inglewood Housing Authority (IHA) opening their Section 8 waiting list. This post received over 10,000 views. IHA received over 70k hits on the application website and nearly 28k of the applications were accepted to move forward.
Blind Items
Our blind items are becoming legendary. This was our way of bringing you a story, without divulging the characters by name. One of our favorite blogs uses pictures of their blind item characters for “illustrative purposes only” but we like when commenters try and guess.
Urban Girl of the Month/Year
It was suggested we create an “Urban Girl of the Month” to highlight women of color, who are behind the scenes, kicking butt. We have highlighted individuals working in city government, commissioners and elected officials chief of staff and communications. Congressional candidate Nanette Barragan, was the first Latino urban girl of the month. It was a no-brainer selecting Dr. Melina Abdullah as our urban girl of the year for her work with the Black Lives Matter movement.
Article with the most impact
Journalists can only dream of putting together an article and/or series, that makes such an impact, change occurs. The Times Picayune achieved this through their #LaPurchased series on campaign financing and how the money is spent. Federal investigations were opened and campaign contributions were returned. Bloggers can only dream of accomplishing such. However, this blog helped reduce the compensation, of elected officials in the city of Compton.
Posting a letter from the District Attorney’s office, prompted the council to make changes in stipends collected on commissions they sit on. The Los Angeles Times picked up the article and it went viral.
Growth
2 Urban Girls grew from being just a blog to hosting a radio show. The show returns Sunday, Jan. 10th at 6:30pm PST on rmconair.com. Replays are available on the 2 Urban Girls YouTube page http:youtube.com/2urbangirls and click playlists. We especially would like to thank our sponsors: Honey Bee Safe condoms, WLM Financial and Sen. Isadore Hall III and all of our guests whether you were in studio or called in. We also have to thank local Inglewood artist, Damani Nkosi, for allowing us the use of music off his album, https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/thoughtful-king/id880265075, available on iTunes.
2016
There is so much to keep on our political radar in the New Year. Aside from the Presidential election, we have local races happening with Autumn Burke and Sebastian Ridley-Thomas seeking 2nd terms in the Assembly. Sen. Isadore Hall is running for Congress against Nanette Barragan. Steve Bradford is attempting a comeback running for Senate against Warren Furutani and two of the most powerful African-Americans in LA County are running unopposed.
DA Jackie Lacey and Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas are enjoying the comfort of not having to face questions on the state of being Black, under their leadership. On the bright side, next year marks the 25th anniversary of Ridley-Thomas being an elected official. I hear Betty Pleasant is preparing a thorough analysis of his highs and lows and we may chime in too. When we inquired of her helping us with it, she scoffed and said she was the perfect person for the job. I believe her.
Happy New Year! See you in 2016!
