Rob AriasBack in August, shortly after the birth of me and my wife’s first child, I penned a post asking for your support. Hundreds of you have responded over the past few months with donations ranging from a few bucks, to several hundred. Just as encouraging has been the verbal support we’ve received. We received messages calling us an “indispensable community resource”, personal notes that you “believe in us” and compliments that we have our “finger on the pulse of this city”. One of my favorites is from a longtime resident who went out of her way to mail us a check:
“I appreciate the E’ville Eye so much. Over time it has become very lively and complex. The work that you do for our community is of inestimable value.“
I’ve expressed doubts whether one of the smallest cities in the Bay Area could support its own news source, but this outpouring gave me hope that local news in our town just might be sustainable longterm. It gave me hope that when called upon, our readers would respond and I’m grateful to each and every one of you.
2016 was a year where we celebrated our fifth year in existence and eclipsed over half a million annual pageviews. We published over 200 stories constituting over 1000 hours of our time. We brought a free movie screening to the community with the help of AMC, helped organize the annual National Night Out, co-sponsored Love our Neighborhood Day and successfully advocated for a neighborhood dog park among many other things. We’ve continued our mission to celebrate Emeryville’s culture, its history and advocate for the resident interests that you’ve expressed to us through our many personal and online conversations.
If this last election has proven anything, it’s the importance of honest news in our society. “An essential pillar of democracy” as Emeryville-based Reveal News put it. News that scratches below the surface and is written by people embedded in our community and have a passion and vested interest in improving it.
Many have a pledged to get involved and to pay more attention in 2017. A pledge to be a more active, engaged citizen. I hope this pledge involves supporting local news for our community.
Thank you for reading The E’ville Eye and engaging in our community,
-Rob Arias
Founder/Editor
