Downeybeat.com turned 1 today

The website turned 1 today.

I don’t know what to say other than I’ve learned a lot about Downey and met quite a few good people.

Here are some vitals on the site:

– The first story was about the city cutting back the ability of its management employees to bank holiday pay.

– This the 935th post. I wrote most of them, but from time to time I got help from some old journalist friends. Most of those posts were full-blown stories. One of the goals for the new year is to do a better job on briefs and the community calendar.

– The site was visited 145,705 times and got 310,055 page views.

– The most-read story was a sad one. It was about the double-fatal crash on Old River School and Stewart and Gray roads in June.

– Most of the stories regarding the shooting of Michael Nida by a Downey Police officer got more than 1,000 hits each.

– The most popular feature story was about an autistic woman named Gabby Poveda who took forever to learn to talk and then grew up to be a singer.

– Most of my readership consists of young-to-middle-aged women.

– The story on the Tierra Luna development at the old NASA site also got lots of hits, about 1,300.

I would like to thank the following people for being extra supportive:

Maggie Allen, Saundra Parker, Cyndy P-m and all the other die-hard readers.

Don Lamkin for teaching me about the joy and pain of raising a chicken.

Andrew and Lana from the Downey Arts Coalition for being kind and interesting.
The Thaxtons and Damion Ramirez.

Steve Perez for being a cool dude.

All the staff in City Hall for helping me figure things out.

The City Council for being open to a guy they had never met.

The cops for being pretty forthcoming and professional in a city that isn’t used to much crime news coverage.

If I forgot you, I apologize. There are a lot of good people in Downey.

I don’t know how long I can keep this thing going financially. It doesn’t really cost anything to run, but it takes a lot of time and exposes my family to a lot of liability. I’m going to a seminar in September to get some ideas about generating income.

Also, please tell me if you want anything changed on the site.