SGV Connect

This week on SGV Connect, Chris brings us two lighter features on some fun outdoor events in the San Gabriel Foothill communities. On Saturday, July 11th, the city of Azusa will host a Twilight Criterium race in its downtown. It's an exciting race weekend for Californian cyclists, with the state championship happening the next day in Manhattan Beach, and the continuing celebration of 100 years of...

In this special World Cup edition of SGV Connect, Damien Newton talks with Foothill Transit Communications Director Felicia Friesema about how transit agencies across Los Angeles County are preparing for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Friesema explains Foothill Transit's role in supporting Metro's operations at SoFi Stadium, including lending buses for shuttle service between Union Station and the stadi...

First, Damien Newton and David Diaz discuss the Living School Yards program in El Monte, which aims to transform school yards into greener, safer spaces. The first completed project includes planting 46 new trees, creating outdoor classrooms, and installing play areas. Student input was crucial in the design process. You can read a transcript of the podcast, here . You can find out more about this...

In this week's SGV Connect, Damien Newton speaks with Habib Balian, CEO of the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority, about the recent extension of the A Line into the San Gabriel Valley and plans for the next phase to Claremont. Since opening in September, the extension has seen steady ridership and strong community support, restoring passenger rail service to parts of the valley for the firs...

LA Public Press  reporter Phoenix Tso joins us for our first podcast of the year. Tso covered mutual aid efforts immediately after last January's Eaton Fire in the Altadena area of the San Gabriel Mountains. Marking the anniversary of the 14,000 acre fire that destroyed 10,000 structures and took at least 19 lives, Tso  checked in again  with small business owners rebuilding their lives back from...

In the SGV Connect's end-of-year podcast, Damien Newton and Felicia Friesema of Foothill Transit discuss transit updates in response to questions submitted by readers. The discussion addresses: The delayed implementation of Line 289/197 combination/extension due to ongoing student needs at Ganesha High School. Foothill Transit's hydrogen bus program is paused due to funding cuts, with a focus on l...

In this special episode of  SGV Connect , your hosts SBLA SGV Reporter Chris Greenspon and SBLA Editor Joe Linton take listeners on a tour of the newly opened Metro A Line (formerly Foothill Gold Line) extension. The trip begins at the new Glendora Station, where we walked to Finkbiner Park. From there, we go east to San Dimas for lunch at the cozy Rail Side Café. Then in La Verne, we take in Boni...

This week's SGV Connect Podcast features a pair of interviews by Chris Greenspon with Baldwin Park City Councilmember Emanuel Estrada and Filmaker Nicola Pieper. Greenspon and Estrada discuss Baldwin Park's $266,000 relief fund for families affected by immigration raids, which offers rent and grocery assistance. Estrada emphasized long-term planning, grassroots action, and multi-county cooperation...

This week's SGV Connect features a pair of interviews by Damien Newton. Don't worry Chris fans, the next podcast has already been recorded and it has a pair conducted by Chris Greenspon. The first interview this week is with Felicial Friesema about the big changes that have occurred in September with Foothill Transit Coverage. Of course, the SGV's bus agency had to create new routes for the A-Line...

In SGV Connect 138, Streetsblog talked to Benito Flores and others in the Reclaimers movement that were helping him resist eviction in the Caltrans owned property he was living in. The Reclaimers are a group of formerly unhoused people who moved into Caltrans-owned properties in 2020 to both put a roof over their heads during a public health crisis and draw attention to the amount of publicly owne...

Episode 139 of SGV Connect focuses on the impact of ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on the communities in the San Gabriel Valley. Both interviews were conducted by Chris Greenspon.  The first is with Estrella, a resident of El Monte who witnesses the crushing impact of the ongoing threat of ICE raids in her community. The second is with Assemblymember Mike Fong, who highlights no...

This week's SGV Connect reconnects with the Reclaimers ( full coverage ), the group of formerly homeless people that moved into Caltrans-owned houses at the start of the pandemic without the agency's permission. Over the past five years, the Reclaimers have been on a legal odyssey that's involved not just Caltrans and the three cities where the transportation agency owned houses in the right of wa...

Episode 137 of the SGVConnect Podcast is part two of our Olympics preview and focuses on the upcoming Olympic cricket tournament coming to the Pomona Fairplex.   In the first interview, Streetsblog editor Joe Linton interviews Pomona Mayor Tim Sandoval. The far-reaching interview covers other topics, including Pomona's response to the actions of President Trump's para-military bounty hunters and t...

This week kicks off a multi-episode mini-series at SGV Connect focusing on the LA 2028 Olumpoc   games and what the events can mean for San Gabriel Valley Communities. This first episode features an interview with Alissa Walker, co-host of the  LA Pod  and editor of the  Torched Newsletter . When not  hanging out with celebrities and appearing on Netflix specials , Walker has become the go-to sour...

Last week, Chris visited the mutual aid group Memories of El Monte's bi-weekly food distribution at the Klingerman Apartment projects in South El Monte to interview group members and get an update on the construction of their physical location, The People's Cafe.   The regular food distribution gives the community the opportunity to receive $200 worth of groceries for $5, according to Memories of...

(Note: this week's SGV Connect podcast is being broken into two parts. Part 2, which is a series of interview about The People's Cafe in El Monte, will be broadcast tomorrow.) Last week, news broke that bids for the next extension of the Foothill Gold Line - from Pomona to Montclair - would be delayed because the only bid to design and build the project was hundreds of millions of dollars higher t...

The Eaton Fire has left a tremendous scar on Southern California's culture and politics for the foreseeable future. Thankfully, it's stopped advancing for some time now, but the statistics are still top of mind: 17 dead, 14,000+ acres burned, 9,000+ structures destroyed, 1,000+ structures damaged.   During the early weeks of the fire, social media was a frenzy of good and bad information on destru...

Ok, I'll admit it. I'm using this week's SGV Connect to encourage listeners to start listening to my other podcast, StreetSmart which appears at Streetsblog California. This week's SGV Connect features clips from three different StreetSmart interviews. The first is with Jeanie Ward-Waller where we de-mystify the California Transportation Commission. A little-heard-of board that approves billions o...

Foothill Transit's Director of Marketing and Communications joins Streetsblog Editor Damien Newton for an ask-me-anything style interview probing the bus agency's recent trials and successes. Friesema took questions on: how Foothill's bolstered services to  Mt. San Antonio College  and  Cal Poly Pomona  will connect with soon to open  Metro A Line  service in the San Gabriel Valley Foothills, the...

The post-election special featured a pair of Streetsblog editors, Joe Linton of Streetsblog L.A. and Melanie Curry of Streetsblog California, joining Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. Most of the talking was done by Curry, Linton and Newton, and the trio kicked off the discussion by outlining the impact of the Trump administration on federal transportation funding, particularly high-speed rail an...

With many mail-in ballots already in voters hands, it's time for the SGV Connect election special. This week we talk with a pair of experts about two ballot measures that L.A. County voters will decide this fall. First, Damien interviews Supervisor Hilda Solis about Measure G . Measure G was put on the ballot with the support of three of the five Supervisors and would change the way L.A. County's...

With the Foothill Gold Line Extension to Pomona at 90 percent completion, SGV Connect pays another visit to the Construction Authority's office to chat with chief executive officer Habib Balian. The podcast can be found below, but you can read a transcript of it by clicking here . For clarity's (or maybe confusion's) sake, we are of course referring to the thrice renamed Metro "A Line."  Since 202...

Just last week, the legislative session for the year ended in Sacramento meaning a batch of legislation was passed that, if signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, would change the way the state conducts its transportation business. In this episode of SGV Connect, co-host Damien Newton goes it alone, interviewing Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry. As an aside, both Newton and Curry wil...

This week's SGV Connect returns to our regular formula with a pair of interviews by Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. First, Chris interviews Melissa Mora Hidalgo, a queer entertainment writer living in Whittier. The interview goes back and forth between fun and serious, as the two discuss both her work and the performative allyship that occurs during Pride month. In short, Hidalgo would prefer a...