Pasadena-based Pasadena Advertising Develops Metro’s Redesigned Blog

Pasadena-based Pasadena Advertising developed the Metro Gold Line Foothill Extension Construction Authority’s redesigned blog “iwillride.org,” an online property of the Construction Authority used to provide the Foothill Gold Line news to community stakeholders and to share community comments.

The blog was launched Wednesday. The redesigned blog provides the latest news posts, construction and project pictures of the week, links to the Construction Authority’s Twitter feed and to the agency’s Facebook and YouTube pages.

It also now includes a dedicated community section “Where Will You Ride?” that encourages current and future riders to share the destinations they will travel to while riding the Gold Line. The “Where Will You Ride?” page can be accessed through www.iwillride.org/where or directly at www.wherewillyouride.org.

“Although we are several months from completing the next 11.5 miles of the Gold Line light rail system, from the existing Sierra Madre Villa station in Pasadena to the future APU/Citrus College Station in Azusa, the excitement in the community for the line’s opening is very strong,” said Lisa Levy Buch, Director of Public Affairs for the Construction Authority.

“While we all patiently wait for passenger service, the new blog page provides a fun opportunity for people to share that excitement and their future plans,” Buch said.

The blog was first designed and launched in 2008 as an advocacy tool by Mt. Sierra College students wanting to build a coalition of fellow college students along the Foothill Gold Line corridor who supported funding the light rail line to Montclair.

The students designed the initial site and then built grassroots support for the campaign, including signing hundreds of students up that pledged “I will ride!” Students also coordinated and spoke in support of project funding at local press conferences and at several Metro board meetings in 2008 and 2009.

In 2009, the Mt. Sierra College students asked that the Construction Authority build on their efforts and maintain the site moving forward. The site has continued to play an important role in the agency’s communication program ever since.

“Today, nearly 2,000 project stakeholders regularly receive updates on the Foothill Gold Line’s planning and construction using iwillride.org,” Buch said “What the students started, we have been proud to continue and expand to meet the changing needs of our stakeholders.”