PODCAST · news
SGV Connect
by Chris Greenspon and Damien Newton
SGV Connect is Streetsblog Los Angeles' podcast that explores the people, places, projects and events that make up the changing face of transportation in the San Gabriel Valley. SGV Connect is hosted by Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. This feed also hosts SGV Connect's predecessor podcast, #DamienTalks.
Episodes
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SGV Connect 150: Montclair's Lawsuit Against SBCTA
For this special mini-edition of SGV Connect, Chris met up with Southern California News Group reporter Beau Yarbrough to dig in on the nuance surrounding the city of Montclair's lawsuit against the San Bernardino County Transportation Authority. The city had long been expecting to one day build...
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SGV Connect 149: Azusa Twilight Criterium & Monrovia Pride
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...
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SGV Connect 148: Transportation to the World Cup
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...
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SGV Connect 147: Living Schools and the Covina City Council Race
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…
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SGV Connect 146: What's Next for the Foothill Gold Line Construction Authority
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...
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SGV Connect 145: Phoenix Tso of LA Public Press and the Alta Dena Fires
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…
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SGV Connect 144: An AMA with Foothill Transit
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…
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SGV Connect Episode 143: A Line Extension Tour
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...
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SGV Connect 142: Baldwin Park Responds to ICE and All That She
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...
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SGV Connect 141: Foothill Transit's New Route and the Legislative Session Comes to an End
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...
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SGV Connect 140: Reclaimers in Housing
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…
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SGV Connect 139: ICE
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…
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SGV Connect 138: Reclaimers Resisting Eviction
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…
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SGV Connect 137: Olympic Cricket in Pomona
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…
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SGV 136 - Preparing for LA 2028 with Alissa Walker
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...
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SGV Connect 135.2 - Memories of El Monte
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…
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SGV Connect 135.1 - An Update on the Gold Line Foothill Construction Timelines
(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...
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SGV Connect 134: Mutual Aid in the fallout of the Eaton Fire
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…
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SGV Connect 133: Introducing StreetSmart
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…
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SGV Connect 131 – Foothill Transit AMA with Felicia Friesema
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...
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SGV Connect 130 - Streetsblog Editors Recap the 2024 Election
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…
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SGV Connect 129: Looking at Measures A and G
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…
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SGV Connect 128: Habib Balian
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…
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SGV Connect 127: Looking Back at This Year's Legislature
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...
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SGV Connect 126: Melissa Mora Hidalgo and Jonah Kanner
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...
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SGV Connect 125: A Sweatshop Documentary Comic Strip
This week Chris brings us a special feature interview with artist Isabel Pan. Pan is the artist in residence at C.A.S.A Zamora in El Monte. Her project has been a documentary-style, slice of life comic strip depicting the impact of sweatshop labor and refugee crises on the children of immigrants…
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SGV Connect 124: Reclaimers and Rick Cole
This week's SGV Connect continues our theme of focusing in on various areas of the SGV for our podcast episodes by looking at the Greater Pasadena area. First, Damien and Chris traveled to El Sereno to meet with some of the Reclaimers, unhoused residents of El Sereno who moved into Caltrans owned...
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SGV Connect 123: The Upcoming Election in Alhambra CD4
This week's SGV Connect is focusing on the election to replace Councilmember and Vice-Mayor Sasha Renée Pérez of Alhambra. Pérez has given up her seat to run for the State Senate. Chris interviews Nicolas Kiet Quach, the president of the Alhambra Library Board of Trustees. While only 18, Kiet…
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SGV Connect 122: Glendora
We continue our tour through the San Gabriel Valley with an episode focused on the City of Glendora, known as the Heart of the Foothills. It might surprise you if you're not familiar with what's going on at this small suburban community, but Glendora is working hard to build out a bike network,...
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SGV Connect 121, El Monte Region: David Diaz and Pedro Gonzalez
Welcome to the first SGV Connect podcast of 2024! We start our new year with the first in a new series that focuses on different regions and communities in the San Gabriel Valley and examines both the state of their mobility projects and cultural and community projects. This week, both interviews...
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SGV Connect Special Edition : Happy Anniversary, Foothill Transit
Last Friday, Foothill Transit celebrated its 35th anniversary with a party in the parking lot of its West Covina headquarters. Joe Linton and Chris Greenspon were among those on-hand and they had a chance to catch up with a handful of people that helped shape Foothill Transit's past and will…
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Special Edition : Jeanie Ward-Waller
Jeanie Ward-Waller is not a household name in California, but until recently she may have had the most important job in the state as far as Streetsblog readers are concerned. Ward-Waller served as the Deputy Director of Planning and Multimodal Programs at Caltrans, where she not only oversaw many...
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SGV Connect 120: Basking in the Glow of ArroyoFest
This week's SGV Connect podcast is a special episode where the Streetsblog San Gabriel Valley team, Chris Greenspon, Joe Linton and Damien Newton, sit down and discuss the great success that was ArroyoFest 2023. All three were at the event but experienced it differently with Linton and his family...
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SGV Connect 119: GoSGV and Carribean Fragoza's Scary Bike Crash
This week's SGV Connect Podcast looks backward at the first year of the GoSGV Bike Share program and looks forward to Halloween and ArroyoFest. First, we speak with Jose Jimenez, the education director for Active SGV about the GoSGV's first year, celebrated earlier this month. There are over 100...
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SGV Connect 117: Arroyofest
This week's SGV Connect breaks our regular mold as Streetsblog L.A. editor Joe Linton conducts both interviews on the past and future of ArroyoFest which returns at the end of this month, on Sunday October 29th when a portion of the I-110 will be closed to cars and open to other uses in the...
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SGV Connect 117: Councilwoman Adele Andrade Stadler and Steve Farley
This week's SGV Connect features a pair of interviews that will change and improve the lives of residents of the San Gabriel Valley. First, we talk with Alhambra Councilmember Adele Andrade-Stadler. Andrade-Stadler is the winner of this year's Elected Official of the Year award given by ActiveSGV...
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SGV Connect 116: Strategic Parking Plan and Safe Parking in Pasadena
This week's SGV Connect focuses on two different parking programs in Pasadena. As the city closes in on approving its Strategic Parking Plan, we welcome retired UCLA economics professor and parking pricing guru Donald Shoup. Shoup's The High Cost of Free Parking which is still considered…
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SGV Connect 115: Connie Tamkin and the SGV Community Land Trust
This week's SGV Connect Podcast is the second part of a two part series on housing and tenants issues in the San Gabriel Valley and features Connie Tamkin, the president of the San Gabriel Valley Community Land Trust. If you missed part one of the series with Allison Henry, one of the leaders of...
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SGV Connect 114: Allison Henry and the SGV Tenants Council
This week's podcast is the first in a two-podcast mini-series looking at housing issues in the San Gabriel Valley. In this podcast, Damien and Chris talk to Allison Henry, an SGV housing justice organizer with LA Forward and co-founder of the San Gabriel Valley Tenants Alliance. In the podcast…
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SGV Connect 113 : The Regional Connector Opens and Construction Finnishes on the Gold Line
On Saturday, the Gold Line Foothill Construction Authority is hosting a ceremony to commemorate the completion of the light rail track system for the 9.1-mile, four-station Foothill Gold Line light rail project from Glendora to Pomona. The ceremony is taking place this Saturday, June 24, 2023, at...
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SGV Connect 112 : Nathan Allen and Carlos Morales
In our first interview this week, Chris Greenspon interviews Nathan Allen, the owner of Underdog Bookstore in downtown Monrovia. In Nathan's own words, "Underdog Bookstore, targets specifically books by and about authors of color, as well as LGBT authors, who we consider underdogs, as well as…
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SGV Connect 111: Putting the Reclaiming Movement Into a Larger Context
This week's SGV Connect is the second in our "Reclaimers" series, focusing on the efforts of a group of formerly homeless activists in the El Sereno to be housed in formerly unoccupied homes owned by Caltrans. The first interview featured six Reclaimers who shared their personal stories on how…
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SGV Connect 110 : The Reclaimers
We are Reclaimers because we have to because of desperation. - Benito, one of the Reclaimers living in El Sereno. SGV Connect is sponsored by Foothill Transit. Foothill Transit was not consulted about the content of this podcast and the views expressed are those of the participants and…
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SGV Connect 109: Rick Cole and Norma Quinones
This week's SGV Connect features a pair of interviews with former Pasadena Mayor Rick Cole and San Gabriel Valley Conservation Corps (SGVCC). Director Norma Quinones. In our first interview, Damien talks with Cole ostensibly about the dozen opinion pieces Cole has written in 2023 about how…
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SV Connect 108: Senate Candidate Sasha Renée Pérez
Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon catch up with Alhambra Councilmember and State Senate candidate Sasha Renée Pérez on the state of her candidacty and what is going on in Alhambra. The interview, the first in a series on the election, pings back and forth between her work in Alhambra and her…
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SGV Connect 107 - Happy Centennial West Covina
This week's SGV Connect is a special episode celebrating the centennial for West Covina. Chris Greenspon interviews local historian John Garside about the city's history, covering topics ranging from how the city hall got its name (from a stagecoach company) to lamenting some businesses that…
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SGV Connect 106 : El Monte Poet Steve Valenzuela and an Update on Puente Hills Landfill Park
Welcome to SGV Connect episode 106, the first episode of 2023. This episode is nearly an hour long with a pair of great, but very different, interviews. First, Chris Greenspon interviews Steve Valenzuela, El Monte poet and writer in residence for the new Zamora Art House in El Monte. The…
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SGV Connect 106 : Au Revoir 2022 and Zine Editor John Axtell.
It's mid-December, and that means it's time for our annual end-of-the-year SGV Connect Podcast featuring not just Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon, but also Streetsblog LA Editor Joe Linton and Streetsblog California Editor Melanie Curry. After that, we have one last interview by Chris with John...
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SGV Connect 105 : Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A.
This week's SGV Connect features an over forty minute interview by Chris Greenspon with author and history professor James Zarsadiaz about his recent book, Resisting Change in Suburbia: Asian Immigrants and Frontier Nostalgia in L.A. (Buy it from University of California Press, here.) Zarsadiaz's...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
SGV Connect is Streetsblog Los Angeles' podcast that explores the people, places, projects and events that make up the changing face of transportation in the San Gabriel Valley. SGV Connect is hosted by Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. This feed also hosts SGV Connect's predecessor podcast, #DamienTalks.
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Chris Greenspon and Damien Newton
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does SGV Connect have?
SGV Connect currently has 100 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is SGV Connect about?
SGV Connect is Streetsblog Los Angeles' podcast that explores the people, places, projects and events that make up the changing face of transportation in the San Gabriel Valley. SGV Connect is hosted by Damien Newton and Chris Greenspon. This feed also hosts SGV Connect's predecessor podcast,...
How often does SGV Connect release new episodes?
SGV Connect has 100 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to SGV Connect?
You can listen to SGV Connect on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts SGV Connect?
SGV Connect is created and hosted by Chris Greenspon and Damien Newton.
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