11 Years of California Streets

Hello to all of my readers,

Some of you have been with this blog for over a decade; some of you may have just found it for the first time. Today is the eleventh anniversary since I first started posting on California Streets, and I just wanted to reflect on things.

If you haven't visited in a while, you may notice the site looks different. I decided it was time for our first facelift, most noticeably the main content area has been opened up much wider with photos you don't have to click on to view larger than 400 pixels. And finally the mobile version matches the desktop version's dark colors to spare your eyes. I hope you like it.


Over the past few years I've noticed a lot of changes in life. Most of the carspotting blogs and feature series this one is patterned after have been suspended as bloggers get older and turn their attention to work, raising families and the other rigors of real life.
 Much respect goes out to such posters as Phil Greden aka Murilee Martin, formerly of Jalopnik and The Truth About Cars, now at Autoblog and Autoweek, Lord knows he gets around and is still posting. He was my direct inspiration to begin my own blog.
Tony and Ben Piff of OldParkedCars, longtime carspotting stalwarts who sadly haven't updated in a while, but who posted a fascinating array of cars from Oregon for many years.
Bill Stengel, Gardner Murray and Jack Murray of The Street Peep, who accepted some of my photo shoots for their site that didn't quite fit my focus here. I miss the eclectic mix there.
My friend Colin Stacy of The Automotive Way, who helped keep me going here and inspired me to occasionally branch out into diecast features and other specialty topics.
The fine folks who published Seattle's Classics, Seattle's Parked Cars and others that gave us a glimpse of what graces the streets around the world.
I'm pleased to see others still active in their stead, such as M. Joseph Goodfriend of Seattle's Old Cars. Some do write-ups, profiles, commentary. Some let the photos do all the talking.

Once more I would like to voice my appreciation of our friend "Fifties Guy" in San Francisco for being a good sport over the past decade plus. I think I've featured over 20 of his past and current vehicles here and they have served as inspiration to continue exploring and photographing cool old cars ever since I first spotted that black '58 Oldsmobile so long ago. His 1959 Mercury was the 20th car posted here. Over 700 features later, here we are.

Thank you for reading.

Jay Wollenweber