Illustration by Molly Oleson.

The Bold Italic has a tribute to Uptown Bar legend Scott Ellsworth who died unexpectedly last week after having a heart attack.

“He was a true Bohemian. He never wanted anything to change at The Uptown. He would never 86 anyone, or kick anyone out. He refused to change the artwork, which is so bad it has now become great. It took a lot of convincing for him to get rid of the puke-covered couches, or put toilet paper in the ladies’ room,” says Desmond Shea, a genius sound engineer and friend who worked as a bartender at The Uptown from 1992 until 1998. Ellsworth funded Shea’s first business venture. “He was a brilliant human being, studied English and philosophy at Oxford, a little-known fact. Scott had voluminous knowledge and a sharp mind that he somewhat hid behind drink. He could have a conversation with you about everything, anything.”   THE FULL STORY  IS HERE

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Founder/Executive Editor. I’ve been a Mission resident since 1998 and a professor emeritus at Berkeley’s J-school since 2019. I got my start in newspapers at the Albuquerque Tribune in the city where I was born and raised. Like many local news outlets, The Tribune no longer exists. I left daily newspapers after working at The New York Times for the business, foreign and city desks. Lucky for all of us, it is still here.

As an old friend once pointed out, local has long been in my bones. My Master’s Project at Columbia, later published in New York Magazine, was on New York City’s experiment in community boards.

At ML, I've been trying to figure out how to make my interest in local news sustainable. If Mission Local is a model, the answer might be that you - the readers - reward steady and smart content. As a thank you for that support we work every day to make our content even better.

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