Photo by Lydia Chávez

The NYT visited the northeast Mission and discovered our small industrial sector and the shops most Missionites know – Heath, Central Kitchen, and others.  But they also found a favorite of mine that doesn’t get a lot of attention, PapaLlama or The Aesthetic Union.

Heath also leases space to James Tucker and Risa Culbertson, who opened the Aesthetic Union (555 Alabama Street; 732-822-4693;theaestheticunion.com), a letterpress studio and stationery shop selling cards, posters, notebooks and vintage print items, in December. Mr. Tucker operates two massive Heidelberg presses behind the wood counter, while Ms. Culbertson makes block-printed stationery under the name PapaLlama. “This area has historically been manufacturing warehouses and artist live-work spaces,” Mr. Tucker said. “It feels like a family in this building.”  READ MORE

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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 when I retired. 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 there.

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.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how you make that long-held interest in local news sustainable. The answer continues to elude me.

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