The PGE Yard. Photo by Lydia Chávez

It is 8: 10 a.m. but these photos were taken starting at around 6:50 a.m. It is now 48˚ and expected to rise  to 65˚. Details for the next ten days here.

Today’s block: Folsom to Harrison, 19th to 18th Streets.

It’s been awhile since I’ve been out in the morning as I’m generally now waiting for the photos others have taken.   Now when I walk around the Mission, I sometimes see  – or think I see – those photographs.  The experience makes for an odd and lovely kind of familiarity.  Thank you.

My goal today was to get further northeast, but there are so many temptations along the way. There were a surprising number of people out this morning at 6:30 a.m. on 24th Street and I wondered about doing another block there, but then we seem to get more volunteers off of those blocks, so I thought I’d leave them alone.

Instead, I chose a block that few are likely to select – except maybe employees of PGE and the three other businesses on the block, Soundcloud, Stripe and EHDD Architecture. (If any of you want to redo this block or do one next door, get in touch at info@missionlocal.com).

The block is dominated by PGE and there were small encampments on 18th and Harrison streets.  One young man stood outside his tent on Harrison Street and had a skillet and hot plate set up.  Come to think of it, I don’t know how he was getting it hot – propane? A plug into PG&E?

With the light good early on, so much the better to sign on to document your block. Don’t wait!  Let us know what day and block you would like at info@missionlocal.com.

You can see a map of all of the blocks here.  The blocks in grey are being saved for others who have signed up. Let us save a block for you as well.

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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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