Most-read stories of 2019 — and what it feels like to be playing with a Steph Curry

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Watching the Golden State Warriors of yesteryear, I always wondered how a guy like Shaun Livingston felt playing next to prodigious scorers like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant. 

Now I know.

This year, Joe Eskenazi, our editor and columnist, mopped up. He claimed the 10 most-read Mission Local stories of the year. This wasn’t done by leveraging clickbait garbage, but by writing sharp news stories and columns that made us laugh, cry and think about our city with more clarity. 

Joe’s story on Otis the Pug’s strange and terrible journey around the neighborhood not only racked up the numbers, but was also a masterclass in reporting and storytelling. And, while our election coverage was a team effort, it would not have been an essential Election Day resource if not for Joe’s writing and understanding of San Francisco’s political landscape. 

Numbers-wise, maybe I did a little better than six points a game to Joe’s 30 (that’s perhaps why the editors included the top 15, which I eked into). But overall, I’m proud to be part of such a strong team — one that surpassed last year’s readership numbers by 29 percent, with more than 1,616,000 unique visitors. 

But the news never stops, so please stay tuned. We’re ready for another strong season. 

1. Otis the pug is stolen. Otis the pug is found. A homeless man refuses the $15K reward. And then things get weird, by Joe Eskenazi, October 3, 2019
2.  Anne Kihagi, city’s ‘cruelest landlord,’ has last of her known San Francisco properties wrested from her control, by Joe Eskenazi, July 21, 2019
3. Last meal: Mission Pie will soon close its doors, by Joe Eskenazi, June 17, 2019
4. Crowd of 4 shows up to watch pro-Trump, pro-wall rally on San Francisco City Hall steps, by Joe Eskenazi, Feb. 25, 2019
5. How many hoops must Manny Yekutiel jump through before he’s deemed worthy to set foot in the Mission? by Joe Eskenazi, January 7, 2019
6. S.F. Election 2019: Check back all day for updates and analysis, by Mission Local Staff, November 5, 2019
7. Custard’s Last Stand: Mission Pie vs. the gig economy, by Joe Eskenazi, May 13, 2019
8. San Francisco is not dying. San Francisco is not rotting. But things are bad, and they may never get better, by Joe Eskenazi, June 3, 2019
9. Meet Shahid Buttar, the man who would unseat Nancy Pelosi, by Joe Eskenazi, April 4, 2019
10.  The cost of one stitch at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital? $3,300., by Joe Eskenazi, June 24, 2019 
11. Living in the Past: The ‘Last Black Man in San Francisco’ mansion is my home, by Julian Mark, July 12, 2019 
12. Eyewitness describes troubling police shooting at 23rd and Mission, by Julian Mark and Joe Eskenazi, December 7, 2019
13.  Day’von Hann is just the latest black child robbed of his life and then robbed of his youth or even the perception of innocence, by Joe Eskenazi, July 10, 2019
14. Third attempt to evict teenager Terrance Hall from Valencia Gardens fails, by Julian Mark,  March 14, 2019 Julian Mark
15. Hundreds of massage therapists reported in crackdown as practitioners fear for future in San Francisco, by Julian Mark Aug. 26, 2019