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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.
As founder and an editor 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.
More by Lydia Chávez
“Bougainvillea… Cain’t kill it,” Mama used to say. “If you let it run wild, it’ll get all leggy on ya, an’ purty soon alls y’ have are big ole branches with nuthin’ on ’em but a leaf an’ a bloom here an’ there. Gotta keep it pruned proper.”
She was right, you know. As is sometimes said of green-thumbed folks, she could plant a wooden chair in the fall and have it bearing fruit by spring.
Glad Mama’s clippers didn’t get to the arbor on Lexington Street. Looks good there, just as is.