Mission Local

Hello Readers:

Are you ready? There’s lots of news to check out. Black city workers have filed a class-action discrimination suit against the city, public health officials painted a scenario of overwhelmed hospitals, the Covid-tracker indicates the surge continues and epidemiologists would like to see the science, data, and facts behind the city’s decision to close some outdoor venues while leaving indoor retail open.

Read on. And keep in mind, democracy is free, but producing the news takes time, money and trained professionals. None of this happens without your support.

Stay safe,

— Lydia

Black city employees file class-action suit against SF alleging discrimination

White city workers are also more than twice as likely to get promoted than Black ones, while Black employees are more than twice as […]

Without the data, the science and the facts, SF’s closures appear arbitrary and regressive

Miniature golf, regular golf, tennis, skate parks, children’s playgrounds. Pick the two the lockdown left open. And how did you decide?  More importantly, how […]

SF Health Department: ICU beds could run out in next few weeks — if Covid-19 surge does not abate

San Francisco Covid-19 cases are climbing at an unprecedented rate, and the city’s ICU capacity could dip below 15 percent as soon as this […]

Covid Tracker: 17,384 cases, 164 deaths

Good Morning, Mission! Welcome to Virus Village, your daily Covid-19 data dump. Uncle Scrooge McConnell is doing his best to make this holiday season […]

People We Meet: Joe Guerra, owner of The Mission’s Barbershop blessed to be cutting hair, even during tough times.

Joe Guerra, owner of The Mission’s Barbershop has persevered through tough times.

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We depend on you, our readers, support Mission Local today – Thank you!

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.