Dear Readers:

We thought we’d walk you through a day in the life of a Mission Local reporter. Friday at 10:30 a.m., for instance, I got a story under embargo for 1 p.m., meaning I’d have about two hours to write, on the dropped charges in the Dolores hill bomb arrests.

I started writing fast, while also finishing edits on the latest in the Parcel 36 drama, which Will has been covering diligently for months. Annika discovered that a long-time Covid testing and vaccine site would be scaling back its hours; she wrote a quick PSA and we put it up.

Yujie was finishing up her two-day look into the closure of the original Philz cafe due to lease nonrenewal, and it turns out the founder’s son owns the building. Meanwhile, Eleni tuned into the SFPD town hall meeting on last week’s Bayview police shooting, and we had our coverage up as soon as it was over.

And then, it being Friday at about 5 p.m., a stabbing occurred at McDonald’s. Our intern Lana rushed to cover it; we got that up quickly, too. 

And that was the day, plus the tweeting, answering reader emails, calling sources to dig, designing Instagram posts — everything that goes into keeping Mission Local running and posting.

It’s a busy job, but we like doing it and need your help to keep it going.

Best, Joe

Watch this cool short video on what it is like to work at Mission Local – produced by former MLer, Marta Franco.

Working at Mission Local

Today’s News

A parking lot full of Cruise automatous cars.

SF cops, firefighters vent prior to big vote on driverless car expansion

Three days prior to a pivotal Aug. 10 vote on autonomous vehicle companies, firefighters and police officers urged the state to slow down. 

Renderings of proposed new BART fare gates.

BART awards contract for new anti-fare evasion gates 

BART announced via Twitter today that it has tapped a contractor to install 775 new gates that promise to stop fare evaders.

A blue sky, a palm tree and the top of a house and the street sign Balmy.

On a clear day

By Walter Mackins
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Joe is the executive editor at Mission Local. He is an award-winning journalist whose coverage focuses on politics, campaign finance, Silicon Valley, and criminal justice. He received a B.A. at Stanford University for political science in 2014. He was born in Sweden, grew up in Chile, and moved to Oakland when he was eight. You can reach him on Signal @jrivanob.99.