Good afternoon!
Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie announced six hires for his communications and community relations team. Among them: Kit Lam, one of the organizers of the 2002 school board recall, Charles Lutvak, national spokesperson for Kamala Harris‘ presidential campaign, and PR expert Nina Negusse as communications director.
Turns out that the man who was shot and killed January 1 at a Mission gas station had just told an angry customer not to “talk bad” to a woman who worked there. Junyao Yang interviews the gas station manager who saw it happen.
Soon, San Francisco will have removed the last of its public news racksโand local news will be harder to access, especially for seniors and non-English speakers who rely on print. Julia Gitis, the founder of Community News Lab, explains what the loss means for independent papers and readers.
You can find the whole back storyโinvolving media giant Clear Channel and the Department of Public Worksโin Julia’s 2022 report on vanishing news racks.
More soon,
Sara
Latest News
Daniel Lurie unveils PR and community relations hires
Charles Lutvak, Kamala Harris’ spokesperson, was also deputy press secretary for NYC Mayor Eric Adams.
Man killed in Mission on New Yearโs Eve had intervened in gas station dispute
“Iโve never seen nothing like that. The guy fell down and he continued shooting him.”
From 1,000 to zero: The loss of public news racks in SF
“The city started to take them away, without telling us they took it.”
Back Story
(2022) SF is removing its city-operated, ad-free news racks
“Taking any source of information away, especially free information, was sad for me.”
SNAP
Change is hard
by Robert Weiner
Events
Tomorrow: Sketch Night with Jacquelin de Leon, at Michelle Thomas Fine Art Gallery, January 4, 6-9PM