I recently gave a master class for the Emerson Collective on how we train our reporters. As an example, I pulled a February fire at a public housing project because it offers a perfect trajectory of what we want our reporters to do.
Our reporting of the fire and the subsequent followups represent the kind of journalism we ask you to support.
First, we want our reporters to be at the scene.
In the case of the fire at the Potrero public housing project, one person was killed, but we were the only news site to go to the scene.
Second, we want our reporters to follow up.
Why did the fire happen? The answer to that question was complex and easy – terrible management. Christina Macintosh returned several times to do follow-up interviews with residents. The maintenance was abhorrent, they said.
For residents, bad managers directly impacted their daily lives and health. For others in San Francisco, it offered an example of wasted public money – someone was getting paid for doing a lousy job.
Third, we want our reporters to document responsibility.
To do this, Christina filed multiple public records requests, and one document gave us the information to show that housing officials had known for months about the mismanagement.
That story triggered hearings. By the time of the hearings, a new manager had been hired and officials testified that improvements had been made.
More follow-ups.
The improvements were good news, but we don’t want our reporters to simply accept what officials say at hearings. We want to hear from the people impacted so Annika Hom returned to talk to residents.
We will return again.
We do this kind of reporting because we want to hold public officials accountable; to give residents and all San Francisco voters the information they need to decide who should lead the city.
Communities will not change without active and informed residents and voters.
This is the kind of training and reporting that your contributions support.
Thank you,
Lydia