Good morning!

The greening of the Mission isn’t entirely innocent, writes Eleni Balakrishnan today. But it also isn’t evil. All agree that the planters along the city’s sidewalks make it more difficult for an encampment to settle in. But some call the planters “hostile architecture” while others see them as “defensive architecture.” Where do you stand?

In other news, I listened this morning to a presentation on the state of the news industry that should have been called, Too Little Remains. Since 2016, the number of journalists has dropped by 60 percent across the country.

It’s no wonder that a recent NYT poll shows that many voters are still open to candidates who reject the results of the 2020 elections.

Better news tomorrow, I hope.

Lydia

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Wine barrel and stock tank planters alongside a building

Frustrated by city’s inaction, SF residents ward off encampments with plants

By Eleni Balakrishnan

“I think people are fed up, and the city is not providing an answer that they need, that is going to house people or prevent whatever’s going on in front of people’s houses,” said Santiago Lerma, an aide to District Supervisor Hillary Ronen.

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SNAP

A sidewalk with the stencil: Hope

Hope

By Walter Mackins

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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.