Umoja Health set up a pop-up Covid-19 vaccination and testing site on the Center of Hope Community Church parking lot. Recipients could drive-thru or walk-up. Photo taken by Annika Hom on March 6, 2021.

Hello Readers:

Is the variant question keeping you awake at night? No need for that, writes Kate today in her piece on experts addressing the issue.

In other news:

Stay safe and enjoy the weather,

— Lydia

Stories

Variants, ‘scariants’: The media has overblown the alarm on new Covid-19 mutations, experts say

Experts say mounting evidence indicates that the threat posed by variants has been overhyped.

Covid Tracker: 34,495 cases, 445 deaths

Main indicators continue to show a low virus prevalence currently in the City. Also, DPH says vaccinations have been under-reported since early March.

UCSF Grand Rounds: One year later: Where we’ve come, where we are, where we’re going

When did the pandemic become real?

For Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, chair of UCSF’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, it was the cancellation of an NBA game.

“That is when the things that I had been saying were more than, ‘Oh, Mom is just the doctor who is always worried about everything’ to ‘something really different has happened,’” Bibbins-Domingo said. 

Planning approves plan to replace S.F. Auto Works with a six-story project

The Planning Department approved a project Thursday that proposes to demolish the baby-blue S.F. Auto Works building at 1021 Valencia St., near 21st Street, and build a 75-foot-tall residential building. 

Just a snap – this one needs research.

We must research this story

The columns are clearly decorated with what the artist saw as the challenges faced by the miners.

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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.