Greetings and salutations —
It has not been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon. It never is: San Francisco news stories continue to hit like bugs on the windshield, and Mission Local’s staff is out and about to scrape them off.
The big one looming, of course, is November’s election. And I don’t think any news outlet is putting as much time and personnel into it as we are. This isn’t just flooding the zone on election night and posting photos of stacks of pizza boxes. Only Mission Local has a reporter covering every district supervisor’s race, peppering the candidates with weekly questions and traipsing back and forth across every odd-numbered district — months prior to election day.
Only Mission Local has a reporter glued to every top mayoral contender as they awkwardly wander into city businesses and make small talk or order every dish in a restaurant or attempt to pick up garbage off the street while dressed in business casual.
All of Mission Local’s field reporters speak a second (or third or fourth) language. We have five Spanish speakers and three Chinese speakers — more Chinese-speaking reporters than any other English-language San Francisco publication, bar none.
We are listening and reporting, in every language, all at once. And we are sharing our articles (in English, Spanish and Chinese) — for free — with other news sites around town.
So here’s the part where I resort to the age-old language of wheedling: We could sure use your help. Mission Local is fortunate to be the beneficiary of several large gifts, but the vast majority of our funding comes from, as PBS stations like to say, “viewers like you.”
This month: We have, generously, been gifted matching funds up to $25,000 — meaning your gift will be doubled.
Please consider funding the work we’re doing here, or even enhancing an existing gift.
Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Gotta go scrape the windshield again.
Yours,
Joe Eskenazi
Managing Editor