Don’t Let the Fog Fool You

San Francisco is getting sunnier. Not in the way you might learn about from TV news or features in the daily papers; superficial stories about the warm weather at street festivals are cheap and easy to produce.

The sunshine we need is of a kind that’s harder to capture.

Journalists at the San Francisco Public Press are hard at work for you, illuminating complex and consequential policy questions in the city and across the Bay Area. In every quarterly print edition and in updates online we produce an in-depth team reporting project exposing obscure public documents that we wrest from recalcitrant city and regional agencies.

In the last year, our reporting has often led local coverage. We broke the story about a plan to reduce the minimum apartment size to 220 square feet, unleashing a national debate about urban housing standards. Our domestic violence report led Police Chief Greg Suhr and District Attorney George Gascón to launch internal probes on the handling of investigation records. And after we unearthed a list of the 3,000 buildings city inspectors think will be especially vulnerable during the next big earthquake, tenants packed a public meeting to ask why city officials neglected to tell them they were at risk. Michael Krasny of KQED’s “Forum” called on us in February to explain the city’s landmark legislation requiring apartment buildings be retrofitted.

Our upcoming summer edition shines light on California’s ambitious plans to battle the greenhouse effect. We’re scrutinizing state records that few have bothered to look at, and have found what some might call early warning signs that the state’s cap-and-trade pollution marketplace might not achieve its goals in controlling gases that add to a warming atmosphere.

But the real news is that sunshine like this isn’t free. This kind of work requires exhaustive reporting, thorough data analysis, careful writing and compelling visual presentation. To keep that going, we rely on the support of hundreds of individuals who have donated to the Public Press to support independent, nonprofit, in-depth local reporting.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation during our Sunshine Membership Drive. If you’re already a member, thank you for your support! If you haven’t yet given, or if your membership has expired, this is a great time to start or renew. Help keep the lights on at the Public Press. Thank you for your support.

Best regards,

Michael Stoll
Executive Director

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