Help Us Report The News Ingleside Needs To Know

If there’s one lesson in particular that journalism school drilled into me, it’s a profound respect for San Francisco’s rich tradition of neighborhood newspapers.

As a fourth generation San Franciscan, my family has lived on the city’s West side since the 1920s and in Ingleside since the 1960s. So it hardly surprised me to learn that Ingleside has boasted not one but two community newspapers over the years. The only question in my mind was why our neighborhood had no paper of its own by the time I graduated? So I decided to fix that.

For a bustling community like Ingleside — full of delightful people, family businesses, spectacular hilltop views, as well as pernicious problems — the importance of reporting the news that specifically matters to us can’t be overstated. Hyperlocal news connects a community to itself. By shining a light on our lives, our successes, our challenges and our solutions, we can connect and come together as a community.

Without a dedicated local news source, how will we find out about the new small business down the block, or the planned bus route changes, or even our neighbors organizing a street fair? The Ingleside Light began reporting these stories and more in earnest back in 2008. Its first print issue was a four-pager covering the district supervisor elections and the new library all paid for by local advertisers.

Thirteen years later, our homegrown publication has come a long way. Through the Great Recession, the Tech Boom 2.0 and even a pandemic, the Ingleside Light has delivered news about the community on a shoestring budget. Our new format as an email newsletter features accountability reporting and reaches more people more often. Our format may have evolved over the years but the same commitment remains: connecting the community with integrity and perseverance.

Just look at some of our strongest stories of the past few months:

• The neighbor-led effort to turn a trash-strewn vacant lot into a destination greenspace
• An ode to the neighborhood’s dormant Art Deco movie palace for its 90th anniversary
• Profiles of new small business owners investing in the community
• Historian-written articles about the neighborhood’s architectural landmarks
• Monitoring city government, particularly the Municipal Transportation Agency

I’m glad to be able to do this important work, but there is so much more that needs to be done.

If we — you and I — don’t directly fund hyperlocal news it just won’t happen. And without news focused on our part of the city, we won’t know what the transportation agency is and isn’t doing, or how it will affect us. Nor will we know about that longtime resident doing important advocacy work to build up the neighborhood arts scene. And we’ll likely never hear about the plight of our small business owners struggling to keep the lights on.

Supporting a hyperlocal news outlet is a mighty act of civic participation. What’s more, anyone can join in. It’s an easy way to ensure your community has access to trusted, factual and vital information needed to make decisions, connect with others, and simply belong. With enough new reader support, together we can make the Ingleside Light the first for-profit digital neighborhood news publication in the city and continue San Francisco’s rich tradition of maintaining a robust community press.

Because Ingleside matters. That’s why the Ingleside Light exists: to shine a light on our unique community, to share our stories, celebrate our diverse cultural roots, and help each other grow.

Will you support our work?

If just 100 of you reading this newsletter sign up right now to become an annual supporter, we’ll be well on our way to achieving our 2021 targets.

And as a thank you, when you support the Ingleside Light today at the $100 level, I’ll send you an Iconic Landmarks of Ingleside gift set.

Because the Ingleside Light can only do this important community journalism thanks to reader support like yours.

With appreciate,
Alex Mullaney

P.S. Know someone else who values local journalism and lives or works in Ingleside? Ask them to support the Ingleside Light by forwarding them this email.