Showcase Northern California college journalism
Note: This story was reported and written in 2017. By Geoffrey Scott Residents of the Tenderloin should expect major updates to safety and traffic conditions on one of the district’s major thoroughfares, thanks to the efforts of San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the Safer Taylor Street Project, where city planners are working with the … Continue reading Making Taylor Street More Safe
When tackling their crime assignments, my students quickly realized that crime stories weren’t limited to covering homicides or other violence. Often, a great story is about the first responders themselves. This student leveraged a relative’s connection into securing interviews with longtime firefighters. By Marissa Perry SAN RAMON - Individuals who are in the line of … Continue reading Firefighting — Not Just a Job But Also a Calling
Many months before coffee giant Starbucks became mired in a racial profiling controversy about who could use its restrooms, one student was already exploring the idea that large corporate chains aren’t necessarily as welcoming as small businesses are.By Ingrid MeraDowntown San Francisco offers tourists and locals an inspirational environment full of creativity. As people walk … Continue reading Exploring and Celebrating Diverse Tastes and Choices, San Francisco-Style
By Julian Moncaleano San Francisco’s Chinatown is an established neighborhood for drawing large crowds of tourists—as well as a large number of thefts. This is nothing new to Chinatown residents and business owners. For business owners, the large crowds can pose problems. Owners and employees usually monitor every customer that steps foot into … Continue reading With Tourism Comes Revenue — and Thefts
By Ashley Loaeza In a quiet block of Mount Diablo Street in Concord, just a few blocks from the downtown area, sits a little gem unknown to many: A tiny, one-story home painted green and yellow surrounded by plants of all sorts, bordered by a green picket fence that is hard to miss. Aside from … Continue reading Guardian of Concord’s Art World
During an interview to complete her story assignment, this student found herself being interviewed by the subject, an up-and-coming chef, about her social media projects that he had seen. Maybe they had mutual interest to collaborate? Or, maybe the chef knew someone with a work opportunity for her. She told me about all this—blushing a … Continue reading From Soup to Nuts: There’s Nary a Beef About This Chef
Note: This was in advance of the 2017 festival. Be careful when marking your calendar for 2018—or thereafter ! By Julian Moncaleano As the Autumn Moon Festival approaches, there is a sense of eagerness among residents of San Francisco’s Chinatown, but many local businesses are preparing for what is—unexpectedly—one of the slowest times of the … Continue reading The Autumn Moon Festival — Annual Event Doesn’t Spark Celebrations Throughout Chinatown
Among the aspects of real-life journalism that permeated classroom conversation—and student workloads—was that reporters are expected to juggle several assignments at once because deadlines are constant. Some of my students—including this one—churned out stories from public meetings coverage alongside their capstone papers. By Julian Moncaleano The San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ government audit and … Continue reading What? Two Stories on the Same Day? Yikes–hurry!
I always encouraged students to pursue bold ideas in their beat neighborhoods, especially if they were parlayed from local, regional or national news. What I found particularly impressive, however, were instances when a student beat the establishment news media to the proverbial punch. This student, for example, pitched me a story idea focused on the … Continue reading Shout-Out for the Yelp App before the Big-City Newspaper Examined Yelp Reviews
If you have been following along, you already know that several of my students pursued DACA stories. This ambitious student actually covered two meetings that fall semester – one to fulfill the public meeting requirement, and this one for her spot news assignment. By Sarah Niderost DACA supporters packed City Hall last Monday for a … Continue reading DACA in the Meeting Room
Reporting with Lydia Lum 