ABOUT US
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I am a child of San Francisco. I grew up in the Haight-Ashbury, but it’s taken decades of living and working in my hometown to understand how today’s SF was developing around me all along.
How, for example, the current housing crisis began long ago with racist redlining; the Haight was one of the city’s few non-restricted neighborhoods. Or how revolts against redevelopment that saved districts like the Haight metastasized into NIMBY resistance against growth.
We founded The Frisc in 2016 to spur engagement, foment change, call BS, and even celebrate what’s best about San Francisco, or what it strives to be: diverse, creative, and open to the world. Unfortunately, it’s largely become unaffordable and unmanageable.
The city we love has many problems, and we’re dedicated not just to exposing and explaining them but offering solutions. SF is also on the brink of something else. This is a new San Francisco story, and The Frisc is perfectly positioned to tell it.
COVID brought devastation, striking the city’s underserved communities disproportionately and wreaking economic havoc. But the emergency also created chances to experiment: to curb evictions, reclaim streets for people and pump the brakes on car culture, give small businesses a break, and demand more housing for all.
We focus on our city’s core issues — no sports scores, restaurant reviews, or Sierra ski conditions. Housing is crucial: Without a denser, more affordable city, San Francisco cannot address the homelessness crisis, streets and transit, and struggling schools and businesses, all of which we cover. In our 47 square miles (not 49!), everything is connected. We want readers to finish every Frisc story with a better understanding of San Francisco: how it got this way, how it works, and how to make it better.
Your support is crucial to our mission of seeking a more affordable, inclusive and accountable city for all of us. With your help, we can tell more stories from the Haight to the Bayview, from Ocean Beach to North Beach.
Please follow us however you like: via newsletter, Twitter (where we live-tweet public meetings and much more), Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Thank you.
Editor in chief, The Frisc
ETHICS AND EDITORIAL INDEPENDENCE
The Frisc will not accept a donation from any individual or organization that compromises our editorial independence. All gifts, grants, and donations fund general operations and editorial coverage. Receipt of a financial contribution does not constitute endorsement of a donor or a donor’s position.
All editorial decisions are controlled by our editors. We don’t let donors assign, edit, or review stories before publication or otherwise influence our coverage.
We are nonpartisan. We neither endorse nor oppose candidates for political office, ballot measures, or initiatives. Our stories, reports, investigations and analyses strive to promote civic engagement, accountability, and discourse, as well as a more affordable and inclusive San Francisco.
We clearly label opinion and personal essays as “Commentary.” We don’t accept sponsored content.
More generally, we aim to uphold the standards in the Society of Professional Journalism ethics code.
We also uphold and embody the values of the Institute for Nonprofit News.
FINANCIAL TRANSPARENCY
We accept tax-deductible donations via our 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor, Media Alliance of San Francisco, which does not direct or influence The Frisc’s editorial decisions, other than the stipulation that we follow all relevant nonprofit rules. Media Alliance charges a fee for processing donations to The Frisc. You can find their 990 form here.
We pledge to identify all donors of $5,000 or more:
- Annenberg Center for Health Journalism
- Helen and Thomas Merigan Charitable Trust
- Roz and Ron Levaco
- The Miami Foundation
- Silicon Valley Community Foundation
- The Fund for Investigative Journalism
We pledge that no more than 5 percent of our annual budget will come from anonymous donations.
ADVISORY BOARD
Frances Dinkelspiel, author of Tangled Vines and Towers of Gold, and cofounder of Berkeleyside/Cityside, which she and her partners steered through a $1 million public offering.
Ilan Greenberg, the publisher of Coda Story, an international crisis news site and winner of a Columbia/DuPont Award.
Linda Jue, editor at large for investigative site 100Reporters; reporting and writing coach for grantees of the Fund for Investigative Journalism; and a trainer for the Ida B. Wells Society Investigative Reporting Program.
David Katznelson, executive director of Reboot, a Bay Area arts and culture nonprofit that reimagines and reinforces Jewish thought and traditions.
Gary Rivlin, Pulitzer and Loeb Award-winning journalist and author of several books, including Broke USA, Katrina: After the Flood, and The Plot to Get Bill Gates.
Kristina Rizga, author of Mission High, which covers a year in the life of a San Francisco high school, and founder of Re:Baltica, an investigative reporting group in the Baltics.
CORRECTIONS
We are human and make mistakes. When we do, we make corrections as quickly as possible without introducing new errors or confusion. Corrections, clarifications, and updates are either embedded in stories, adjacent to the changed text, or at the bottom of stories. However, if we believe a correction is significant, we will flag it at the top of stories.
Please bring potential errors to the attention of Alex Lash, editor in chief (alex@thefrisc.com), or Anthony Lazarus, executive editor (anthony@thefrisc.com).
Our weekly email newsletter notes the week’s corrections, if any, from our web, email, and social media channels.
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