In a column to readers, Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, outlined a new Chronicle initiative called SFNext, a project aimed at finding solutions to historic problems that have grown even more acute since March 2020. Here is an excerpt from his column:
Our plan is to hold more conversations in a series of public events throughout our city. These discussions and related findings ... will appear on multiple platforms. SFNext will produce a new podcast series, create moderated social media channels and publish editorials and resident viewpoint columns, among other features.
We intend to seek out and assess good ideas that are being deployed in cities around the globe. A weekly email newsletter will provide updates and offer opportunities to get involved.
The idea of “solutions journalism” has been around for decades, much of it done to limited effect. We are taking a different approach. We will soon launch a major poll of city residents, in partnership with Stanford University Professor Jon Krosnick, one of the nation’s foremost polling experts, to ask for your views on what’s happening in the city. Your responses will drive public discussions and inform our journalism.
Once we have identified a set of possible solutions to what you tell us are San Francisco’s most urgent problems, we will poll again to see which of those solutions you support and report on those findings. Our hope is that when city leaders devise public policy changes, they will seriously consider the solutions you favor.
