Heather Knight On Power & Stories In San Francisco

“My favorite part of the job is finding something that City Hall is doing wrong that’s negatively affecting regular people who live here and hammering them over and over until they fix it.”

Heather Knight is a columnist with the San Francisco Chronicle who covers The City from street-level. She shares stories from the hardest edges up to the halls of power and her columns are superb. We discuss pushing powerful people towards change, leveraging individual stories, responding to calls of “Fake News, and the fun side of #TotalSF

Key Learnings

1. The power of having access to political leaders especially when writing about Social Determinants of Health and the problems facing a city.

2. Heather’s favorite part of the job and why she cares so much.

3. The impact of social media on the stories she writes, with an incredible column about car break-ins in San Francisco

4.  Writing about the unfair billing practices at San Francisco General Hospital and learning about the connection with the Board of Supervisors for the city.

5. Putting a spotlight on the issues of homelessness & drug dealing in San Francisco and wanting to see the city take proactive steps to address them.

6. The power of stories from the streets, including “Alice who lived at the Burger King doorway.”

7. Setting these social issues as something aspirational and as educational tools for future generations of physicians and healthcare professionals

8. Dealing with calls of “Fake News” and current challenges of being a journalism

9. What’s coming up on Heather’s agenda. (Here’s the incredible story since published after this interview)

10. Showing the wonder, the fun, and the dynamic side of San Francisco through #TotalSF

Links

San Francisco Chronicle: www.sfchronicle.com/subscribe

Twitter: @hknightsf

San Francisco City Insider Podcast: https://projects.sfchronicle.com/tools/podcasts/