You might've seen it: 18,000 copies appeared on doorsteps yesterday. It's called HAtCHBeat, and it's an 8-page monthly newspaper covering the Upper Haight, Lower Haight, Cole Valley, Alamo Square, Hayes Valley, and Golden Gate Park. (The name is an acronym for those neighborhoods.)
The editor is a woman named Liz Fedak. She writes in the first issue that her mission is to foster a sense of community, help aspiring journalists and writers, and fulfill the ideals of the First Amendment.
The debut edition of HAtCHBeat covers stories on Lower Haight businesses, Muni changes, local artists, the Haight Ashbury Street Fair, and home sales. It also features an event calendar with highlights for the month, and advertising from local businesses and politicians.
Interestingly, the paper also promises to feature regular columns from Captain Corrales and London Breed. Breed's first article is a sort of dispatch from her office, talking about all the projects she has been working on (fixing potholes, "cutting red tape for small businesses," public housing, 4/20, and graffiti).
Corrales's column, titled "Recalcitrants steal cell phones," is just as entertaining as the Park Station newsletter (for which we highly recommend signing up). He boasts that the 4/20 event this year had fewer arrests and calls for medical attention, but goes on to say that cell phone theft is rampant and avoidable if you keep your head up and don't take your phone out on Muni. He adds that future columns will provide tips on how to avoid auto burglaries and bike theft.
We'll be sitting down with Liz later this week to find out more about the paper: how it came to be, and where she sees it going. In the meantime, the paper won't be updating much online, but you can email Editor[at]hatchbeat[dot]com with any tips.
