San Francisco is really a tale of two cities: the yuppie, high income, peaceful facade of the northern and western edge of town, and the rougher, minority majority, low income Bay View/Hunters Point district.
But, you’d think that the San Francisco Chronicle, being the San Francisco Chronicle and all, would report on a murder in broad daylight within the City and County of San Francisco, even if did take place in Bay View/Hunters Point, an area which yuppie Chron readers conveniently ignore.
Nope. The Examiner is the sole print daily that reported the story of 17-year-old Tauvares Wooten gunned down on our City streets on Sunday.
What does the Chronicle report? Well, they sure hit hard with the news the Mayor covets the Governorship. They reported on a tragic accident in which 2 SF residents lost their lives to a careless driver in Cupertino. They even managed to report on a hit and run that happened this very morning on Market and Octavia. But, not a word about the tragic death of Tauvares Wooten or that the SFPD haven’t arrested a single suspect.
Am I the only City resident that feels scared that our main, respected source of local news doesn’t report on a vicious murder in broad daylight on our City streets?
UPDATE 3/12/08: In an odd twist of fate, Mr. Wooten was featured in a Chronicle photograph from 2004. The photo accompanied a Chronicle article about Visitacion Valley Middle School principal Jim Dierke’s grant request for a grief counselor to help students deal with frequent shooting deaths in the area.
kfarr 
Well-said! Local media are broken. Someone needs to fix it.
Thank you for this. Tauvares was a sweet and funny character, and his death is the very definition of tragedy. Although this obvious exclusion is disturbing in general, this young man’s innocence just makes the blow even worse. I have checked for any mention of suspects and arrests and found nothing. To add insult to injury, Monday night four large blocks of Oakland (including my street) were shut down for hours with multiple branches of law enforcement searching for a suspect because a deputy’s arm was broken–that is where the priority is for the media and law enforcement. It is sickening. Thank you again for your commentary.
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