My friend Michael Durand is dying. He’s the reason I do a lot of what I do.
Top left: excerpt from the very first story I wrote about newspaper racks, featuring Michael
Top right: first time seeing my work in a print publication, thanks to Michael
Middle left: me and Michael decked out in our Sunset Beacon gear
Middle right: Michael showing up to support me at my neighborhood pop-up, Castro Feedback Day (with another great Michael, Michael Yamashita)
Bottom left: Michael promoting his newsroom community listening session during 2025 SF Good Neighbor Week
Bottom middle: cake I baked for Michael’s 70th bday
Bottom right: my son being excited to point out his name in the Sunset Beacon’s birthday announcements
I was shocked when I learned last week that my friend Michael Durand is dying. 💔💔💔
🗞️ Michael is the wonderful publisher of San Francisco’s westside papers Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review, which together basically cover the entire western half of San Francisco.
❤️ I had just seen Michael a few weeks ago at San Francisco’s inaugural Local News Day, which he helped me start and generously sponsored. Michael was full of energy that evening, doing one of his favorite things— introducing everyone at the event to George, the high school reporter who’s been writing for Michael’s neighborhood papers since middle school. Michael is so proud of George. If you’ve talked to Michael in the last year, you’ve probably heard him talk about how much it meant to him to have a talented middle schooler join his team.
😢 After Local News Day, Michael’s health declined quickly. During an extended hospital stay, he learned he has metastatic melanoma that has already spread to his liver, lungs, and spine. Michael decided to enter hospice care last week.
👯 I visited Michael at his home today and was able to tell him how much his friendship and support has meant to me. Michael is the first person I think of when I think of “local news in San Francisco.” Michael played not just a role, but the key role, in every step of my personal local news journey:
💡 When I started asking questions about the disappearance of San Francisco’s print newspaper racks in summer 2022, Michael was the first person who responded, took me to lunch and gave me the detailed history. Michael became the key source for the very first story I ever published, introducing me to many of the people I interviewed for that story and forwarding me key emails to help me understand the context and history. When I tell people “the removal of newspaper racks doesn’t just represent the decline of print media; it represents an extinction event for community information in public spaces”-- I think of Michael and the San Francisco westside.
💡 Talking to Michael and learning how the removal of newspaper racks impacted neighborhood papers inspired me to start prototyping a modern, digital alternative to the old-school newspaper racks, which continues to be a core part of my work at Good Neighbor Lab.
✍️ Michael came to all of my pop-up events (Neighborhood Feedback Days) in San Francisco where I showcased my evolving prototype. He assigned one of his reporters to cover one of my neighborhood events in 2024. That story – which was published both in the Sunset Beacon and the Richmond Review– is the first time I saw my work in print and it is proudly framed in my living room.
🐶 Knowing that I was actively collecting community feedback on local news, Michael often checked in with me to hear what I was learning. I remember one of the first insights I shared with him was how much people in San Francisco love their pets, and how consistently I was getting feedback that San Franciscans wanted to see cute animals on our neighborhood bulletin board prototype. “Seriously, Michael, they’re telling me, ‘yeah local news is fine, but can you add more photos of cats and dogs?’” I shared that insight with a lot of publications, but Michael is the only one who did something about it: he launched a “Pet Pix” section in both the Sunset Beacon and Richmond Review. We both giggled when he told me it quickly became one of the most-loved sections.
👂 When I launched SF Good Neighbor Week in 2025, I knew I wanted to include local newsrooms in the celebration. San Francisco is the first city in the country to include local newsrooms as key partners in its celebration of National Good Neighbor Day. Michael quickly said yes when I asked if he wanted to host a community listening session during 2025 SF Good Neighbor Week. I was able to join his community listening session — a lovely intergenerational lunch Michael hosted in the Sunset.
🙌 When I launched the inaugural SF Local News Day in 2026, Michael was one of the first people to join me and the first person to pitch in some money for the event.
🎂 Alongside Michael’s pivotal role in my local news journey, we’ve also become personal friends. He’s that type of person I love who can be both wildly busy and incredibly relaxed at the same time. Curious. Lighthearted. Smart. Deep. Positive. Unparalleled integrity. A man of many talents, interests, and experiences. Though he’s one of my “local news friends,” I know his own identity extends far beyond journalism. One weekend, my son and I were biking past the Community Music Hangout in Golden Gate Park, when I saw Michael was playing the piano. We stopped to watch Michael play (here’s a 10-second clip of Michael playing Elton John’s Rocket Man) and chatted for a while. Michael found out my son’s birthday was coming up, and he quickly added it to Sunset Beacon’s birthday announcements. We invited each other to birthdays and holiday parties. I baked a cake for Michael’s 70th birthday party– triple chocolate, per his request. It was great to finally meet his sister Bonnie there, since most of his family is in Pasadena.
🌱 Michael and I share many core values and it was a blessing to spend time with him at his home today. I asked him if he was depressed and he said no. Michael has a practical approach to life and death. We talked about the circle of life. Michael and I have the same health insurance and he showed me the hospital’s end of life planning documents. Their formatting is similar to the birth plans I had to write down when I was pregnant. We make plans for birth and plans for death. Michael showed me the pain meds he’s taking and they’re the same pain meds I took when I was in labor.
Life is short. I’m heartbroken that Michael is leaving us soon. I’m so grateful to know him and love him. I asked Michael if he wants me to spread the word about his gofundme to support his home hospice expenses, and he said “No, that’s okay, there should be enough.” But in case you want to give, here’s the link.
