An anniversary and an invitation

And: insight into how Local Hero is made

Greetings readers!

This week marks the two-year anniversary of this publication, Local Hero. Thank you for being here.

Over the past 24 months, I’ve written 59 stories in this space, adding up to about 125,000 words.¹ That data point shocks me, inspires me, and also makes me feel a little unhinged. In an empowered way.

I also want to invite you to my forthcoming (third-ever!) Subscriber Happy Hour at the Ojai Valley Brewery, Monday October 20th from 5-8 p.m. Save the date for conversation with fellow community members about current events, and support two local businesses!

For the record: you absolutely do not have to be a paying subscriber to attend this event. My ask is that you sign up as a free subscriber — which adds you to my mailing list. 🙂

Given the occasion, I figured now would be a good time to give folks a little insight into the work paid subscribers support, my ongoing projects, and how this publication has evolved.

First, the basics: the work in this space requires research, reporting trips, interviews, photos, follow-up interviews, writing, editing, more editing, fact-checking, more editing, significant nerve, and a touch of OCD.

At present, I produce Local Hero with the support of approximately 150 paid subscribers and 640 total readers. Paid subscribers — $10 per month or $100 per year — receive access to all of my work, the archives, and the comment section 🎉. (Ten percent of subscription fees go to the Substack platform, for the record.) If you are one of those readers who hasn’t purchased a subscription. I invite you to consider it today.

I recognize and respect that there are plenty of folks who cannot afford the subscription fee. I’ll happily gift a free trial to anyone who asks — just send me a note² or talk to me in the comments section. I also genuinely enjoy trades — shout out to the Sunday farmers market vendor who gives me a discount on vegetables in return for a subscription ☺️. For readers who can’t subscribe, but want to support this work: please share it with others who may be interested. Word-of-mouth is my primary means of advertising.

Readers who have extra are invited to purchase a “founding subscription” for $200 annually, make a donation to support this work, or purchase a gift subscription for another reader. (You can pick the recipient, or I can.)

One final word on subscriptions: you can also share a subscription with a friend or family member — and receive a discount!

I want to acknowledge that I could not do this work without the support of my interviewees. There are folks whose names you’ll read in my stories, and others who remain unnamed. I’m grateful to everyone who takes the time to help me understand their story or expertise, and to everyone who grants me their trust.

Local Hero is not my full-time job — but I kind of treat it like it is.³ I also manage various contract copywriting gigs, along with a little universe of local house sitting clients — many of whom are also subscribers! I am often working on Local Hero in the company of at least one of my animal charges: dogs, cats, and occasionally a flock of chickens. Truly: I have conducted many interviews and typed thousands of words for this publication while sitting in subscribers’ homes, with one of their pets staring at me. And I think that’s kind of hilarious.

Mr. Red, one of my canine clients, loved to harrass me while I was typing. He recently passed away. RIP Red.

This work is nothing if not engaging. It can be thrilling, fulfilling, and disturbing. My last few stories — involving ICE raids, domestic violence, and murder — have particularly weighed on me. At the same time, I have an extreme sense of clarity of purpose. I feel that there are stories that are worth making myself uncomfortable.

I’ve also come to realize that even as I focus on local events, I’m also documenting our democracy’s decline into authoritarianism. I feel it’s important to be explicit about what I’m observing, and the degree to which I am alarmed.⁴ To be clear: Local Hero is a pro-democracy, pro-facts space. Those values are currently under attack by our federal government.

As someone who documents facts that can be politically inconvenient, I am frightened about what the future holds. But I’m also resolved.⁵ Perhaps that’s naive, but it’s where I’ve arrived.

Another thing I want to say about this space — and this is again thanks to subscriber support — is that I enjoy and appreciate the freedom to move with the news. There are times when I’ll be quiet for as long as six weeks, buried in a research hole, until I emerge with many thousand artfully arranged and fact-checked words. Then there are times where I’m in your inbox multiple times a day with breaking news events.

I make a lot of judgement calls about what to cover, and where to focus my time. There is also the simple truth that I am one person with multiple jobs, who can only write one story at a time.⁶

In general, I think of our Ojai Valley News (OVN) as the place community members can go for day-to-day news, and Local Hero as a space that provides deep context, analysis and commentary. The OVN staff is composed of a lot of folks I’ve known for a long time, and I think they do great work for our community. I am consistently impressed by reporter Kimberly Rivers’ ability to cover local news while also completing law school. I’ll also note that I am an active participant on OVN’s Facebook page and in their in Letters to the Editor section. (I can’t help myself.)

Tabulating this publication’s word count also gave me the opportunity to reflect on the subjects I’ve covered over the past two years: everything from housing and homelessness to a controversial local pickleball court to the separation of church and state to the future of our local agriculture industry. I’ve also written myriad profile pieces, conducted longform interviews with local leaders, documented my own family history, my chronic health condition, and my love of baking. I have a lot of interests, and I relish having the space to explore them.

One of the most meaningful projects I’ve taken on in this space is my ongoing series about the City of Ojai’s $12.7 million state grant to construct permanent supportive housing for 30 chronically homeless community members (the Cabin Village). With support from subscribers, I’m dedicated to covering the project until the residents of Ojai Tent Town are housed and the grant funding is exhausted.

An image from a recent visit to Ojai Tent Town. Check out those tomatoes!

Speaking of which: the next story you’ll see in this space will be an update on the Cabin Village and the debate surrounding it — unless some extraordinary breaking news occurs in the interim. (It might!)

In addition to my ongoing Cabin Village coverage, I have a collection of various longform stories in progress, including:

• An update on the ongoing lawsuit against Councilwoman Leslie Rule;

• An investigation into ICE operations in the Ojai Valley;

• An investigation into the various government claims from former City of Ojai employees;

• An update on the Ojai Unified School District’s workforce housing proposal;

• And, a look at the Trump Administration’s potential impact on open space around the Ojai Valley.

It’s possible that some of this content will merge into some other yet-to-break or yet-to-be-conceived-of story. That’s the thrill/horror of this work: I never know where it’s going.

Now, I’d love to hear from you. Are there topics you’d like to see me cover? Folks you’d like me to interview? Themes you’d wish I’d STFU about? I’m open to your feedback and constructive criticism. The comments section is open!

Again, thank you for being here. I hope to see you on October 20th.

1. Google tells me this would be a book of 400-480 pages 😳.

2. andra.belknap@gmail.com

3. This reflects poor financial decision-making and general impulsivity on my part.

4. Truly — what we are observing is classic authoritarianism. I recommend reading “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century” by Timothy Snyder, or checking out his Substack publication.

5. I draw strength and inspiration from my family’s history in this country. I’ve written about the paternal side of my family and their history in the Revolutionary War. One day I’ll find the time to write about the maternal side — early 20th century immigrants from Lebanon who faced racial discrimination and violence care of the Kentucky Ku Klux Klan. Obviously, these histories inform my world view.

6. I have definitely tried to write multiple stories at once! It never ends well.