🌅 🥳 Sunland turns 1 this Friday

It’s Tuesday and we’re trying something new. The Tuesday newsletter is back in the morning. Sunland News has grown a lot and I want to grow with it. Carving out time to make sure this hits your inbox early just makes sense. So here we are.

🍝 Want to Try: Amore Italian Chophouse is the newest project from local restaurateur Kyle Greene. It sits right near that 73-foot Heart in the Park sculpture in PSL. House-made pasta, wood-fired pizza, modern Italian. Check it out

🍽️ 772 Eats: If you haven’t already, swing by 772eats.com. I built it as a local food guide to help you find new spots, save favorites, and keep track of what you want to try next. The first 100 restaurants are free. Full guide and journal are there if you want more.

TL;DR: This Friday marks one year since I started Sunland News. In that time, I’ve hit publish 262 times. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that we need more people telling local stories, not fewer.

So here’s where I’m at: I don’t know how many of y’all have been here since the beginning. Maybe you joined last week. Maybe you’ve been rocking with me since day one. Either way, I want to say thank you. Because this thing? It’s been one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

When I started, I thought I could cover everything in St. Lucie County. Now, I know better. This place is bigger, richer, more layered than I ever imagined. If I had it my way, I’d assign a full-time reporter just for Fort Pierce. That’s how much is happening. That’s how much goes uncovered.

The national picture makes it even clearer: A new report found the U.S. has only 8.2 local journalists per 100,000 people. That’s a 75% drop since 2000. One-third of all counties don’t even have one full-time reporter. That means 20 million people live in places where no one is showing up to the school board meeting or asking about the new development down the street.

And it’s not just rural areas. L.A. County, home to nearly 10 million people, has 3.6 local journalist equivalents. In other words, unless it bleeds, it doesn’t lead.

But here’s what gives me hope: The response. The shares. The messages. The people stopping me in real life saying, “Hey, I saw that story.” The support y’all have shown through People Pass, sponsorships, tips, even just reading, tells me this work matters. That you care about what’s happening at home. I just met somebody last night at the city commissioner meeting that told me he was there because he saw his Sunland News TikTok video, and stuff like that just warms my heart. It honestly renders me speechless sometimes.

I know I’m not the only one out here. We’ve got TC Palm. We’ve got Hometown News. We need all of them. But more specifically, we need local writers and storytellers to talk just about Fort Pierce, to talk just about Port St. Lucie, and I know it will come in due time.

My bold prediction? Local is coming back. We’ve been global for a while. We’ve been trending, scrolling, reposting. But people are tired. They want something close. Something real. Something rooted. I’ve seen it in the comments. I’ve seen it on TikTok. I’ve felt it on the street. People want to come home.

So here’s to the next 262. And to all the stories I haven’t told yet. Thank you, truly, for helping me tell the ones I have. Let’s keep going.

Last Request: For everyone that's been here, for anyone that just got here, I want to hear from you. I want to know your thoughts about what you want to see more of, what you would like to see less of. Just help me improve, Sunland. Nothing is awful in it, so please tell me. Again, I truly mean this when I say I love you all, and I cannot thank you enough. Leave thoughts here.

If you have an event, send it to me here

From school coverage to better tools like play.sunlandnews.com, every upgrade you see is made possible by readers who pitch in. Thank you to everyone who already has. This is what the People Pass makes possible. Want to support it too?

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