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Over the past four years, Mario Riveira (@mario0o0o0o0o0o) has built a massive Instagram following by sticking a mic in people’s faces. His man-on-the-street interviews offer more than just top-tier people watching. Whether leaning into relatable topics (“What’s your favorite struggle meal?”) or stirring up debate (“What’s the snobbiest city in the Bay Area?”), Riveira gets honest takes from San Franciscans we often don’t hear from in the news media: unhoused people, kids in shiesty masks doing wheelies, retail workers on Market Street.
Riveira didn’t necessarily set out to cover social issues when he launched his page during pandemic shutdowns. But after talking to hundreds of people, he says one thing is clear: “The average person [in the Bay Area] is struggling, you know, if they’re not living with a ton of family members, or if they don’t have a tech job or work for PG&E.”
Riveira, who grew up in the working class suburbs of East Contra Costa County, has seen a lot of change during his 12 years in San Francisco. In the past couple years, he noticed new luxury apartment towers pop up on Treasure Island, a community with many low-income Black and brown residents. So Riveira went there with his camera and asked locals what they thought…