This page is a repository of links to the nearly 50 articles I wrote from 2007-13 for the now-defunct Ballard News-Tribune, a . Founded in 1893, the print run of this local, independently run newspaper was consolidated along with the other papers in the Robinson Newspapers portfolio into the Westside Weekly in 2013. They continued to publish a print edition which contained articles about Ballard and West Seattle for several more years, but they are now an online-only publication called Westside Seattle focusing mostly on West Seattle. A squatter now sits on ballardnewstribune.com.
A lot of these links are now broken, but I have been able to restore some of them.
The articles below are listed in chronological order, have a bit of background on what was going on with me at the time and (hopefully) show the development of my writing style. In addition, nearly all of the articles that do have photos with them were taken by me.
In October 2024, I was featured in an article in the Seattle Times about Stumbletown/ West Woodland called “How this Ballard micro-neighborhood reflects an ever-changing Seattle.” The author, Nathalie Graham, found a link to my Welcome to Stumbletown article from 14 years ago and interviewed me. “His old neighborhood newspaper column on local history and observations of early 2000s Ballard now feels like a community time capsule,” Graham said.
Here is that time capsule.
Feature Articles
In 2008, I decided to dip my toe into the waters of freelance writing. I pitched an article about the Ballard Terminal Railroad, which led to a couple more feature articles about local interesting businesses and people in the Ballard neighborhood, where I have lived since I arrived in Seattle.
I was able to find the three links below in the Internet Archive.
Ballard Terminal Railroad Delivers Local Freight (which has been cited in a Wikipedia article about the Ballard Terminal Railroad!)
Bardahl Oil Celebrates 70 Years In Ballard
Alternative Comic Legend Calls Ballard Home
21st Century Viking
The feature articles were well received and I was asked to contribute a regular online column along the same lines.
2008
21st Century Viking
What Happened To The Swedish-Finn Historical Society?
Ballard Deserves National Clout
Is Sound Transit 2 Sound For Ballard?
Honoring Edith Macefield
The Viaduct, Ballard and You
An Ode To The Sea Captain
Walking Down Ballard Avenue
Some Streetcar Suggestions
2009
Post Snow-pocalypse Thoughts
Does The Tunnel Cut Ballard Out?
In January 2009, just after Barack Obama was inaugurated as President of the United States, the ballardnewstribnune.com moved their blogs to a new platform, which is why I was able to recover them from the Internet Archive.
Why Fisherman’s Terminal Matters
Be Local, Buy Ballard
Archie McPhee, We Hardly Knew Ye This one in particular is a time capsule of what the site looked like in 2009!
At this point, the Westside Seattle/ Westside Weekly website started to archive the articles on their own site. The rest of the links, unless otherwise noted, are from their site- for now. These links are easier to read, and some of them even have my now-vintage photos. If anything changes, I will replace them with Internet Archive links.
The Importance Of Being Involved
Two Too Many Red Light Cameras In Ballard
The Homeless In Bergen Place Aren’t The Problem
Shopping and eating local
Get to know Port leaders
Sunset Bowl, one year later
The Rise of the Comic is at Arcane Comics and More
All hail the cherry blossom tree
When the big one comes to Ballard
Being prepared could save your life and others
A parade in Ballard
Corners Park a model for neighborhoods
Let’s go to the (Ballard branch) library
Ballard’s curb gardens
A murder in our neighborhood
Biking the Missing Link
A report from the Finnish Summer Festival
Leave our post office alone
Answering McGinn’s three questions
BallardNewsTribune.com looking for columnists (Not a column, but proof I was a columnist!)
Ballard: Come shopping, but don’t hang out
Who or what is SALWT?
Government overreached with monkey tree fine
We’re all neighbors
Time for some Missing Link leadership
2012
After a hiatus during my last year of graduate school, I revived the column in 2012, but was asked to do more political articles. I had so much fun and personal satisfaction from doing these articles that it rekindled my desire to become a freelance writer.
Coffee With The Candidates: Ryan Gabriel Promises To Bring “Fiscal Sanity” to Olympia
Two Candidates, No Choices
I was one of the few Seattle journalists that covered the 2012 8th District Congressional race between 11-term Congressman Jim McDermott (D) and UW law professor Ron Bemis (R). Here is the three-part series of my campaign coverage:
Why McDermott Must Debate Bemis
McDermott debates…but not with the right person
Mc Dermott, Medved Put on Educational Debate
What Is The Coal Train Controversy Really About?(This column graduated to being published in the print edition of the BN-T.)
2013
Digging Deeper Into The Coal train Controversy
Vote No On The School Levies
What Happened to Sunset Bowl?
This article was featured in the 3/18/13 edition of The Daily Troll, which was an aggregator of the most interesting Seattle-area stories of the day as picked by the editors of Crosscut.com (now part of Cascade PBS).
What Would Joseph Coolidge Say?
Goodbye, Viking Tavern!
“Goodbye, Viking Tavern!,” written in May 2013, was my last article for the Ballard News-Tribune, and in retrospect it was a great place to stop, as that bar was one of the very last gathering spots in Ballard for the old-timers.
It’s 2024 now, and boy has Ballard changed! Updating these links has made me realize how much has changed, and what has stayed the same.
One of these days, I may get my act together and collect and publish these columns, and maybe do some more. I also have the 21stcenturyviking.com which I need to do something with.