Ballard’s Most Popular Stories of 2008

It’s been a very big year for Ballard. A year of change led by tremendous growth in a red-hot real estate market followed by an economic recession. A year pitting developers against preservationists, and in one case, an 86-year-old woman. And a year in which “Old Ballard” and “New Ballard,” for better or worse, became part of the neighborhood lexicon.

We dug down into our traffic stats to discover the most clicked Ballard stories of 2008. But it’s tricky: traffic is growing so fast, popular stories in the earlier months are dwarfed by regular stories in the later months:

So we adjusted for the time of year to come up with this top 10 list. And we’re proud to add that many of them were My Ballard exclusives:

1. New building swallowing Edith Macefield’s home (January 13th)

2. Edith Macefield passes away (June 17th)
3. Ballard awakens to deep snow, more ice (December 21st)
4. Ballard’s Archie McPhee to move (September 15th)

5. Robin Williams filming movie today in Ballard (July 31st)

6. Demolition crews level the Ballard Denny’s building (June 24th)
7. Man stabbed on Market St. (November 2nd)

8. Feathers fly in Ballard pillow fight (March 16th)
9. Starbucks buys Ballard coffee company (March 19th)
10. Ballard for Obama T-shirts for sale (September 4th)

One big story that you may notice is missing from the top ten list:

18. The sun sets on Sunset Bowl (April 13th)

And finally, we can’t help but include the most bizarre story of 2008:

Adventurous raccoon cuts power for thousands (May 6th)

Remember, these were the most popular stories on MyBallard.com, not necessarily the most important. Which stories do you think are the most important of the year for Ballard? Please post below…