I'm a freelance reporter and data journalist, focused primarily on local news. Since September 2023 I've been published in the Concord Monitor, MindSite News, The Current, and Streetsblog Chicago. I also self-publish a neighborhood blog, Humboldt Park Moon, and co-authored a book on the Avondale neighborhood.
As a reporter, my primary topic areas are community health, neighborhood history, and active transportation.
As a data journalist, my focus areas include data wrangling, map-based storytelling, and data visualization.
1. Recently Published Articles
2. Community and History
3. Data Journalism
Dispatchers face debilitating stress and a lack of respect for their crucial work.
MindSite News
The Current
Concord Monitor
Chicago's Southeast Side possesses a natural wealth of lakefront and wetlands, but people on bikes can't yet safely access it.
Streetsblog Chicago
Self-Published (Dynamic Version)
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Images of America: Avondale and Chicago's Polish Village (Arcadia Publishing)My co-authored history of Chicago's Avondale neighborhood. |
Inside a former upholstery shop on North Avenue, a half dozen bystanders bundled in heavy winter coats jam haphazardly into narrow spaces between tables stacked with used pants, shirts, and socks. Coat racks hanging dress… Read More »From Survival to Solidarity: People Helping People in Humboldt Park
Was Humboldt Park's Pioneer Trust & Savings Bank Built to Last? “It was magnificent…To me it's like stepping into a cathedral that you would see in some other part of the world, but in your… Read More »A Community Anchor in a Story Sea?
As a data journalist, my focus areas include data wrangling, map-based storytelling, and data visualization.
1. Data Wrangling. I have over 20 years of experience in database and data warehouse development. See also my GitHub
repository for my more recent work mostly with public datasets.
2. Map-based Storytelling. Since completing Columbia University's Lede Program for Data Journalism this summer I've been using a variety of tools including QGIS, MapBox, and Javascript to create map-based stories.
3. Data Visualization. I primarily use Data Wrapper and Flourish to create charts, graphs, and static maps.
Following are a few short data stories as part of Columbia University's Lede Program for Data
Journalism in summer 2023.
Ridership on Chicago's CTA trains dropped sharply following the arrival of the
COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent stay-at-home order... Read
More »Ridership on Chicago's CTA trains dropped
sharply following the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic and a subsequent
stay-at-home order... Not long after Michael Jackson's Thriller began its ascent to selling an all-time
record 70 million albums following its release in late 1982, the English power trio
The Police twice interrupted Jackson's reign at the top of the charts with their
genre-bending... Read More »Not long after Michael
Jackson's Thriller began its ascent to selling an all-time record 70 million
albums following its release in late 1982, the English power trio The Police twice
interrupted Jackson's reign at the top of the charts with their genre-bending...
Who's Still
Riding the CTA? (Columbia Lede student portfolio)
Still Shouting
Above the Din of Our Rice Krispies (Columbia Lede student portfolio)