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Local News Reporter

Covering city government, education + community

Hey, I'm Julia!

I recently graduated from the University of Washington, where I studied English and journalism. Now, I'm based in Tacoma, where I cover the small waterfront town of Gig Harbor and nearby rural Key Peninsula for the Tacoma News Tribune. 

I write about city government, local schools, small business and more in a region that's growing rapidly – Gig Harbor's population nearly quadrupled from 1991-2022, The News Tribune reported. That growth is creating waves in a quiet town that's long valued its small-town character and distinct maritime heritage. 

I'm also the newsroom's evening breaking news reporter Monday through Friday, jumping on crime, fire and traffic briefs after 4 p.m.

Read on for more!

Featured

Tacoma News Tribune •

Gig Harbor needs more affordable housing, including apartments. Where will it go?

Gig Harbor is finishing a plan to guide future housing development over the next 20 years, including townhomes, cottage housing and apartments or condominiums.

The city’s community development director, Eric Baker, presented the plan at a Gig Harbor City Council meeting March 24, following months of work. Called the city’s “Comprehensive Plan,” it meets the state’s requirement that fast-growing cities and counties create a road map for managing their population growth over each 20-year period....
Tacoma News Tribune •

Driving to this Pierce County cemetery, some fear they’ll have their own brush with death

Grief doesn’t wait for the right time. For some residents in the Gig Harbor area, sometimes it has to.

Barbara Rogers, age 80, believes the best time to visit Haven of Rest, a funeral home, crematory and cemetery along state Route 16, is very early on Sunday morning, when she feels highway traffic is lightest.

Without an on-ramp from the cemetery to westbound state Route 16, drivers only have seconds to hit the gas and get up to speed as they merge off of the cemetery’s short access road.

Rog...
Tacoma News Tribune •

Could a new tax incentive get the Village at Harbor Hill across the finish line?

Could an affordable housing initiative help get the Village at Harbor Hill across the finish line?

The city of Gig Harbor is considering a potential tax exemption program aimed at encouraging rent-restricted housing. The Village at Harbor Hill, a proposed retail site in the Gig Harbor North area that has been stalled for years, could be its first test case.

Talks to develop the 18.5-acre property go back at least a decade, according to The News Tribune’s reporting. Last year, the property owne...
Tacoma News Tribune •

WA retailers lose $3 billion to theft each year. Here’s what Gig Harbor does to stop it

There are people who come to Gig Harbor to settle. Others come to sail. And some come to steal.

Shoplifters come from “all over,” Gig Harbor Police Chief Kelly Busey told The News Tribune. He listed off a long list of cities: Port Angeles, Bellingham, Portland, Yakima, Spokane, Tacoma. The Police Department did a statistical analysis of where their criminals come from and couldn’t detect a pattern, he said.

The department started a program in the fall of 2021 to help curb retail theft, called...
Tacoma News Tribune •

The fight over Pierce County’s largest geoduck farm is over. Here’s what’s next

Taylor Shellfish Company has reached a settlement with nearby homeowners and environmental advocates that will allow a large proposed Pierce County geoduck farm to move forward, subject to several restrictions.

Signed by both parties on April 16 and filed April 18 with the state Shorelines Hearings Board, it marks an end to years of dispute between the company and local nonprofits including Friends of Burley Lagoon and the Coalition to Protect Puget Sound Habitat. The groups raised concerns abo...
Tacoma News Tribune •

‘I’ve been smiling all morning’: Sun shines down on Daffodil Parade kickoff in Tacoma

Crowds lined the street on a sunny morning in downtown Tacoma to see decorated floats, trucks and bands start their promenade through Pierce County for the 92nd Daffodil Festival Parade.

After last year’s overcast, rainy parade day, forcing the Daffodil Royal Court to don umbrellas and jackets over their spring gowns, Saturday dawned warm and bright.

“This is the first year in a while we’ve had good weather,” festival Communications Director Katelyn Gulley told The News Tribune. “We’re really...