This weekend, I moved out of Ballard.

It was a hard decision, leaving the neighborhood that I’ve called home ever since I moved to Seattle, but a necessary one. We bought a house, and the house we found that was the right size, shape, price, timing, and feel, just wasn’t in Ballard.

I will miss a lot about Ballard. I will miss Green Market, a wonderful and friendly shop at the top of Sunset Hill. I will miss running down Shilshole and out to the beach. I will miss being walking distance from Aster Coffee Lounge ^[1].

I will also miss the sheer amount of Internet media coverage that Ballard received from the 5 neighborhood blogs located there.

Yes, you read that right. I said 5. More after the jump.

So, my count of the Ballard blogs include the following.

My Ballard ^[2]
Ballardite Blog ^[3]
Ballard Avenue ^[4]
Ballard Blog ^[5]
Ballard Gossip Girl ^[6]

That’s a lot of blogs.
My Ballard seems to cover just about everything possible that happens in the area, including news, emergency service calls, weather, restaurants, and goings-on in other neighborhoods that just might affect Ballard in some sort of marginal way (such as a bike parade down Phinney that might slow you down on your way to Ballard).

So what about all of those other blogs? Are they needed? Well, between me and my husband, we read most of them here and there and we have found helpful information on all of them. However there is a point at which there are simply too many sources of information. As time went on, My Ballard really seemed to cover everything the other blogs did and more. So rather than read about the same bit of news multiple times, I started focusing more on My Ballard than anything else.

With the sale of the P-I and the popularity of the Internet as a news source (from blogs, Internet news sites, and Twitter), I wonder how long it will be until every neighborhood has a blog and that’s where residents go for all local information?

As a fellow Metblogger pointed out recently, how does a neighborhood blog balance news with the confines of the neighborhood? If you live 2 blocks outside of Ballard, is My Ballard really applicable to you? (Personally, I think the answer is yes, as even those of us who live outside of Ballard visit Ballard for shopping, farmers markets, or restaurants.) However it becomes cumbersome when you have to read a Ballard blog, a Phinney blog, a Greenwood blog, a Loyal Heights blog, a Magnolia blog, and on and on and on. So, what is the proper balance? What types of information should be provided in a neighborhood blog and what types of information belong in an online incarnation of the P-I?

Come join your local Seattle Metbloggers down at Oddfellows this Thursday ^[7]to talk about all of this and more.

Oh, and does all of this wondering mean I won’t start a blog in my new neighborhood which seemingly doesn’t have one? Probably not.