So you think you can report....

Today (Wednesday) was my last day as a municipal government reporter at the Sun-Sentinel. It's been a long but rewarding three months. Ever since they extended my internship after September, I've been covering city government in four cities clustered south of Fort Lauderdale - Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, West Park, and Pembroke Park. It was my first real "beat" - in my past reporting internships I covered health as a general topic or was a generalist. The city beat reporters are sort of the foot soldiers of the paper, the ones writing about city commission meetings and what the elected officials decide to do with taxpayer money, spotlighting the movers and shakers in the community, and the ones who do the story on anything that happens within city borders really.

On any given day I was picking up police blotters - the listings of nonviolent crimes that readers seem to like to read - calling the mayor or city manager for an update on something, going to commission meetings which can last several hours, talking to business owners, residents, tourists, driving around, reading some document or Web site, or writing a story. It was busy, busy. In the beginning it was a lot of jumping around, trying to make sure I wasn't overlooking something in one city at the expense of another. By the time I started to hit a groove, my time was up.

One story I was proud of was when Hallandale fired two police officers for abusing a man they arrested, choking and tasering him 15 times one night in April.
Another was a few stories on Dania Beach's efforts to revitalize their gritty downtown area even through seizing property through eminent domain. They also sacrificed a historic hotel that had housed people barely able to scrape by, favoring a new project boasting market-rate condos.
I also liked writing about a French family with a little girl who traveled to Pembroke Park each year for special therapy to overcome her cerebral palsy.

I feel fortunate to have come across these stories and to learn from my mistakes. I also feel more confident in organizing my time and resources because, well, with four cities, you have four sets of elected officials and staff, four sets of issues, four separate little fiefdoms. Ideally there would be one reporter for each city, which we used to have in the office. Now people have to double up, or quad up in my case. At least if I get hired somewhere else to do local government, one or two cities will be cake. At least I hope.

At the end of the day today I sent emails to each of the four city managers telling them I was leaving and to forward any upcoming info to my editor. I never told them I was an intern. Partly I think that was because I didn't want to seem like an amateur. But also I think I was trying to mentally picture myself being a staff writer, or getting hired on as a staff writer. And no reason to tell them I was an intern if I was hired at some point- there'd be a seamless transition. Of course, they didn't hire me. At least not yet.

In any case, as I left the office for the last time, I felt happy to be out but sad too. I kinda missed the 10 hour or 12 hour days. Talking to residents. Being plugged into what was happening. I had only just begun to scratch the surface of my cities.