| Nick Christensen | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1981 Las Vegas, Nevada |
| Education | UNLV |
| Occupation | Journalist |
| Employer | Metro |
Nick Christensen is an American journalist who writes articles for Metro in the Portland metropolitan area of Oregon.
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Christensen studied at the Las Vegas Academy in Las Vegas, Nevada, and graduated in 2004 from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) with a degree in political science. At UNLV, he was the opinion editor for the Rebel Yell student newspaper, also covering sports and news. In 2003, Christensen joined the Las Vegas Sun to cover the Las Vegas 51s. He also worked as a freelance columnist for Las Vegas Weekly.
At the Sun, Christensen also covered NIAA prep sports, focusing on the financial and personal impacts of playing sports across the vast distances of Nevada.[1][2] On the 51s beat, Christensen was the first to report on positive steroids tests by Las Vegas 51s players[3] and on several personnel transactions[4] within the Los Angeles Dodgers organization, including the 2004 trade of Tanyon Sturtze to the New York Yankees.[5]
When the Sun dramatically changed its joint operating agreement with the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Christensen briefly moved to the news side, reporting on a controversial plan to pave a rough road to the Grand Canyon Skywalk on the Hualapai Indian Reservation.[6] He then was named managing editor of the Summerlin News and West Valley News a week after those newspapers launched in 2005, leading them on a period of growth that resulted in national recognition.[7] He also wrote the 2007 Editorial of the Year in Nevada, criticizing the state's half-hearted effort at enforcing a poorly written smoking ban.[8]
In 2007, Christensen moved to Portland, Oregon, and started working for The Hillsboro Argus, a newspaper in the county seat of Washington County, the fifth most-populous county in the Pacific Northwest. At the Argus, Christensen focused on rural development issues, including proposals to put compressed natural gas pipelines under farms and vineyards near Forest Grove, allegations that those pipelines would be used to export American natural gas using proposed LNG terminals near Astoria, Oregon, and a controversial land use program called urban and rural reserves, proposed by Metro, Portland's regional government. He covered the December 2007 Pacific Northwest storms in Vernonia, Oregon, winning multiple awards for his stories and photos.[9][10] In 2009, Christensen was named the best non-daily sports columnist in Oregon by the state's Society for Professional Journalists chapter, and his coverage of the LNG issues was recognized by the state's press association.
Christensen left the Argus in 2010 and started working for the regional government Metro, writing articles for the organization's website.[11]
Christensen, the son of Clark County School District educators, grew up in Spring Valley, Nevada.
In 2009, Christensen was a leader in the fight against a proposal to build a Pacific Coast League stadium for the Portland Beavers in the Lents neighborhood of southeast Portland.[12] He wrote a study which found that Triple-A baseball stadiums outside of downtown areas have had limited urban renewal impact on the areas around them.[13]