Though we were not publishers of the Highline Times during most of the early days of the Battle of Burien and the Port expansion, we did join the fray when we bought the paper in 1975.

We did watch the creeping dissolution of much of the Highline community from our perch at the White Center News and were stressed at the ugly decay of the once vibrant shopping community.

As Burien lost thousands of homes and Southcenter grew like tipsy a mile or so down the hill, the newspaper went from three times a week with 48 pages to half that number once a week.

When the dailies across the nation got Congress to grant them a monopoly, it allowed the Times and P-I to gang up on the weekly competition, such as it was.

But the weeklies hung on. In 1989, the Seattle Times bought many of them and the printing presses. The papers lasted five years till they abruptly closed them down.

Robinson Newspapers still had the West Seattle Herald and the Ballard News and immediately started the group up again.

We had many editorials and news stories weeping over the damage of the third runway. A runway the Port said was needed during foggy days and had no plans to use during clear days.

A classic cartoon we ran in the Highline Times, showing then-Port Commissioner Henry Kotkins driving a huge dozer pushing Burien into Puget Sound, made readers sad.

But we heard it pleased the cantankerous Kotkins so much he bought it and hung it in his home.