Your Brick Patch Editor Bids Farewell

One late night in Nov. 2010, I sat down at my kitchen table to write an article introducing myself and a new website that would be covering news in Brick Township.

I had been hired to work at a new media startup company called Patch about a month earlier and was more excited than ever to get started covering the news in my home town. What I wrote that night, in that column, came to shape the way I would run the site to this day. I asked myself what my parents, my uncle, my neighbors and everyone else who lives in Brick would want to read about – and promised them I'd deliver.

The night we launched the site, Nov. 19, 2010, I went to a local nightclub with my girlfriend to celebrate. At one point in the evening, she read my introductory column on her phone. She said, "That was a great column. You're a great writer. But are you sure you can do all that?"

Sitting here writing this column after completing my last day as Brick Patch editor, I'm very proud to say that I – and all of the others who have helped me along the way – have.

Take a look at two paragraphs from that first column, published Nov. 19, 2010:

Though we're proud to stand on the shoulders of some of our trailblazing giants up north, things on Patch may be just a little different around here. We'll talk about those summer evenings when driving on Route 35 is just maddening. We'll be out there during the nor'easters, listening to our favorite Shore cover bands, and we might take you along fishing on our favorite party boat. If you're lucky, should there be any Snooki sightings in Brick Township (hey, they anchored their boat out at F-Cove in Season 1!) we might just cover that as well.

As your editor, it is my responsibility to do what others haven't: keep you in the know about your town from top to bottom. Where are your tax dollars going? Who's getting laid off? Where in town is crime happening, and what is really going down on our streets? How are our schools doing compared to other local communities, as well as to those statewide? What's being built in the formerly-wooded lot down the street from your home?

Your entire Jersey Shore Patch team has worked hard to make sure this site has delivered on every one of the promises that I unilaterally – maybe suffering from delusions of grandeur – made in the beginning. But when I'm at the beach, over by the fishing pier or eating out at a restaurant, people have come up to me and told me Brick has been different since Patch has been around. I hope it's been different in a good way, in a valuable way, even if the news itself hasn't always been so good.

In those two paragraphs above, there are 12 stories linked. Those are 12 out of a total of 5,403 that have been published on this site since Nov. 19, 2010.

And all of them, for better or worse, have told Brick's story.

Many of them were on Superstorm Sandy. Some of those stories were among the saddest I've written, but also the most rewarding. I'd like to think we've shown how Brick residents have been working together to rebuild, fighting to keep their neighborhoods vibrant and epitomizing the spirit of a strong community.

I've been humbled by the resilience of the folks in Shore Acres, the community-first attitude of those in St. Lawrence and Seawood Harbor and the overwhelming warmth, never-ending humor and unwavering support of everyone from Camp Osborn.

I hope all of it continues for generations to come.

Brick is a special place, and it's one I won't be leaving. While I will no longer be working as editor of Brick Patch, I will be staying with Patch as the Sr. Field Editor of the Jersey Shore region, which runs from here down to Ocean City.

Seeing my headshot taken down from the masthead of this site yesterday afternoon came as a shock, even though I knew it was coming. But with that came the realization that all of you are in the extraordinarily capable hands of Colleen Platt, your new editor, who comes to Brick from our Barnegat-Manahawkin site.

I was overjoyed to hear Colleen would be taking my place because I've seen her engaging and thoughtful work firsthand, I've read her inspiring stories and have seen her dig into issues thoroughly and completely. Colleen has a sense of quality and work ethic that Brick residents deserve of someone reporting on their community.

But please don't forget that I'll still be around town, and I still love a great story. In Brick Township, there's never a shortage of them.

- Dan