Editor's Notebook: Thanks For Welcoming Me at Cupertino Patch!

In April of this year, I was given some big shoes to fill.  Editor Anne Ernst, who started the Cupertino Patch site in the middle of the 2010 Christmas holiday season, was leaving, and I was her successor.

It was a community I had grown up next to, where I had attended high school (I get to say that Steve Jobs and I walked the same hallways at Homestead in the same year). After a decade at the San Francisco Chronicle and a dozen years at the Mercury News, I would get to cover Cupertino, in addition to my hometown of Los Altos.

I was off to a good start. I spent a day at the Cherry Blossom Festival in April, meeting and chatting with a host of people who love Cupertino. I had met Cupertino Union School District’s superintendent, and the mayor. I attended Chamber of Commerce events and had plans to dive deeper. I encouraged people to write blogs, to post their events and announcements, and make Cupertino Patch a richer community resource.

But this eventful chapter of my journalism career is coming to a close. Monday, July 15, is my last day at Patch, and as close to my third anniversary as I could make it.

People have been wonderfully welcoming and I would have stayed another three years. After all, I’m interested in the next big developments, like the Apple 2 Campus, Main Street, and how the schools grow in this dynamic, diverse city.

Still, I had a great opportunity, and I didn’t want to pass it up.

And while I’m leaving Patch (and journalism) it’s one that may not really mean goodbye. Because I’m not going far. 

My next adventure is working for state Senator Jerry Hill, who represents California's 13th District. That includes Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Palo Alto, Mountain View and Sunnyvale, in Santa Clara County, plus much of San Mateo County where Sen. Hill is well known and well regarded.

You may see me around town, still, and in our neighboring communities. And I’ll still be asking questions and will be interested in your opinion. We might have a cup of coffee someday, while I’m wearing my new hat.

But no matter what, please keep reading and using Patch. My replacement has not been hired yet, and so you will have to help my colleagues get the best information when they are doing a story for publication in Cupertino Patch.

Keep blogging and commenting on the issues that matter to Cupertino residents. Patch’s new platform will take all announcements and opinion pieces on its boards, and events on its calendar. Use it!