The Best of Patch: January

As the year comes to a close, we tend to look back at what exactly we accomplished over the past 365 days.

December marked the inception of Shorewood Patch and January was our first full month of serving the community. We thought we'd look back at the top stories of the year, month by month.

• See the entire Shorewood Year in Review series.

Here’s a recap of the news that made headlines in January. Though we were still new, we kicked off the month with some great stories.

Over the two-month span of December and January, Shorewood and Whitefish Bay residents fell victim to a rash of home burglaries.

With 12 home break-ins in each community, some residents were getting antsy over the increase in crime and police officials put more cops on the street to try to buck the crime trend.

Many residents were asking the same question Patch columnist Jenny Heyden was: what the heck is that white stuff on North Shore Bank?

In her article on Jan. 23, Heyden seeks answers about the new facade improvement to the local bank, which she said resembled "playground equipment."

The longtime face of Shorewood's business district, Barb Caprile, was out as the village's marketing director.

After six years at the position, the Shorewood Business Improvement District decided they wouldn't renew Caprile's contract and instead go with marketing firm P.K. Wheeler.

Patch columnist Jenny Heyden's father is a huge supporter of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, so when tragedy hit Tucson Jan. 12 after a crazed man open fire attempting to assassinate Giffords and killing several other people, including a child, Heyden began to worry.

Thanks to a carving for a burrito and a cold, Heyden's father was at a restaurant and not volunteering with Giffords at the grocery store where she was shot in the head.

I wish I could say I literally traveled the river of toilet water to Patch, because that would make for an epic article, but this story about my small journey to editing Shorewood Patch is equally fascinating.