Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb: 27 posts from March 2009

GoogleMap image uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

We have a fairly serious transparency problem here in Franklin. The city website is fairly incomprehensible, and staffing shortages mean that it'll be a long time before resources can be devoted to making it easier for people to know what meetings are upcoming and what projects and developments are pending.

Want to follow a development or issue through myriad meeting and committees? Forget it; the city of Franklin website assumes that you have time to search through EVERY POSSIBLE AGENDA (in PDF format - so you have to download them first) for your development or issue rather than simply list developments and then add to it every meeting and document that is related (see it done right at the city of Davis, California website).

Of course, I highly suspect that not everyone in local government wants information and processes to be easily accessible. The emergence of local blogs has been a source of extreme discomfort for many longtime local pols, and has arguably contributed to the resignation of more than one of the "old boys" who did not appreciate the extra scrutiny.

I also suspect this is why we still see city meetings stop regularly - in the year 2009! - so someone can flip the cassette used to record the meeting!

Still, they're slipping 'em by us now and then.

For instance: Did you know the city might actually spend stimulus money (with Greendale) to, inexplicably, widen 51st street to four lanes between Rawson and College Ave.? AND, did you know that St. Paul's Church (see above; it's beautiful even in a GoogleMaps screenshot) will have to be torn down to accommodate that folly? (More on that later).

District 3 Alderperson Kristen Wilhelm sends out regular emails alerts (the only reason I know about 51st Street) and updates her website; it may be time to get her and the other council members Twitter accounts so they can send and be sent news during meetings.

In the UK, they seem to be on top of the possibilities of new media in keeping local government answerable to the people:

Councils turn to new media:

Local authorities have been using social media to keep residents informed about how the heavy snowfalls have affected services.

Authorities including Lichfield and Babergh district councils used micro-blogging site Twitter to announce canceled bin collections while Newcastle city council used its Twitter account to keep parents informed about school closures.

Other councils including Barnet, Southwark and Hillingdon had regular website updates. Increasing numbers of councils and councillors are turning to social media to communicate with residents. Latest figures suggest more than 20 councils and a further 40 individual councillors have Twitter accounts and Newcastle city council recently became the first to use Twitter to announce the results of a by-election.

Alastair Smith, communications advisor at Newcastle city council, believes the use of new media is part of the democratisation of information and can lead to greater openness and transparency.

He said: “It’s a great way to engage with the citizen. Rather than it being a one-way communication, it’s two-way. If you are putting a message out there, it’s important to hear what people think about it.”

The use of online media is growing. Over the past year the use of Twitter has rocketed nearly 1,000%. Mr Smith believes that with the number of traditional news sources diminishing it will be increasingly important for councils to maintain an online presence.

“While it is important to maintain a relationship with traditional media, if people are looking at YouTube we need to be there. We need to have a presence where our customers are,” he said.

Communicating in a Digital Age

Increasing numbers of councils and councillors are turning to social media to communicate with residents and to keep up to date with what is happening in their local communities. Alison Purdy looks at how councillors are getting to grips with the digital age.

Is social media a useful tool for councils and councillors to communicate with residents?

Twitter is one of the latest social media buzzes. Although it has been around for a while it is now starting to gain more widespread popularity as more people as increasing numbers of people start to use it. Celebrities from Stephen Fry to Barack Obama use Twitter accounts to update their fans. Nationally the Conservative party is on Twitter, along with No 10, the Foreign Office and Parliament. But there is also a vibrant community of people posting updates who are involved in local government and a number of councils using Twitter as part of their engagement drive.

Latest figures suggest that more than 20 councils are using Twitter with a further 40 individual councillors regularly posting their own personal messages, known as tweets. Newcastle city council became the first local authority in the UK to announce election results in real time through the social networking site. The Fenham ward by-election results were sent to ‘followers’ of the council – people signed up to read their messages – through the website or on their mobile phones as soon as they were announced.

And more recently councils around the country used Twitter to keep residents up to date with the latest weather situation and the impact the snow storms were having on council services. Here are some examples of how councillors are using Twitter and other social media to get their message across.

Twitter

Cllr James Cousins (Con) Wandsworth council Twitter is often portrayed in the media as a festival of celebrity banality but it is a valuable medium, where diverse people congregate, contribute and discuss. I first became aware of its power through Twitter conversations about local government engagement, and from there it was an obvious step to use it as a councillor. My approach, in short, has been to ‘be human’. I use my personal account and try to avoid too much about the town hall, which I suspect even I would find dull. Instead I try to make my ‘tweets’ either encourage discussion or be informative, but that doesn’t stop me discussing TV or celebrating my team’s rare wins.

What is surprising is not just how many local people were tweeting, but how many were eager to engage and use Twitter to communicate with their councillor. While I often sit in a draughty library with no-one attending my surgery it is quite the reverse in the ‘Twitterverse’ where people are keen to ask questions or air local issues with me. In the past week alone parks, parking, traffic, policing and business issues have all been raised with me via Twitter. Like any dialogue, you get out what you put in. For me, Twitter has been incredibly rewarding

Facebook

Cllr Daniel Cox (Con) Norfolk county council Norfolk county council recently used Facebook as a tool in our campaign to get the government to bring forward the dualling of the final single carriageway stretch of the A11 – a major route into, and out of, Norfolk. Our two-month campaign resulted in 16,000 people signing either a hard copy, or the online, petition, with an additional 3,200 joining our Facebook group.

The business community regarded the dualling as vital for boosting competitiveness and improving the perception of Norfolk as a great place in which to do business. The economic benefits of dualling the road are estimated at £600m – far outweighing the cost of construction. Thousands of people who live in Norfolk, or have links with the county, have Facebook accounts and many Norfolk-related groups already existed. This gave us an opportunity to reach an existing online Norfolk community – many of whom had direct experience of this section of the A11.

Different audience

Some of these people may have kept in touch with news via the local media, and some may have seen the petition in our libraries, or on our website, but many wouldn’t have, and Facebook provided us with a direct way of reaching a different campaign audience. We linked up with a number of groups, including Norfolk live music venues – stressing the benefits it could bring in terms of bands and DJs finding it an easier and quicker location to reach.

We also targeted online football forums – mainly related to Norwich City football club, but also forums of teams who were heading into Norfolk to play during the time we ran the campaign. Ultimately we were able to access groups of people who conventionally would have shown little interest in local government campaigns – personalising the benefits for their specific interests. The result was that transport secretary Geoff Hoon announced that dualling would be brought forward to 2010 – the first road scheme he has announced since being in office.

YouTube

Cllr Maureen McGarvey (Con) Blackburn with Darwen council. I’m the first to admit that I still use one finger to type on my computer keyboard. But when it comes to trying new ways of connecting with our community I’m all in for it – even if I don’t always fully understand the tool being used. We were recently awarded the top possible ‘four score’ corporate assessment rating. It’s not easy to engage staff and the wider public with something like an inspection report. That’s why I was pleased to see some creativity with the communications.

Our chief executive was filmed being questioned in a journalistic style. His answers and relevant images from the borough were used to make a three-minute video. The idea was to show the story behind the Audit Commission rating. The video was posted on YouTube and the link was sent to staff and members via e-bulletins and further ‘seeded’ (I’m told that’s the right term) by emailing to partners and adding to relevant social message boards. Information about the video was given out on our website and the local paper ran a story. Innovation was one of our inspection strengths so it was only right that we did the same with celebrating the success. I believe we’re pioneers with the use of video in inspection communications and I’d recommend it to other councils. It certainly got people talking and that’s half the battle. The video can be found at www.youtube.com/BwDCtube

Blogging

Cllr Clive Hudson (Lab) Wakefield council As Wakefield’s environment champion I have created an online diary to chronicle my family’s attempts to become greener and our switch to the new alternative weekly bin collection scheme. This blog is also an opportunity to try to encourage people who live, work and visit the district to take care of their environment. My family and I are very involved with keeping the district clean and green and as part of this we have changed to a more environmentally-friendly family car.

I live in Altofts which has now joined the new bin collection scheme. This encourages everyone to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill and, in turn, helps people to think about the amount of packaging they use. When I was asked if I would be interested in creating the blog it seemed the perfect time to get to grips with new technology and set-up an online diary so people can see how we are attempting to become greener and help the Wakefield district continue to be a place we can all be proud of.

Wakefield has so much to offer and I’m a strong believer that if we all work together, take pride in our places and say no to litter and waste, we can strengthen the area as a beautiful place to live, work and visit. Visitors to the online diary – at http:// cleanergreener.wakefield.gov.uk – can see how I have been preparing for the change, including getting rid of most of the bins at home.

The "tax hell" dogmatists (Read: Mary Lazich, for instance) would have you believe that a state or community's "tax ranking" (i.e. how high they tax rate is in comparison to other states, according to the math of some self-styled "Foundation") is the single most important factor in attracting business.

Wrong.

Turns out some of that the other stuff that "conservatives" have been trying to strangle - including that nasty, expensive, wasteful EDUCATION component -is a leading beacon to new business:

When an IBM delegation came to town in October, the development group provided detailed information about Dubuque. That included résumés of 600 prospective employees with information technology skills.

"I think that blew their mind," said Blouin, an ex-congressman and former state economic development official. "I think they were skeptical about the work force availability. So, we chose to make that a strength."

IBM managers made two more visits to Dubuque. They were especially impressed by their conversations with officials from the area colleges and vocational schools, said company spokeswoman Jenna Gable.

The other finalists considered by the company were all midsize communities that house major universities: Greenville, S.C., home of Clemson University; Morgantown, W.Va. (West Virginia University); Bloomington, Ind. (Indiana University); Columbia, Mo. (University of Missouri); and Laramie, Wyo. (University of Wyoming).

Dubuque is home to three small colleges - Clarke College, Loras College and University of Dubuque - with a combined enrollment of just more than 4,000 students.

But the larger Dubuque region includes technical and community colleges, and University of Wisconsin-Platteville. UW-Platteville Chancellor David Markee and Southwest Wisconsin Technical College President Karen Knox were among the college officials who lobbied IBM.

And, while Dubuque certainly did not shy away from offering a healthy package of incentives, it did not have to strangle its entire tax structure (and the infrastructure and programs those taxes pay for) in order to attract business:

Iowa not exactly a tax haven

When IBM chose Dubuque for its service center, some observers assumed Iowa's tax structure was a factor. A company statement mentioned Dubuque's competitive business environment, and the project is getting a $53 million financial incentives package. But the latest state business tax climate index, created by the Tax Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based group that supports lower taxes, ranks Iowa as 44th out of the 50 states. Wisconsin ranks 38th, according to the annual foundation study. The other states that were finalists for the IBM project were Wyoming, which ranked first; Indiana, 14th; Missouri, 16th; South Carolina, 25th; and West Virginia, 36th.

In landing IBM center, Dubuque offers lessons for Milwaukee - JSOnline: