Thursday, January 8, 2009
Where is the love, City Hall? WHERE?
Posted by Kevin Allman on Thu, Jan 8, 2009 at 6:21 AM
Did you know that the official City of New Orleans Web site had a "Media" page? Me neither. But it makes total sense, given the zillions that have been invested in the city's super-high-tech technology budget under the stewardship of great men like Greg Meffert and Anthony Jones, our own Bill Gates and Steve Jobs. After all, back in 2007, Jones told New Orleans City Business:
We will provide as much access to information and data as possible to our citizens and visitors through our Web site.
So it makes sense that the official city Web site would have a "Media" page! Totally makes sense! And here it is:
Now that's what I call a comprehensive look at New Orleans media for "citizens and visitors alike." I love The Louisiana Weekly (truly), and I think it's peachy that 6 out of the 7 publications they list are from Renaissance Publishing, Inc., the province of Errol Laborde & Co.
But, New Orleans City Hall: no Gambit? No Times-Picayune? No CityBusiness? No WWL, no WVUE, no ABC26? Hell, no Antigravity? (We appreciate your acknowledgment of WDSU, but let's face it: the Mackels can't do it all themselves.)
Are we not your media children too, New Orleans City Hall? Do not citizens and visitors benefit from our fine reporting and commentary about the state of the city? Do we not shine as brilliant a light on our vibrant recovery and thriving business community as does New Orleans Bride?
Sheesh. Unloved, party of one? That's us. We may not be as relevant to the civic pulse as is On Stage: New Orleans' Guide to the Performing Arts; we may be Laborde-less and Mackel-less and small Brabant potatoes to you, but we are humble scriveners too, intermittent pulses of information across the great information superhighway, and dammit, we're here.
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Comments (7)
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Ha! You think that's rich? The city website was a finalists last year for a “Best of the Web Achievement Award’ given by the Center for Digital Government (CDG) for being outstanding in innovation and user-friendly-ness. (http://www.cityofno.com/pg-1-66-press-releases.aspx?pressid=5000) Two of the most laughable examples the city touts as award-winning include: - “GIS technology allows citizens to enter an address to receive a clear picture of the recovery in progress.” - “Interactive maps of crime statistics allow citizens to monitor crime in their neighborhoods.” WTF??? Clearly, members the CDG in Hollywoodland have never tried to use this portal from the standpoint of the average citizen in disaster recovery land trying to get info to rebuild their lives. Staff contact info is virtually non-existent, the interactive pages are buggy, data is not updated and when/if it is, it’s just as ridiculously selected for its administration image-protection value and is as useless as the ‘media list’ they cite. Besides being able to pay tickets or taxes, I defy the average New Orleanian to consistently find useful and current info on this site. For all its expensive bells and whistles that don't work as well as its poor design, the City of NO portal is just another black hole of wasted tax-payer money that can be traced to Nagin’s BFF/crony, former CIO and current shadow sub-contractor Greg Meffert.
Wow, this would be why some people aren't finding out their houses are being demolished in time to stop it. Orleans must be posting the public notices in Bride magazine instead of the Times Picayune.
I like that there are no links to the Ren Pub titles, except OnStage. I get it. I really do. And I like it. :)
And where are We Could Be Famous, Your Right Hand Thief, Some Came Running, Moldy City, Library Chronicles, Maitri's Vatulblog? Homan? Adrastos? Cliff's Crib? NOLA-Dishu?
