Raise the Hammer

Well, it looks easier to navigate than the City of Hamilton website...

I'm glad the mayor has decided to communicate with the public in this way, but if the goal is to "engage in discussions" and "exchange ideas", enabling comments on the site would be a more direct way to do that. That said, as we all know, the mayor doesn't have many staff, so I could see that the burden of comment administration might be more work than they're willing to take on. Perhaps they could hire someone to be in charge of their online communications strategy - it's 2012, after all.

I was looking at the site, and can't find the focus of this blog.

Is it to tell citizens about the goings-on of the Mayor or his office? Is it to talk about the folksy things he knows about the city? Is it to discuss issues important to him? Is it a platform for him to talk about how great he is?

Maybe they don't know what it will be used for or grow into. But it would be nice to know. Simply saying it's to "engage in discussions, exchange ideas, and provide good information related to the City of Hamilton." is fine, but he says that's the mandate as mayor. Is there a specific vision statement or goal published somewhere? Maybe I missed it while looking it over.

Sidenote: Does the mayor have a twitter feed for quick notes about what's happening in the city?

Comment edited by DowntownInHamilton on 2012-06-02 08:46:57

Wow, like Pravda without the letters to the editor.

Given that blogs usually (always?) allow for interaction through comments, does that make this just a blo?

The announcement of Mayor Bratina’s new blog comes on the heels of his recent hints that he will run for re-election in 2014: http://www.thespec.com/news/local/articl...

Perhaps he senses a mayoralty challenge from former mayor Larry DiIanni in 2014.

A day after placing second in the 2010 mayoralty election, Mr. DiIanni said to Emma Reilly of The Hamilton Spectator, “I think I’ve run my political course. There’s no question about that.” http://www.thespec.com/print/article/270...

But a short while later, Mr. DiIanni began fashioning himself into a local media personality, perhaps borrowing a page from Mayor Bratina and Jason Farr, now the Ward 2 Councillor, who used their media presence and influence to help them win their municipal offices in 2010. DiIanni became the host of three Cable 14 television programs: For The Record, Hamilton Talks, and The O-Show. He is also a frequent participant on the Twitter sites of Joey Coleman and Hamilton Spectator reporter Emma Reilly.

On the April 5, 2012 edition of Hamilton Talks, at the end of a 24 minute interview with Matt Jelly, DiIanni asked Jelly whether he would run for political office again. Jelly replied ‘Maybe, I don’t know. I don’t know two years down the line or two and a half. Are you?” Di Ianni responded with “That’s a good political answer. I’d answer your question but we’re out of time.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SFzhXLjM...

While it is unlikely that either Bratina or DiIanni will make any official declarations one way or the other until about two months before the 2014 mayoral election, the clouds seem to be forming for a Bratina vs. DiIanni rematch.

Comment edited by RenaissanceWatcher on 2012-06-02 13:14:11

Is it to tell citizens about the goings-on of the Mayor or his office? Is it to talk about the folksy things he knows about the city? Is it to discuss issues important to him? Is it a platform for him to talk about how great he is?

Well, we all know his opinion on "platforms" (of course, you were likely referring to "stage", rather than the political definition)

I think engaging in a discussion, even a limited one as possible through a blog site, is important. But there's little point if there's no actual engagement via responses to reader entries. Otherwise, all you'll get is what now appears on the Spec: a wide range of responses, some informed, some not, some agreeable, some offensive, with perhaps a bit of dialogue between responders. That's fine for a news outlet, but for a political leader who can potentially effect change there should be more to it for the blog to be of any real value. Otherwise it's just a column, and the mayor might be better served hosting that on a news website to reach the most readers.

Comment edited by ScreamingViking on 2012-06-02 13:18:05

Andrew Dreschel's column in the Hamilton Spectator today is titled "Who's going to take on Bratina in 2014?". Dreschel floats eight interesting names as potential mayoralty candidates in 2014 including four current members of city council, two former Liberal MPPs and ex-cabinet ministers, and two prominent businessmen. Dreschel did not mention Larry DiIanni at all in his article. http://www.thespec.com/news/local/articl...

Comment edited by RenaissanceWatcher on 2012-06-04 08:19:07

I'm not sure what advice "The Hamiltonian, Raise the Hammer, Joey Coleman and others" provided, but I'm not seeing much evidence that their advice was followed-- unless their it was "make it look amateurish" or "tell people you're going to engage in discussions and exchange ideas but don't give them a mechanism to do so" -- which I'm sure it wasn't.

Bob's Blah Blog.

Any excuse to revisit a classic!

http://goo.gl/0d1RA