City Of Amarillo Starts New Blog To Answer Your Questions
Scrolling through my Facebook news feed, I came across a sponsored post from the City of Amarillo. It looks like the city is hoping to open the lines of communication with we the people.
According to the post, the city will be taking your questions and concerns, and will be responding with a blog regarding the topic. The website can be found here.
As of right now, it looks like the page is pretty lean when it comes to posts. There is one regarding the summer lunches, summer school crossings, and water use. The other is an introduction to the page itself.
The blog is titled "Open Spaces – the official blog of the City of Amarillo." There is also a video announcement that features a nice, inspiring music bed and some cool shots of town.
The video promises that the blog will be "transparent" and "factual." You are encouraged to reach out to the city blog with any, and all, of your questions. It looks as if this must be done by e-mail, if that's a thing you still do.
Things immediately got heated in the Facebook comment section for the sponsored post. People are skeptical regarding how "open" the city will be. They're also skeptical when it comes to how "censored" the posts, responses, and questions will be.
The city has a lot of work to do in order to regain the trust of the people. A recent news story that blew up tackled the subject of requesting public records from the city, and the cost associated with it. If nothing else, it cast a dark shadow over the city's willingness to open and transparent.
Personally, I don't know that a blog is the way to go. Honestly, I don't know what anyone could do in the city's position to show that they are truly being open with we the people. True or not, it seems as if the general sentiment is that there are two Amarillos, and you're probably not in the one that's in the know.
Time will tell, and if this blog is really able to get down to brass tacks and handle the nitty-gritty, maybe trust can be earned from the general public.