Help NBPT Get Noticed!

by Ari Herzog on March 20, 2010 · 0 comments

Variants of the following text have been circulated by email through different people and organizations in recent days. Can I ask you to emulate them by copying and pasting the below, substituting your name where there is an underscore in the second paragraph, and sending it to as many people as you know? Only through wide distribution can more nomination forms be submitted.

–BEGIN HERE–
If you know about the Google fiber initiative please go to http://fibernbpt.com to see how you can help. If not, please read on and share with your friends and colleagues…

Google wants to build an ultra-high speed broadband network and increase Internet access speeds by a factor of 100 in a handful of communities across the United States — and Newburyport hopes to be one of them.

_______ is pleased to join Mayor Donna Holaday, the Newburyport City Council, the Newburyport School Department, Senator Steven Baddour, Representative Michael Costello, Anna Jaques Hospital, PortMedia, and other supporters to nominate Newburyport to be a national trial community for Google fiber.

Please visit http://fibernbpt.com for background and instructions about how you can help. If you have any questions, please email fibernbpt@gmail.com.

–END HERE–

Thanks! I’m sponsoring a community brainstorming event on Sunday afternoon at the library, as elaborated here. Hope you can make it.

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Show You the Money?

by Ari Herzog on March 16, 2010 · 0 comments

A search for federal loan recipients in Newburyport in 2009 yields one result: The Inn at Newburyport received a $236,000 certified development loan from the Small Business Administration.

Cognizant federal spending data is available for you to search in detail as I shared above, the state of Massachusetts is not far behind with their work-in-progress open data initiative. And locally? Do I need to tell you what detail about financial spending can be found on the city’s website? The auditor’s office acts as accounts payable; does their website satisfy your thirst for seeing where money is spent?

The Budget & Finance Committee met last night and we briefly discussed our common desire to share more information online than in years’ past. More conversation is necessary, and we need to include the mayor and information services director to share ideas and better ascertain what’s possible with city technologies without using cloud services. Stay tuned.

If there is specific financial information about the city you would like to see online that you can’t find today, what would you want to see?

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Want to View City Council Agendas in Advance?

March 12, 2010

City councilors receive electronic and/or print copies of agendas in advance of posted council meetings. The city clerk’s website has details about the inclusiveness, adding that late file items may be added and/or removed on the council floor.
Cognizant of a process to follow when changing data on the city website, PDF links of agendas at [...]

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Dear Newburyport: Please Complete Census Forms

March 9, 2010

The U.S. Census Bureau mailed advance letters to 120 million households this week. I received mine yesterday. I think the letter was a waste of money, but if it helps someone remember that a subsequent form is coming, I suppose it’s money well spent.
From the Census blog:
Every one percent of the US households that return [...]

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Merit Pay, Student Tests, and Unions: Teachers Speak Out

March 8, 2010

This is not an article about Newburyport — but it could be.
This is not an article about Newburyport teachers — but they may be included.
In an enlightening public policy study released today, nearly 1,000 U.S. public school teachers of Generation Y students speak out on incentive pay, standardized test scores, and unions. Their answers may [...]

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How I Use Twitter in Newburyport for Crisis Communications and Constituent Relations

February 27, 2010

In the wake of Thursday night’s very windy nor’easter that plunged the city into darkness, uprooted trees and barns that fell on cars, and exploded shingles and glass windows onto sidewalks below, many residents in Newburyport and the region used their mobile devices or found places with free Wi-Fi and turned to social networking services [...]

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The Future of Wind Turbines in Newburyport

February 24, 2010

The Planning Board and City Council’s Planning & Development Committee jointly meet next week to discuss the latest iteration of the wind energy conversion facility ordinance, last updated in November 2009 by the P&D Committee.
Please scroll to the bottom of this blog post (click here if you are reading this in email) to view embeds [...]

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Surveying Surveillance Camera Opinions

February 22, 2010

You shared your thoughts with me two weeks ago on the subject of police surveillance cameras in the form of blog comments, Facebook reflections, and email messages — and I mentioned I’d follow-up.
I exchanged email communications with the police marshal and the mayor, and verbally chatted with the city clerk, and we arrived at a [...]

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Sharing Teen Resident Letter to the White House

February 17, 2010

Newburyport resident Orren Fox, 13, would like the White House to erect a chicken coop alongside its organic garden and swarm of bees. He thinks visitors would enjoy seeing and petting happy chickens during presidential visits…. not to mention the eggs would be nutritious for White House breakfasts.
Because local laws currently prohibit households to have [...]

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Reviewing Newburyport Snow Emergency Parking Protocols

February 17, 2010

Any standing committee of the City Council may meet at 6:30 p.m. before the second meeting of every month, in accordance with City Council Rule #7. The city clerk’s office has a copy of a posted notice that lists the dates of these meetings and that such meetings are open to the Committee of the [...]

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