Good Morning America

[AllanY2525]

Phil,

Thanks for passing on the suggestion to Mayor Williams.  It is
nice to see his blog finally updated, after seven long months
in hiatus.

Perhaps the mayor could designate a specific staff member to
make postings on his behalf, if he does not have the time to
log in and update the blog in person.

I am sure that there are lots of things the mayor would like to
say to the people of Youngstown - he could easily rattle them off
to a staffer, who could then post them on the blog.

In my own humble opinion, it does not make Mayor Williams look
good in the eyes of the citizens of Youngstown when the blog
goes unattended for seven months at a time.  It gives the sense
that the mayor is becoming "out of touch" with his constituency [sp?]

Anyways, not bashing the mayor here - just making another
suggestion.  It would seem to me that all it would take is a
few minutes of the mayor's time - maybe once a week(?) to keep
his blog rolling by updating it more frequently.  It would also help
to portray him as a mayor who is dedicated to keeping the people
of Youngstown "in the loop" with what is going on, etc.

[Defend Youngstown]

He like the idea very much as wants to start with his letter of endorsement for Obama:

http://mayorjaywilliams.blogspot.com/

[Defend Youngstown]

I totally agree. I set up his blog for him for that purpose. I just emailed him to see if he'd like to post speeches that he has preparred to the blog (the Vindy Obama letter for starters). I'll keep the board posted.

[AllanY2525]

P.S. The Mayor does give an annual State of the City address each year at the Mayor's Ball @ Stambaugh Auditorium. The synopsis is usually provided in media outlets the following day for those who couldn't attend.

Maybe Mayor Williams could post his state of the city address on his blog site?  Just a suggestion...of course, his blog has
not been updated in several months now....

[ytowner]

It's a good idea, and a real LEADER would do these type of things, but our Mayor can't even manage to post on his blog from time to time.

Well he is out slamming Sarah Palin so he doesn't have the time to post a blog article up there.

Secondly, GMA is here not to show Youngstown, but to show McCain. It is nice of them to pick an area that is a nice looking one: YSU!

[Defend Youngstown]

If it was 1 female, 2 males (one w/ goat tee) then, yes.

[ForumManager]

I was at the board of elections voting early yesterday and a film crew was there. They were speaking a foreign language to each other that I didn't recognize.  Was that possibly the Finnish crew?

I just conducted tours/interviews with the national media of Canada and Finland today as well. CNN was here yesterday and today (although the exposure was not all that positive).

PK

[Defend Youngstown]

Often times, it is often not a matter of creating a positive list to showcase to the media. In my experience (and I deal w/ a decent portion of the media that comes through town), the media actually does do their fair share of homework before they come to Youngstown. It has more to do w/ what angle they want to present and what their storyline is. The best approach is to show them the balance. If they want a rusted steel mill on a brownfield, you also show them Exal Corp.; if they want to film The Kress Building downtown, you also show them Turning Tech; If they want to film the Oak Hill neighborhood, you also show them Arlington Heights; etc. At the end of the day, the media is going to tell and sell the story they want but having good people on hand to narrate is important. Without a good narrator who can paint the picture and show them good/bad or before/after, you get France 24. With a good narrator, you get a lot of the good, balanced coverage that you'll find on the Youngstown 2010 website. Recent ex. Finland came only to shoot a few images of some rusted mills on Poland Ave. and talk about the hard economic times and the election. Because we were able to show them multiple sites, explain the bigger plan/picture, and provide some balanced quotes, they are now returning after the election to do a 6-7 minute piece about the city itself because they were intrigued/impressed. That is a result of forcing the media to examine both sides when they come to Youngstown.

PK

P.S. The Mayor does give an annual State of the City address each year at the Mayor's Ball @ Stambaugh Auditorium. The synopsis is usually provided in media outlets the following day for those who couldn't attend.

[Elmo-Ytown]

It's a good idea, and a real LEADER would do these type of things, but our Mayor can't even manage to post on his blog from time to time.

[AllanY2525]

I think someone should come up with a comprehensive list of ALL the
positive achievements of the city in the past five years, and then PUSH
these as much as humanly possible when showcasing the city to outside
parties, such as news agencies who are reporting on the state of the city.

I think the mayor should stage an annual "State of the City" address to
the people of Youngstown (maybe bi-annualy??) to make it clear to
everyone in and OUTside of the city all of the good work that is being
done.

[Defend Youngstown]

I just conducted tours/interviews with the national media of Canada and Finland today as well. CNN was here yesterday and today (although the exposure was not all that positive).

PK

[Elmo-Ytown]

Good Morning America will be broadcasting from Youngstown on Friday, and from the way the story reads, it looks like they may actually show some of the good in our city.... unlike a certain frenchman I can think of...

http://www.vindy.com/news/2008/oct/28/gma-live-youngstown-friday/?newswatch