Mayors Column

By Gary Haakenson

So Ive finally succumbed to the Twitter craze!

Maybe not for the reason you may think. I actually have had a Twitter account for a couple years and was specifically using it only for family as a quick way to keep in touch.

But, with cell phones, email, Facebook, and old stodgy landline telephones, it hardly seemed like it was worth the effort! At least thats the message I was getting from the silence of my family members tweets.

Twitter is a service that allows a sender to send a message up to 140 characters to a list of folks. It arrives as an email on your computer or a text message on your cell phone.

As many of you know, one of my goals every year, as mayor is to find ways to communicate with Edmonds residents. Over the past ten years, Ive held town hall meetings and neighborhood meetings, written columns such as this in the local papers, and tried to be accessible to all of you.

Yet, inevitably, its difficult to reach everyone. The answer for communicating with citizens doesnt lie with just one form of communication; it involves many forms.

Ive also been looking for ways to have more immediate connection with City employees other than individual email or text messages.

The last snowstorm was a great example of having a need to communicate in a blanket fashion. Not just with employees but with citizens as well.

Or maybe I can update you on the whereabouts of our latest young bear cub visitor. You may remember a couple years ago a young male bear led us on a wild chase through Edmonds, eventually ending in his capture and release back in the wild.

This year we are having a repeat visitor. The bears must have tweeted each other about how nice Edmonds is.

We are fairly certain the bear that was spotted in Magnolia, Ballard, and Shoreline in recent weeks passed through Edmonds on his journey.

He was spotted on Main Street on a Saturday night between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. Then he cruised through Talbot Road, checking out garbage cans along the way before showing up at Meadowdale Beach Park in a stream on Sunday morning. Last I heard he went through Mukilteo and was visiting Everett.

So if you would like to follow me on Twitter, youll need to set up an account.

Its free and easy (a text message charge may apply depending on your cell phone service). Go to Twitter.com and follow the directions.

You can search for me at edmondsmayor and then click follow. From then on youll get all my updates. As I mentioned, you can receive updates on your phone or through email or both.

I have found it best at a minimum to have messages sent to your cell phone for quicker delivery.
Happy tweeting!