Mayor Emanuel to Host Facebook Town Hall to Mark One Year in Office and Call for Public Input

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CHICAGO – Mayor Rahm Emanuel will hold a third live Facebook Town Hall meeting with Chicagoans to discuss his first year in office and to solicit ideas from Chicagoans on how keep our city moving forward. Starting today, the public can submit questions and ideas by visiting www.AskChicago.org. Voting will end on May 30. The live event will take place May 1 at 6:00 PM and can be viewed at www.facebook.com/chicagomayorsoffice or www.livestream.com/chicagomayorsoffice. 

“This first year has shown that while Chicago’s challenges are great, the power of this City to tackle them is greater when we all work together,” said Mayor Emanuel. “I look forward to hearing from the public again as we continue to shape Chicago’s future.”This town hall will be co-hosted by WGCI’s Tony Sculfield and Nina Chantele from “Tony Sculfield and the Morning Riot.” 

In addition to streaming the event live online, the Mayor’s Office is working with the Smart Communities program, the Chicago Public Schools and the City Colleges of Chicago to plan #AskChicago viewing events. These events will be posted online next week at www.AskChicago.org, and residents can also contact 3-1-1 find a local viewing locations where they can participate. 

Since taking office, Mayor Emanuel has leveraged social media to better connect with Chicagoans. This Facebook Town Hall forum compliments existing efforts including:

• ChicagoBudget.org, the first interactive budget website: People across Chicago engaged in the City’s budget process. More than 10,000 ideas and comments for addressing the City’s challenges were posted, generating over 62,000 votes from 3,100 people.
• Windy City Badge and Chicago’s Mayor on Foursquare: Chicago is the world’s first city with its own foursquare City badge, the “Windy City” City badge. The public can follow the Mayor as he travels across the City on Foursquare.com/ChicagosMayor.
• Chicago’s first #AskChicago Facebook Town Hall: On June 30, 2011, Mayor Emanuel was the first sitting mayor of a major city to hold a live online chat in which questions were submitted and ranked by the public. The Mayor has committed to hosting similar forums in the future.
• Mayor’s Office on Twitter, Facebook and Google+: Mayor Emanuel is the first Chicago Mayor to leverage Twitter and Facebook to connect with the public, answer questions and share news. Mayor Emanuel’s office was the first Mayor’s office to use Google+.

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