Want More Email? Sign Up with the City
In a previous piece on Impact 2008, The Chronicle reported that the city of Ann Arbor was working on a pilot project that would let residents subscribe to an email alert by subject, expected to be ready by year’s end. The pilot, at least, appears to be in place. We noticed the appearance of a little red envelope at the top right of the city’s website and followed the link to the email subscription interface.
It’s a straightforward form-filling exercise and offers various categories and subcategories for residents who are interested in receiving emailed updates only on specific topics. It’s possible to select all sub-topics within a category by selecting the category itself. Here at The Chronicle, we’ve signed up for alerts on … everything. What’s that include? The email we’ve already received confirming we’re in the system includes the following list of topics to which we’ll be alerted:
- City Employment
- City Publications
- Emergency Notifications
- Event Road Closures and Detours
- News Updates
- Projects Under Construction
- Ann Arbor Municipal Center Project
- City Budget
- City Council Meetings, Agendas and Minutes
- Community Television Network
- Elections
- Building Services
- Farmers Market
- Golf Courses
- Historic Preservation
- Parks Events Calendar
- Parks and Recreation
- Parks and Recreation Program Guide
- Planning Updates
- Senior Center Programs
- Environment Updates
- Fall Leaf Collection
- Snow Removal
- Solid Waste and Recycling
- Neighborhood Watch
- Police Safety Tips
Part of the reason we’re fairly sanguine about this system is that we’ve subscribed to specific email lists created by the city on a project-by-project basis in the past, and found that it has kept us pretty up to date on those projects. For example, the emailed updates from Liz Rolla on the Huron River Drive project allowed us to report the re-opening of HRD in a timely fashion.