City Website

The city update its website and it is much easier to use. However, and there had to be a however, why in the world is a picture of Garden of the Gods featured on the homepage? Why not something representative of Carbondale, say like Shryock Auditorium or the Arena, something showing off the university.  Or maybe South Illinois, with a view of the streetscaping, or the Varsity Theater?

If you want a natural theme, how about Campus Lake, or Cedar Lake or even Giant City? Or if you really want to go iconic, how about a shot of Boo Rochman "Castle" Park out on Giant City Road?  All of those represent Carbondale far better than an state park an hour away from the city.

Jackson County Map

Courtesy of Jane Adams, here is a link to the GIS Map site located on the Jackson County website.  You can use it to search for the owner of any parcel of land within the boundaries of the county.  So if you have a desire to know who owns the house you are considering renting or the palatial mini-mansion down the street, now you can find out, though there are some glitches and omissions on the site.

City Website Problem

Looks like the city's website is currently down. Going to Explore Carbondale only brings up a blank page.

More Plaudits for City's Website

Or it might just be one plaudit repeated by several different sites as the conservative website Illinois Review posted a positive press release without comment from the Sam Adams Alliance about the Sunshine Review's positive opinion of the City of Carbondale's website.

I would kinda like to know who else has adopted the Sushine Review's checklist that they say has quickly become the standard that governemtn websites should be measured against:

“Sunshine Review has developed a ten-point Transparency Checklist, which consists of information that Sunshine Review and the Sam Adams Alliance believe should be easily accessible to the public,” said Paul Miller, Communications Director for the Sam Adams Alliance. “This checklist has quickly become the standard that all levels of government should be measured against.”

City Website Transperancy

The new Carbondale city website gets a positive review from one transparency advocate. It appears there is a set of standards for transparency on government websites and the new Carbondale site meets all of them.