During the 06/13/2022 Common Council meeting, Mayor Woodford will be presenting two mayoral proclamations.
In the first, he proclaims June 21, 2022, to be “Make Music Day Appleton”, highlights a “Make Music Day Appleton” event that will be held downtown, and encourages “all residents to join in the celebration of this event”.
With the second he declares June 17, 2022 to be “Dump the Pump Day” and encourages “residents to use public transportation, carpool, or ride a bicycle for local travel needs whenever possible.”
[I understand that mayoral proclamations are simply an officious form of marketing, and one of the more easily ignored forms of marketing at that, so they’re not something that typically raises my hackles. However, the Dump the Pump Day proclamation struck me as particularly tone deaf and ridiculous. People are being negatively impacted enough by gas prices as it is without being told a viable solution to the economic mess America is in right now is to ride buses and bicycles more. Everybody knows that buses and bikes exist, and people are more than capable of making their own travel decisions without input from the mayor. Additionally, were the dream laid out in this proclamation actually achieved, it’s hard to see the mental health of community members being positively impacted by having their time with family and friends markedly cut down after their daily commute goes from a convenient 15-minute car drive to a soul deadening 1 hour bus ride.]
Thank you for sharing these – once again, if it weren’t for All Things Appleton, I would never hear of these.
So beyond generating paper and sharing at meetings that 99.9% of city residents never watch or participate in otherwise, how are these promoted?
A waste of time and effort – and money.
Often proclamations are presented at events which involve a relevant community group. For example, an Arbor Day proclamation might be given as some event involving a local environmental group, or a Bee Day proclamation could have been given to the local Pollenablers group. City Hall posts about them on social media sometimes too. Other than that, as far as I’m aware, they just get noted at the Common Council meetings and then filed on the city website.