Breaking News

Media Contact:                                         For Immediate Release:
Maibe Gonzalez Fuentes                                       April 19, 2010
212-669-4813

New York, NY - Public Advocate Bill de Blasio today launched www.advocate.nyc.gov , a revamped website for the Public Advocate’s Office which will improve New Yorkers’ access to information about government services. The redesigned website, developed by New York City-based Grassroots Initiative, demonstrates the office’s commitment to modernizing the way the government interacts with constituents.

“I’m committed to working to make city government as open and accessible to the people as possible,” Public Advocate Bill de Blasio said. “This new website will allow my office to use innovative tools to connect New Yorkers with their government.”

The new Public Advocate’s website offers:

• Easy-to-use online forms to help constituents communicate better with the Public Advocate’s Organizing and Constituent Services Department
• Information about relevant community events organized by the Public Advocate’s Office
• New online tools that allow visitors to learn about and participate in active campaigns in the Public Advocate’s Office
• New resources to easily search and access government services and information
• Embedded Google translation that provides information in different languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Korean, Italian, French Creole, and Hindi

The new Public Advocate’s website also features Open Government NYC, a new searchable database that will disclose voluntarily provided applications for city discretionary funding. The website also discloses the Public Advocate’s meetings with registered lobbyists.

The new website is available under a new domain name: www.advocate.nyc.gov. To facilitate the transition, constituents using the old address www.pubadvocate.nyc.gov will be automatically redirected to the new URL address.

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