Though Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates created a Twitter account in April 2009, the feed remained tweet-free over the three years that followed.
As of Wednesday, however, that has changed. At 12:45 p.m., Bates tweeted about disability activist Hale Zukas, ending his three-year stint of cyber-silence.
“I thought was was time for me to join the new generation,” Bates told local news blog Berkeleyside. “Berkeley is supposed to be where things start, but in this case, we’re going to be followers.”
Bates is no newcomer to technology, however. In regards to his active Facebook account, Bates told Berkeleyside that “we try to keep that pretty fresh,” adding that it is a city account and therefore “not political at all.”
Bates told Berkeleyside that his Twitter account will not be a city account either and that “everything will be done out of the office.”
Walking through Berkeley towards #Ed Roberts Campus. Today we honor Hale Zukas at 1pm.
— Mayor Tom Bates (@MayorTomBates) April 18, 2012
Bates is joining a host of other politicians already utilizing the social networking site. While Twitter-ers like Barack Obama and Anthony Weiner have garnered national attention for their posts – for a running mate announcement and lewd photograph, respectively – local politicians, like Oakland’s Jean Quan and San Francisco’s Ed Lee, have also taken to the site.
In Berkeley, Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Jesse Arreguin are also presences on Twitter, with tweet subjects ranging from the political to the silly.
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!! creamnation.com
— Kriss Worthington (@k__worthington) July 29, 2011
Thank you to Emeryville City Councilmember Ruth Atkin for your endorsement!
— Jesse Arreguin (@JesseArreguin) April 14, 2012
Meanwhile, a parody Twitter account surfaced yesterday for the mayor. Fake Tom Bates has 10 followers, compared to the actual mayor’s 331 followers. The satirical tweets poke fun at Bates’ recent emergence into the Twittersphere.
Is this thing on?!
— Fake Tom Bates (@FakeTomBates) April 17, 2012
If re-elected, I promise to protect Berkeley from dangerous yarnbombers. This will be one of my top priorities! berkeleyside.com/2012/04/09/not…
— Fake Tom Bates (@FakeTomBates) April 17, 2012
