Want to report problems in your neighborhood that the city ought to deal with? Take a look at SeeClickFix.com. It's a great spot to cite for one and all what problems exist -- and to see whether the city deals with them. You can see some of the complaints in the column to the right.
Let's pick up the pace of reporting issues and see whether transparency can hasten action.
*******
Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
Contact Steve Collins at scollins@bristolpress.com
12 comments:
I think you're misusing the word "transparency". Open government is not responsive government. It can lead to it, but it ain't the same thing.
I agree with you, except that's what I said -' "transparency can hasten action."
Government tends to react more quickly if people are watching. We all do.
Do you really think the city will respond to any of these issues just because they are posted here? They don't know the meaning of customer service at the city - I think the last thing they'll do is go looking for reports of problems, they don't respond to the ones that come in by regular channels. Someone should ask the mayor if he will commit to monitoring and responding to these complaints and the ones that are directly reported to the city. Ask him what a public servant should be doing???
Steve,
As your contribution to the betterment of Bristol, and surounding towns, why don't YOU forward the complaints to the appropriate city on a regular basis??
Online complaints are far better than my passing them on directly. The value of transparency vanishes if they aren't out there in public.
If you take a look at the SeeClickFix site, you'll notice that many towns and politicians, including the mayor of New Britain, are monitoring issues within their borders. So far, only the Press is watching the site for Bristol-related problems. But that'll change.
Of course, the city could do all of this on its website. That would serve the same function. What's important is that people can see what the complaints are and find out what the city is doing about them, if anything.
Adolph Hitler used a similar system back in the 40's.
Some things just never change .
It is a sad state of affairs when people cannot/do not call their officials directly.
We used to, up until just recently, basically the current administration.
It would be a sad state of affairs if it was true...but it's not. Nice try though.
To many friends in city hall no one could carry the ball.
And it will be getting worse.
I just created a watch area for the Bristol's Mayor Office. They will receive alerts now.
You can see that watch area here:
http://seeclickfix.com/watch_area/2277
Most city mayor's offices will respond when alerts are sent.
Lets see how Bristol does.
The City can also embed SCF on their site if thy like it as well.
Steve, Check with the PW dept and ask to see the database with problems called in to the city. Look to see how many outstanding items there are for streets and engineering.
Of course they will use this as a reason to get more money or staff. But they just need to get off of their a--es and make city employees do the jobs they are paid for.
then you would not have a need for this other website.
Post a Comment