New Haven Independent

As neighbors grumble in the icy aftermath of a weekend nor’easter, a group of aldermen proposed a hotline that would make it easier to lodge a complaint about, or connect to, city services.

Late Monday, three days after a weekend storm coated the city in ice, East Rock’s Anderson Street (pictured, intersecting the smoothly plowed Willow Street near a local watering hole) remained unplowed, the sheet of sleet and slush slowly hammered away by falling drops of rain.

Could a hotline streamline the plowing process and ensure no street is left behind?

Alderman Ed Mattison, who lives on that neglected street and represents that East Rock ward, certainly hopes so.

Plowing was “terrible” after Friday’s storm hit, he said. “The main streets were plowed fine, but the side streets, many of them were not plowed at all.” Having a hotline would allow citizens to call and help looping plows point towards the blocks they missed.

“Either the city will have to get its act together to respond,” or its shortcomings would at least be documented in an organized way, reckoned Mattison, joining 14 other aldermen in proposing a catch-all 311 hotline that would point callers to the correct department to lodge complaints or reach city services.

“It’s totally frustrating for people who are paying taxes to feel they are being bounced around” when they call for basic services, said Alderman Carl Goldfield, who’s backing an aldermanic resolution directing the mayor to create a task force to establish a 311 system.

“There’s nothing worse than feeling like everyone here is out at lunch,” said the aldermanic president, standing in the offices of City Hall Monday.

The hotline, based on a 311 system in New York City, would be answered by a trained professional. The cost, and operating hours, have yet to be hashed out, but Goldfield reckoned it would be “worth a little extra cost to feel like [people in the city] are being heard.”

Newly appointed number-two-in-command Rob Smuts has taken interest in the idea. When the storm slammed the city over the weekend, he got a first-hand account of the storm-cleanup process on his first day as acting CAO. He called each alderman personally and scoped out each neighborhood’s streets.

“It was my first storm; I was trying to get a sense of how we do it and how we can improve it.” A 311 system would effectively do all the legwork Smuts did by calling 30 aldermen, who had each received several complaints about encumbering heaps of snow. 311 is “a great idea in theory. … Anything that can help you process information in an organized manner and respond to it will obviously improve services.”

East Rock Alderman Roland Lemar posed some added bonuses to the three-digit fix: What if you find a dead cat and you don’t know whom to call? Calling 311 instead of the police non-emergency number would free up that overburdened system, where callers hang up in frustration after an exhausting chain of “ring, ring, ring.”

And whom to call if your trash isn’t picked up? 311 would manage the inefficiencies in those municipal services, said Lemar.

An internal database documenting calls could easily guide more city services to adopt a method currently touted by schools and cops: Harvest data, adjust resources. Change wouldn’t happen overnight, but inadequacies would be well-noted.

“I don’t want to delude anyone into thinking they’ll show up and pave your sidewalk the next day, but at least they won’t get bounced around,” said Goldfield.

“Sharpen Your Blades”: A Neighborhood Review

How did the city fare on cleanup this weekend? A poll of a sample of aldermen revealed at least one side-street went unplowed in most wards. Newhallville and Dixwell got the worst reviews, while some outlying areas passed without complaint. Here’re some responses from alders tracked down Monday.

Newhallville Alderman Charles A. Blango (pictured): “There was no parking. They pushed the snow way on both sides like mountains,” trapping cars. Some areas went unplowed. “Maybe because of the sleet, the blades needed to be sharpened.”

Dwight/West River Alderman Yusuf Shah: “The plows were horrible. Horrible! That’s all I’m going to say.”

“I had three calls, and nobody every calls me,” said Newhallville’s Katrina Jones. “They told me, ‘We pay a lot of taxes and we haven’t had a lot of snow this season.’ They expected the snow to be cleared in a timely fashion.”

Beaver Hills Alderman Moti Sandman: A handful of narrow side streets got overlooked. “Out of 10, I would give them a six.”

Edgewood Alderwoman Liz McCormack, Quinnipiac Heights Alderman Gerald Antunes, and Fair Haven Heights Alderman Alex Rhodeen, all found one or two side streets had been overlooked.

East Shore Alderwoman Arlene DePino got a handful of plowing complaints, but thanked public works for rushing to the Dean Street area and pumping floodwaters away from homes “all night.”

Downtown Alderwoman Bitsie Clark blamed the unwieldy wintry mix — snow cemented down by thick sleet. Snow-blowers broke. A boy on Audubon Street took four hours to clear a path. “Yes, the streets weren’t beautifully cleared,” but plowers had to deal with a “horrendous situation,” Clark said.

Hill Alderman Jorge Perez gave plowers a poor review, but remained skeptical about the proposed hotline. “We have a public works hotline. It doesn’t do anything,” he said, urging the 311 be properly staffed.

The hotline resolution will be introduced at April’s Board of Aldermen meeting, with two public hearings to follow.

Have ideas to add? Post a comment below, or tell your alderman.