New Haven Independent

Posted by: A fan | December 20, 2007 3:40 PM

About time! The phone line isn't working yet, but the web option is. I just logged 3 complaints! Easy to use, a tracking number assigned and I already forwarded the reply email to my alderman for follow up. Its about time our government started using tax dollars to serve the public! Thank you Alderman Lemar!

Posted by: a welcome distraction | December 20, 2007 4:04 PM

Clearly this is a good and cost effective government innovation - giving people the ability to easily log their complaints and ask questions is an important function of city government. I just can't believe an Alderman would push for it -Doesn't Lemar know that the key to Aldermanic power in this politically bankrupt city is in being the only person who navigate the City's beauracracy and direct people to the right departments? What will Aldermen do know? Maybe they will actually have to become active legislators rather than keepers of the secret phone numbers and only directing their friends to the right departments to get things done. If 311 actually works, the role of the alderman might actually change for the better - Instead of voting for the guy that can potholes filled, I can vote for the person I think is my ideological counterpart.

Posted by: The Crank from Ward 13 | December 20, 2007 4:16 PM

WOW! Something useful coming out of New Haven. I like Lemar's focus on improving basic city services. Alderman Rhodeen is like that too. Hopefully DeStefanonothing will co-opt more of their ideas and refrain from the liberal goody - two-shoes crap he's been pushing for the last few years.

Posted by: Josiah Brown | December 20, 2007 7:45 PM

Compliments to the City for trying this, and to Roland Lemar for driving consideration of the idea. I just used the 311 site to make a request and look forward to following the results and potential savings/efficiency gains.

Posted by: Our Town | December 20, 2007 8:21 PM

This is smoke and mirrors. The city has always been able to TAKE your complaints. They just haven't been ACT on your complaint. Basically they are adding another layer of administration without any more people to fix things. Kind of reminds me of the Seinfeld episode at the rental car agency where they TOOK the reservation but then still did not HOLD a car for him.

At best they will have a centralized log of complaints.

Posted by: cedarhillresident | December 21, 2007 8:12 AM

I'm willing to give it a try... I like the internet idea better than the phone. I also like the tracking capability. This will be useful to town hall as well, allowing them to see what the citizens are getting so mad about. And hopeful pin point the slackers in the city departments. Or at the least keep them on there toes!

Posted by: jeffreykerekes | December 21, 2007 8:46 AM

Congrats on a good step. I must admit to having had some degree of skepticism from the start about the 311 system. I think it can distance people from the city departments even further (one person takes a complaint, then calls the department with the complaint when we could call the department directly), and adds on additional costs with uncertain benefit. However, I might be coming around since I think the web-based tracking system is a welcomed step in increasing accountability for our tax dollars and government functioning. We need just a few more steps - which would be almost free to implement. I would like to see the 'transparency' component added as well. I would like to see all the complaints (and date filed) logged by others viewable on the website. The person who logged the complaint can be made anonymous but I think it is important to see what the complaints are so that we, the public, can monitor the City's progress (or lack thereof). This would enable the residents to come together as a community around patterns of issues.

We can also see what we are getting for our tax dollars. When a City Department is asking us for more money, we can see how effective they have been at dealing with issues as one measure of whether this is reasonable, whether they need more money to be effective, or whether they are ineffectively managed. We can then help make decisions about how to spread around limited financial resources - say, whether to spend money on the tree department budget, or on pay raises, whether on more sidewalk repair or lightspeed street sweeping.

Posting all the logged complaints would be exceptionally easy for the city to implement since they already set up the system and I am sure the people who monitor it from the city already have this view available. Technologically, this is a simple call request to the database which would take minutes to implement.

Posted by: Christopher | December 21, 2007 12:03 PM

This is awesome for the city of New Haven. Congrats to the city for coming up with new ways to help out the citizens. I love it.

Posted by: observer | December 21, 2007 11:15 PM

Jeffrey Kerekes clearly has given this a lot of thought. He sounds like a model citizen.

Posted by: Anika | December 23, 2007 11:17 PM

The Web-based 311 program also gives us some insight into City policy. Apparently, I can request an unlimited number of (huge and presumably expensive) additional trash toters but, if I want a recycling bin, I can only request a "replacement" bin. Is there a cap on the number of recycling bins I can have but not on the number of trash toters? If so, that's a problem for reasons that have already been hashed through on this site's comment board.

Posted by: josh jones | December 30, 2007 2:40 AM

311 is you want thing done that should be done anyhow without yo complaint

211 is excuse for not doin it

111 is ho is collectin campane contributins in case yo hope to get things done in 2009

911 is fo police an fire ho might come next day if they is in good humor or if they got a bossman

811 is to complain if police an fire are more than 2 days late

711 is to complain that 911 no working. If it work yo go to church cos there bin a miracle

611 to hear all the latest gospel on how good the city runnin

511 to hear how much yo payin for all the good lawsuits again the city for all it wrongdoin

411 to hear how much yo tax goin up next year for all the services yo payin for but not geetin

01 the first day o 2008 an nothin gonna change man

Posted by: cedarhillresident | December 31, 2007 1:22 PM

josh jones
cute

I think things are changing. but it is slow...why because people are not out there changing them. You can complain and scream and yell but without being out there in person it will not change. How many people in this city voted this year?? Not enough to say there is something wrong. What are we waiting for??...someone else to do it for us??
311 is a start.. it is a chance for change and accountability. Jeffery's comment hit it on the head. I hope the city staff have read it and are going to implement the ideas. It would allow the citizens to be the eyes watching over.

This takes us back to the plowing problem in the city. Which I keep going over in my head. Why is it so bad?? And I have to give an honest opinion on this.
We the citizens have gotten lazy to.
...ohhh did someone just throw a stone at my head???.....Stop that
In the past decade I have noticed a decrease in people out side shoveling. No one does it anymore. Years ago after a snow storm the whole community was all out side shoveling there sidewalks and cars out. Putting the snow in neat piles on the curb strips. And within a day all street were relatively cleared. Now I see no one outside cleaning. Maybe our lives have grown more complicated, maybe we are working more hours than we were a decade ago, or maybe we just have become a more privileged society that finds shoveling beneath us. I am not really sure. But how many of us see the slue of neighbors come out and shovel like our fathers did?? I know on my street I was it. On a whole street one woman shoveled?? So yes it is the city's job to come down the streets and plow but with out the community's coming out and doing the rest like our fathers did the snow is just going to sit there. So we can blame the city for the lack of plowing but we also have to remember that we as a people have to work as a community again. That sense of community that got the streets clear a decade ago is gone.

HMMM to deep ha.