The City of Portland has released its “Citizen Report” iPhone app for beta testing. Our good upstanding citizens can use it to report problems in the following categories: Graffiti, Park Maintenance, Parking, Sewer Cleaning, Street Lighting, and “Pothole.” You can also log your current location and take a photo of the problem.
I chose “Street Lighting” for my test report to Mayor Adams:
We’ll see if he does something to fix the problem in a timely manner. Remember Mr. Mayor, actions speak louder than tweets.
That’s pretty cool.
Obviously we don’t have any magic money to run around and suddenly fix everything that people report, right away. But if there’s an online list of reported issues, so people could just see that their submission made it on to some ‘official list,’ that might be enough encouragement.
Maybe people could even vote on each submission, Digg-style, to determine priority?
stupidest idea EVER!
Am I the only one who thinks Stefan’s “problem” statement is hilarious?
may I suggest some additional categories?
“Child On Leash”
“Thai Restaurant Lacking Punny Name”
“Used Diaper Placed In Free Box”
Nope. I do, too.
@Chunty – A Thai restaurant lacking a punny name? Why don’t we go ahead and put in categories for Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster, while we’re at it?
What about those of us who have not succumbed to the Apple consumer-culture BS. Where’s my freakin’ app?
An Android version is in the works.
GREAT idea! Haters…suck it.
I love the idea! I just downloaded this to my iphone. Great job – whoever created this!
How much is the city paying for each app to be developed?
Well since the developer works for the city of Portland I’m guessing the total cost is N+$99=X Where N is the portion of his salary and the $99 is the fee to put apps in the App store.
As for the message that is being reported: Nice to see snarky trumping logic (or put bluntly, nifty way to encourage people to abuse what the city is trying to (which is make it easier and more efficient to report problems). Quality reporting from the Mercury as always (you do know that the majority of people read it for the escort ads and comics right?).
“Maybe people could even vote on each submission, Digg-style, to determine priority?”
And Just like Digg, your vote has absolutely no impact, period.
if i had had this on my iPhone last year, maybe i would have taken the time to report the gravel left from the Dec 08 storms & not swept up 3 months later. gravel i wiped-out on, breaking my shoulder. i never remembered to call the City by the time i got to work; with the app, i might have just stopped & done it. i know i’ll be using it for the really bad street crap on my bike.
one reason this is good: it will generate a volume of reports not previously received, perhaps for same (lame) reason as mine. if it cost the city a few hundred bucks to produce, it’s a small cost for improving service. (btw, when i did report the gravel, after i got out of the hospital, it was cleaned the next day. my bad.)
missing category: stinky people on the bus. have a soap-and-water crew waiting at the next stop!