Wednesday, July 20, 2011

City loses pothole complaints

From the Daily News:

Scott Stringer said his office logged more than 130 pothole complaints on the 311 site since March and claims that every one of them has disappeared without a trace.

The potholes, however, live on.

As of Monday, at least 10 of the potholes Stringer reported on busy thoroughfares like Sixth Ave., Third Ave. and 145th St. appeared to still be lying in wait, ready to shred the tires of unsuspecting motorists.

Roughly half the complaints were made online. When the complaints were entered into the 311 website - which directs users to the Department of Transportation homepage - Stringer's staffers received reference numbers.

When the staffers did not receive the promised confirmation emails 10 days later, they called 311 operators and were told there was no record of the complaints and the reference numbers were useless.

Nearly all of the calls made by phone were processed.

14 comments:

WRBA said...

There is a problem with 311's online processing. We recently ran some tests, reporting noise complaints online -- we received complaint numbers, but when you go to look them up, you are told they cannot be found.

Recently we tested the 311 iPhone app and got similar results, but in speaking with the city's IT Dept. they could see the data -- it just wasn't being displayed online, or to their own operators.

Ed Wendell
President
Woodhaven Residents Block Association

georgetheatheist said...

I've complained to 311 about all the cars which are parked up and down on the sidewalks on Northern Boulevard by the auto dealerships (from the 30's to the 60's). There are so many that you can't even walk. These dealerships think that the sidewalks are their auto showrooms. The 311 operators take the info and tell me that they'll pass it onto the local precinct as "non-emergency response". When I look the case number up on the internet hours later, it tells me that the police responded and there was no evidence of a violation. Needless to say, the cars were still parked on the sidewalks.

What gives?

Queens Crapper said...

What gives is that they are clearing the 311 complaints out of the system without responding.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps 311 is an intentional dead end or at least a huge buffer. But you get mad at them rather then the person you should be mad at.

georgetheatheist said...

Or maybe get mad at the cops who cruise by these showrooms all the time and completely ignore the illegal parking/storage? The weekends are the worst. It's clearly visible in plain sight.

Nora from Dutch Kills said...

Never a problem for decades until the developers start sniffing around.

Gotta make the place nice and sparkly for them.

Time to clean up the cars on sidewalks ... and the locals.

Anonymous said...

Ah yes, good old 311 every time something is reported the response is condition not found, or my personal favorite is that the situation has been corrected although nothing is done.

Its all a numbers game. On paper as long as they show "they did something" it doesn't matter if the issue or problem is fixed or not. Bloomberg wants numbers not progress.

I know I have reported potholes that were never entered into the system and not fixed, or it said they were fixed but I was still driving over the same crater in the road, wondering if this would happen on Bloomberg's block or in front of City Hall.

Long live 311 and its infinite number of problems!

Anonymous said...

Regarding the showrooms with cars on the sidewalk.Take your car up on the sidewalk and park it right tight on their front f-ing showroom entranceway. Then see how quick there is a police response!

Anonymous said...

F*ck the cars on the sidewalk. That has always been a problem here and we just ignore it.

How do I get rid of the 14 story hotel in my back yard?

Anonymous said...

That's easy

Get a new civic, new elected officials, and a new community board.

Anonymous said...

The city continually lies on its numbers and data in every city agency there is today. This is Republican Bloomberg's deceit and corruption at work, so he can steal our taxes and give them to his cocktail party buddies.

But they want the public to believe that Social Security is ruining this country.

MY FUCKING ASS.

Anonymous said...

This is Republican Bloomberg's deceit and corruption at work, so he can steal our taxes and give them to his cocktail party buddies.


Yes, thank god for city council and Albany: gays and the Koch Bridge is on everyone's short list.

Anonymous said...

One thing people continuously blame on 311 is the responding agency's lack of response. It is not 311's fault that NYPD doesn't ticket illegally parked cars or that DOT is not maintaining proper business records. Keep that snark where it belongs.

Anonymous said...

WOW! It is now August of 2014 and the same thing is still happening! Online complaints are still ignored/lost!