Tuesday, May 13, 2014
Parks wants you to waste time calling 311
From CBS New York:
A Queens woman says she is stumped by the city Parks Department.
Janice Derr made a detailed list of tree troubles in her neighborhood, but when she sent it to the department they said ‘no thanks.’
“I try to make it pretty because this is a corner house,” she told CBS 2′s Tony Aiello, “I paint the mailboxes when there’s graffiti on them, I pick up garbage, I try to be a good citizen to keep my community alive and healthy and attractive.”
A few weeks ago Derr took a drive through her Queens Village neighborhood and noted a number of tree stumps on city property that were waiting to be removed by the Parks Department.
Derr made a detailed survey that listed the specific tree troubles at 69 different addresses. She sent the list to the Parks Department and asked State Senator Tony Avella to follow-up.
“She did all the work. How dare a city agency tell her and me, ‘we’re not accepting this,’” Avella said.
In a letter, the department said that she would have to address each and very issue with a 311 call.
Due to budget cuts the backlog of stumps to be removed is estimated at more than 10,000.
18 comments:
Instead of spending so much on planting a million trees, the city needs to stop planting and instead shift it's resources to removing stumps for the next few years.
Calling 311 gets you absolutely nowhere. They might report it if you're lucky. If you're really lucky, they might get to the task within 3 years. This lady was great, she did all this work and the city won't even acknowledge it. Then the city says that they have a backlog in calls....but yet the mayor thinks we should make housing for yet more people? Why does NYC need more people when it already has it's hands full with the 8.3 million we have already?
The Parks Dept. is a joke! Bowne Park is still filthy and the latest thing is that the big stones that make up the pond wall are collapsing into the pond. The turtles are dying off like crazy!!!! There are 5 or 6 new dead ones every day - sometimes really big ones!!!
So there's the money (and interest) to clean a bocce court every morning but the rest of the park is filled with dead animals and looks like shit!
The employees are totally apathetic people that have no feeling for animals. Whenever you tell about it they just keep repeating "Okay, okay, okay..." Anything to get rid of you so that they can back to their phones and smokes!
How about they take some of that money that Katz is allowed to squander and actually put it towards something real?
Last summer I reported to 311 a Mr. Softee that truck playing his jingle incessantly. I gave the license plate number and the NYC vendor permit number.
I was told an inspector would investigate in three to six weeks. Then they asked me what time frame would the truck be at specific address.
Specific address? A truck has wheels not an address. I told them the approximate location.
Five weeks later I called for an update and was told they couldn't locate the offender and marked the case closed.
Someone from the bocce court made a political donation.
The rest of the community would stare quietly at their feet in the background while a pol has a photo op on why its being turned into a parking lot for the city to make more money to pay for its entitlement programs.
Calling 311 generates what the city calls "metrics" - that is things that can can counted, trended, manipulated, and put into PowerPoint presentations they give to themselves and pass around between agencies.
An accurate list of problems they need to address is not something can acknowledge because it represents real work for them.
Put 2 chairs next to the stumps and you've got instant outdoor cafe seating.
Anon #2-"Calling 311 gets you absolutely nowhere. They might report it if you're lucky. If you're really lucky, they might get to the task within 3 years. This lady was great, she did all this work and the city won't even acknowledge it. Then the city says that they have a backlog in calls....but yet the mayor thinks we should make housing for yet more people? Why does NYC need more people when it already has it's hands full with the 8.3 million we have already?"
You hit such good points I couldn't have said it better myself!
Hi QC, over a year ago you published my post an called it Parks keeps Queens hanging. Well, that branch, and more is still there.
311 for Parks is useless. I reported a tree on Atlantic ave- 91-61 116 street on January 2013. This tree has branches that are longer than 15 feet that are cracked and hanging. Report # c-1-1-816772998, I called back on March 21 2013 as the condition still existed, 311 said I had to resubmitt it I did- complaint # c-1-1-837070523.
May 07,2014, condition still exists.I asked about
c-1-1-837070523, 311 says work order was created on January 17, 2013. That is over a year ago. This is a hazardous condition. I submitted a report again on May 07, 2014 for 91-61 116 street on the Atlantic ave side of house. Report # c1-1-966415923.
I have also been reporting numerous hanging brances throughout the neigborhood and getting responses of address or condition not found.
that's why most queens people end up to be don't give a d@mn about cleaning up the community.. it's the parks dept whom has the power and gets paid but yet doesn't do squat while a good lady start doing it for FREE.
something is wrong with Queens. Parks dept. MAYBE IF THIS GETS TO FOX FIVE NEWS, it will get their attn.. hint hint.
bad publicity for the government will accelerate things. I did it before when my parent's investment property's water bill was charge 10000 bucks.. all because later on they then found out (after I threaten to get this to fox five new) that the water bill was way way under charged AFTER the new installation of the automatic water meter. Else, they will not do anything.
Somebody in Queens Village really cares!!
tha medians at 42nd ave./205st-201 st. were worked on by a very efficient NYC Parks Dept employee today. I stopped and thanked him for such a thorough job.
Sadly no city council or state pol. that we asked to renew the destroyed curbs in the past 30 years , did anything. the CPB 11 always says there is no $$$$$
Parks Department is doing a lousy job. They say there doing the best they can with the money they have.BS
The city needs to maintain our parks better. I live near Alley Pond Park in queens.The motor Parkway in Alley Pond park needs help.
Hey Parks, what about the (2) dumpsters belonging to the a private vendor (the tennis bubble) that are on the Motor Parkway every year.
If Parks cared about OUR parks these dumpster would not be on the path every year while the bubble is up.
That wasn't a Parks Dept employee working on that median. It was a community service worker who had to perform community work because of a crime he/she committed. Didn't cost the city a penny.
Meanwhile......Turn that tree stump into something beautiful, absorb carbon, produce oxygen. If the stump has say at least a 6 inch diameter hole, fill it with soil. For very deep holes you can partialy fill it with grass clippings or other compostables and cap with at least 12 inches of soil from your yard. Plant some cheap flower seeds or flower seeds from store or from your garden. My favorite would be sunflower for their fast growth and large size, they are almost like a small tree. You may even have an over abundance of some decorative plant in your garden. Water regularly, at least twice a week if no significant rain, more often when you first plant the seeds or transplants.
This will also prevent people from using the hole as a trash can. Though people do litter anywhere, those stumps with holes are very tempting.
Hey, Parks dept can do this too, and should.
#14, AT AUBURNDALE/BAYSIDE 204 st medians , THE WORKER WAS ALONE WITH A Parks Dept TRUCK. he was an older gentleman.
the median curbs have been destroyed by the school buses daily d/o & p/u at P.S.130 Q at 201st. plus lawn work trucks, fed x, u.p.s driving over the 5"high curbs . and yes inconsiderate renters in the apartment buildings.
they continue to repave , but never renew the curbs, which has resulted in the 204st intersection being a swamp ,after a rain.
when a vehicle disappears in a sink hole ,city officials might take notice then.
311 has become a joke. I live in a co-op in Auburndale, and after fighting with our management over the snow removal on the sidewalks this past winter and getting no where, I resorted to calling 311. After a day of heavy snow, at 4:00 in the afternoon no one had yet made an attempt to clear the sidewalks of the snow. After being on hold, answering their questions, and telling the operator what the problem was, I was told THE CITY IS NOT TAKING COMPLAINTS FOR SNOW REMOVAL AT THIS TIME. No explanation why. That's it. I asked the operator shall I call back in August? I think 311 and most other city operations has just become a tool to employ the nearly unemployable. Very sad that I get up to go to work every day to fund this BS.
Wonder if a contracter was called in just how much would these stumps cost to be ground down. That is per house ...
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