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City problems? There's an app for that
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City eNews Release: Monday, February 1, 2010
By Paul Burgarino, Contra Costa Times
Posted Date: 2/1/2010
Graffiti that needs to be cleaned up? Keep hitting that same pothole driving home? Wondering about the status of that construction project you just passed or why a burnt-out neighborhood streetlight hasn't been replaced?
In a growing number of East Bay cities, there's an app for that.
On Monday, Pittsburg and Lafayette plan to launch an application called GORequest for residents who use the Apple iPhone. It allows cell phone users to tap into the city's customer service system and report issues at any time or place. The application is provided by Government Outreach Inc., a provider of Web-hosted management tools for local governments.
The idea is to give residents the ability to instantly report such things as storm drain or traffic signal problems using their smart phone, Government Outreach President Kendall Smith said.
The capability of the phones to take pictures and use GPS allows staff members to pinpoint the location that needs attention and efficiently respond, Pittsburg City Manager Marc Grisham said.
"The sooner we know, the sooner we can deal with it," Grisham said, pointing to Pittsburg's work to prevent graffiti.
Smith added: "People don't have to try to remember later where they were when they saw that pothole and try to find the right person to call. They just take a picture, and we do the rest."
The iPhone application gives Pittsburg "an extra 20,000 pairs of eyes" looking out for problems, Grisham said, noting that the city has fewer people on the ground because of staff cuts. Pittsburg found the service was inexpensive while revamping its Web site.
It's a challenge, particularly for smaller cities, to keep up with new ways people are communicating, but doing so is important, Lafayette City Manager Steven Falk said.
The city pla ns to conduct a survey asking people how they get information and whether they would be interested in receiving it through social networking sites such as Twitter, he said.
"We wanted to make sure that we're staying at the front of the technology wave and providing local residents with an opportunity to use their technology to report problems to us," Falk said.
Several other cities in the region, including Hayward, Oakley, San Ramon, Tracy and Manteca, have either launched the free iPhone application or plan to in the next several weeks.
About two dozen communities in the country have the iPhone application, though it's expected that many more cities will sign up, Smith, the company's president, said.
"City government is no longer an 8 to 5 business. We need to do a better job with our government outreach so our residents can contact us when we're not here," Manteca assistant City Manager Karen McLaughlin said.
The iPhone application i s another tool to enhance transparency and accessibility, she said. That city's service has been approved and will launch in a few weeks.
The municipal iPhone application can be downloaded from the iPhone App Store by searching for "GORequest," or by going to a participating city's Web site.
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