new from me — I talked to a bunch of professional bureaucracy navigators about how to be an effective squeaky wheel in our vast and complicated city:
Whether you want to repair a broken mailbox, reserve public park space or get a new street tree planted, here’s how to be an effective squeaky wheel.
YES to 311! People always laugh at me when I say mention 311 on social media. They will respond. I had a garbage-can-sized pothole on DeKalb filled over THREE days - reported it on a Friday and Monday it was fixed. It was incredible.
As a city employee (in So Cal) having citizens know who to complain to is actually great for both employees and residents. Residents get frustrated when we have to give them to someone else because it's not our department, but we truly do want them to get their questions answered!
Thanks for this. I suspected that Bill de Blasio would do a poor job as a mayor when, as Public Advocate, his office often was too disorganized and AWOL to even allow citizens to submit reports of problems -- let alone follow up on them.