Friday, November 7, 2008

If it were that easy

Have you heard about this new service to the Bay Area called SeeClickFix?

Encouraging people to “become citizens by participating in taking care of and improving their neighborhoods,” the company provides a place for residents to report non-emergency issues in their area. A “ticket” then will be opened, or order placed, for the problem to be fixed. By doing this, the community feels more empowered, individually and as a whole, have more of a sense of place and ultimately trust and feel taken care by their local government.

I can’t help but chuckle to myself. Or better yet … LOL!

Now I am all for us as residents empowering ourselves and making our community a better place in which to live. But 1) It will take a lot more than our government fixing up things like broken street signs, potholes and illegally parked vehicles – which are listed as some issues needing resolution in San Francisco – for people to trust our government leaders; and 2) What really needs seeing, clicking and fixing is more than the physical aspects of the neighborhood.

Like crime. It would be nice if we could report it and law enforcement would put all there efforts into solving a crime, regardless of who committed it.

Like racism. It would be cool if we could send a group of “Racebusters” out to all those that think that they are better than or deserve more than those of a different race, nationality, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

There is much we can do as residents if we volunteer to help keep the aesthetics of our community looking their best. That way the money we pay our government officials and employees can be used for issues that affect the very fiber of our being … not overgrown shrubbery.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Interesting. Too bad they can't fix government corruption!

Anonymous said...

Hey guys,
I poked around the site.
Seems like there are certain types of issues that encourage better communication like this one:
http://www.seeclickfix.com/issues/40

I like the transparency of the issues and the idea that people can communicate around getting something fixed as opposed to just generally complaining about quality of life