Boston 311 is no laughing matter
By adamg on Sun, 08/27/2017 - 9:32am
A couple days ago, somebody posted the following complaint - with a photo - to Boston's 311 for a situation at State and Purchase streets:
My bottle of wine is empty and that makes me sad :(
The city closed the case this morning with a stern rebuke:
We closed this case and did not send a team to respond to this. As much as we appreciate humor, we never want to waste resources by sending a team to an illegitimate case. Please make sure that you are always using this app for its appropriate purpose. See the terms of use here: http://www.cityofboston.gov/doit/apps/iphone_terms.asp.
Neighborhoods:
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Comments
State and Purchase?
They don't intersect.
Well, if your wine bottle is empty and you're sad
You might get your streets a bit mixed up :-).
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Yes, they do. The buildings on Long Wharf have State street addresses.
That's ironic
Considering they leave cases open for years, and respond to actual safety problems by saying they didn't see anything or it's not an issue or similar bullshit.
Left Open Because
Some items are left open because they are referred to the agency or private company that is responsible, and they are awaiting for the call back or e-mail stating that they have corrected the issue. Unfortunately, sometimes the city is at the mercy of the other agency or company and its schedule, and at other times they just never get the expected resolution call or e-mail. Hence things get hung open.
A neighbor in my area recently reported hanging phone lines. They have been hanging now over a week. Verizon has yet to come to do anything. These are fully down on the sidewalk and someone tied them off so no one would trip on them. It appears they fall off a house in the area.
It's likely that is still open on 311 because Verizon has yet to fix it -- a week later -- possibly more.
The city cannot touch these due to a combination fo whose property it is, whose liability, and whose union.
Once you get to understand the quirks of how big city government works (or doesn't work) it becomes that much clearer as to "--why--" these things happen. It won't make you feel any better, but at least you'll understand why. Yes, we'd all love it to work better and with some semblance of logic, but the same rules that make things happen, also make things not happen -- in writing -- so sometimes their hands are tied.
No one likes it. Move on -- -- --
Cannot or will not?
I don't believe this to be true. The wires, even if not "live" in the electrical sense, are a hazard for pedestrians. If VZ can't get down there, than the city should take action and bill Verizon for the effort. Public safety on sidewalks trumps property, liability, and union if handled in that manner.
Probably lack of a good system to close old reports
I still have a report open in 311 that was opened 788 days ago about a city vehicle blocking traffic because the driver was too lazy to move up 15 feet and park in a parking space.
Hilariously the photo I attached has a clear view of not only the license plate and the vehicle number, but also a clock showing the exact time of the picture, so it should be pretty easy to identify the driver.
I expect that the city Does Not Care but I do like that it got lost in the sea of reports and it's still open, waiting to be resolved.
The response that I always find interesting is
"Case Closed-Duplicate of existing case"
Which is apparently 311 code for "We can't be bothered with investigating this."
That 311 operator must have
That 311 operator must have been having a long day.
On the other hand
I have heard that 911 is a joke.