Gainesville’s graffiti wall.
Kurt had enough of speeders endangering the kids in his neighborhood. He complained to the city. He got back a detailed response, which ended like this: “Thank you for reporting and making Gainesville a better place to live, work and play.”
That’s Gainesville as in Gainesville, Florida, a college city similar in size to New Haven.
The ending thanks — part of a conversation on Gainsville’s channel on the SeeClickFix problem-solving web platform — were no anomaly. A government official there engaged in an effort to make Gainesville “the most citizen-centered city,” Interim Senior Strategic Planner Samantha B. Wolfe, worked with colleagues on how they respond to people on the site. Down to the wording of their posts.
“That was a very intentional decision to show our appreciation to citizens for making us aware” of problems, Wolfe said during an appearance Wednesday on WNHH’s “SeeClickFix Radio,” which looked at the latest grassroots news generated by citizens in both Gainesville and New Haven.
The full response to Kurt demonstrated a strategy of not just communicating appreciation, but also providing good information. Kurt requested a speed hump on his street. An official, “Emmanuel P.,” wrote back that Gainesville has declared a moratorium on installing new humps. The official listed other traffic-calming measures that are available, which the city will now explore bringing to Kurt’s street. The response also included a link to a video of a public meeting where the speed-hump decision was debated, with details on which points in the video Kurt could find the most relevant portion.
Paul Bass Photos
SeeClickFix Radio co-hosts Ben Berkowitz and Carline Smith.
Another recent posting concerned trash piling up outside a Dumpster. The city responded that it would work with the private owner of the Dumpster. The complainant, Rob Robins, got in the last word: “I just revisited the site (evening of Mar. 8) and it is 90% cleaner. Still a mess of cigarette butts about the rear of the dumpster (and cigarette pack cellophane which blows all over), but not in the park — and the trash in the park was the prime complaint. Fast response, nice work.”
Wolfe said the work done on responding to SeeClickFix is part of a broader “Citizen Centered Gainesville Initiative,” focused on rethinking every way the city interacts with citizens both in person and online. “Gainesville aims to be the most citizen-centered city in the world,” from the reception people received in physical offices to the response they receive over the web, she said.
Click on or download the above sound file to hear the full “SeeClickFix Radio,” which also touched on graffiti walls (Gainesville has had an official one since 1990, with a nuptial twist) as well as the the challenge of determining when “garage sales” become a home “business.”
This episode of “Dateline New Haven” was made possible in part through support from Yale-New Haven Hospital.