If you live in New Haven (like me), you may have seen the local press article on SeeClickFix. It was exciting to see continued recognition of our efforts (thanks for all the help!). It was a positive article and captured a lot of the functionality of the website. I hope it will attract moreSeeClick'ers.

I want to underline a couple of points from the article:

• SeeClickFix is meant to provide everyone with tools to collaborate and improve things together - not to create an adversarial relationship.
• We are piloting in New Haven, CT and Buffalo, NY. We do have users in other towns and will continue to spread the word. Ultimately, our vision is to reach out nationally and beyond.
• In any given town there are so many people responsible for fixing things that it is hard for the average citizen to keep track. Is the city or the state responsible for this street? Does the electric company or the city handle this street light? Who fixes this drain? SeeClickFix helps you sort through this mess by sorting tickets to the right place.
  

And as the Mayor of New Haven says "SeeClickFix is the result of people taking ownership of what goes on around them. That's a good thing...we don't have to own it or to duplicate it, we just need to pay attention to it."

What did you think of the article?

What makes SeeClickFix different than traditional 311 systems?
This is a question that has been asked of us over the past few months and it deserves a response.
1. City 311 systems are just that, a way to communicate with the city. SeeClickFix acts on the assumption that there are others along with city hall responsible for keeping the public space up to snuff and allows anyone to be alerted to issues and close issues.

2. In a traditional 311 system communication on an issue occurs between reporter and the city employee responsible for fixing. In a traditional 311 system a reported issue can not be viewed by the general public. On SeeClickFix communication on an issue occurs between the reporter and the entire community of watchers and visitors to the site who may also include the city employee responsible for fixing. On SeeClickFix everyone can view the reported issue and comment on it as well as select that they want the item fixed also.
SeeClickFix creates accountability and responsiveness through transparency.

3. 311 systems are typically designed for individual municipalities and do not collaborate with their peers. See Click Fix is intended for global use and allows for global collaboration on universal local issues.

4. SeeClickFix has free features for every citizen available now. No need to wait until your town has the money and/or time to spend installing a 311 system. According to our research only ~100 towns in the US have 311 systems.

We have now crossed the digital divide. When some people hear about SeeClickFix they wonder how those without a computer can report issues. Today we introduce a new feature for SeeClickFix. I have jokingly dubbed it "SeeCallIt". You now can call in your issues to 877.853.1552 and we'll enter it on the website.

I'm also excited about the new feature because anyone can use it from their cell phone. So, program it into your phone memory now and the next time you see an issue, you can call it into us. Look forward to hearing from you.

...what is that you say? I had no idea either until this morning when our friend Paul alerted us to this New Haven register article:
After Paul suggested we ask people to map these boxes on seeclickfix I just had to check them out. I found one on a pole around the corner from my home sitting two feet off the ground, partially overlapping the sidewalk and whirring loudly enough that the landlord of the house 10 feet away could not possibly live there.

If you have one of these boxes in your neighborhood and it bothers you, you should mark it on the map. It appears that the Department of Utilities will be requesting that ATT
display where all 2000 of these boxes are in CT. As a citizen you can do the same and let the DPUC know it bothers you.

Our friend David suggested that we use Meetup. That's the website that helps you organize in-person meetings. I thought it would be fun to get together with people in New Haven who share a passion for or a curiosity about SeeClickFix.

Come join us in person. Sign up online, too.

June 16th at 7:30pm
Christopher Martins
860 State St, New Haven

THE GOOD:
Yesterday,
I woke up at 6:30 am to drive my fiancee to the work. As I left our driveway on State Street in New Haven I noticed that the property next door to ours had been vandalized with a huge piece of graffiti. As I drove down State Street I noticed 14 other locations that were covered in the work of the same "tagger."

After reporting the incident to NHPD I returned home and reported all of the tickets on seeclickfix. On Upper State Street we have contract a worker to remove graffiti. The Clean Team, as they're called, have created watch areas around Upper State Street on seeclickfix and respond within 24 hours to our graffiti complaints.

At 10:30 I left my house to ride my bike to "the office"(I freelance. yes it's a coffee shop.)
On the way down State Street I noticed that some of the graffiti had already been removed. I pulled up to one of the workers removing the graffiti and to my surprise it was not our Clean Team worker. The City of New Haven's livable city initiative had received the email also and was well on their way to cleaning up the whole street. By noon all traces of our overnight vandal were gone before the majority of business owners residents and visitors could see the work.
Check out State Street in New Haven to see all the blue tickets. The city of New Haven did an amazing job this morning. Also a big thanks to our Alderman, Roland Lemar, who also got the clicket updates (he has a seeclickfix watch around his ward)and gave LCI a call to make sure they had seen the emails.
Accountability and efficiency is what seeclickfix is all about. Start clicking in your hood and slowly you will start to see the same results. As our sideclick, David Torke, in Buffalo said to me yesterday, "the anecdote will become the rule".

THE BAD
In my estimation the vandal that necessitated the cleanup cost the taxpayers of the city of New Haven over $2,000 yesterday. It may seem like a game to the kids that keep LCI and the Clean Team busy, but it goes far beyond that...

THE UGLY
$2,000 in The City Of New Haven is about 1/2 the cost of what it takes to keep a homeless shelter open for one night. In a time when cities in CT and around the country are facing tough economic challenges we need the vandals that piss away our money and their families money to call a truce as they are literally putting people out on the street.

Mark in New Haven, responsible for designnewhaven.com, was the first to incorporate our widget into his blog. He has now also received the designation of of "most prolific" New Haven clicker.
It's people like Mark that are making the clicking and fixing a reality in New Haven.
Thanks Mark.