By Sarah Mupo -- February 2, 2010
An iPhone application has been created for Bostonians to communicate neighborhood street-level complaints to the city's officials.
Citizens Connect, the official application from the city of Boston, has been downloaded by approximately 2,500 residents since its unveiling last October, according to the mayor's office.
The application can be used to notify city officials electronically of signs of urban decay, such as potholes, burned-out streetlights, and graffiti.
Anyone is free to report a problem as long as it is in the city.
Most of the complaints have been concentrated in the area that stretches
from downtown, though Back Bay and the South End, into the Fenway and
Jamaica Plain.
Citizens Connect simultaneously connects the location of the user
with the location of the photo taken, courtesy of GPS technology. The
complaint will then be transmitted from a computer at City Hall to the
nearest public works yard, where officials are expected to print it
out and give it to a repair crew.
The city has maintained a 24-hour complaint hot line for years, the Globe reported, which is usually used by a small group of citizens. City officials say that younger residents, who have never used the hot line, are the main users of the iPhone application.
Mayor Thomas M. Menino has endorsed Citizens Connect, and said at his inaguration last month that all city residents can take part in fixing up the city through the new techonology.
The application, a free iPhone download, is just one example of a nationwide mayoral push to employ technology to improve the distribution of basic services. Both San Francisco and Pittsburg have developed similar applications.
