Thank you for pointing me in the direction of the city form. However, I would suggest that SeeClickFix has better usability than the city form.

In addition, I was immediately alerted when you commented on this item. This tool gives me the ability to track other people's issues within my community and vote on what I believe to be the most important issue. It also brings some accountability on the city to address problems as I can see in an open forum the number of people concerned about an issue.

I would think it helps the city in interacting with its citizens more efficiently as they can respond to an issue such that anyone interested in this situation is aware of their intended/taken actions. If I went to the city website and entered the same traffic light issue, it would not be grouped with the one originally submitted. So once fixed the city would have to look through each ticket to see if it was related to the fix in order to respond OR they would realize that required too much time and effort and just not respond, thereby missing an opportunity to form a closer relationship with its constituents.

One more point that just crossed my mind. While the city has a street lights form, is there also a form to report potholes, crime, blights on the community such as run-down housing, and any other number of issues a community might have? Even if there is a subset of forms dedicated to this, that is not the most efficient way to collect and report on problem and puts a tremendous burden on the citizens to find these tools. My two cents.

Yes there is a form to report potholes and other outages.

I understand all your points, but now you are expecting city staff to check and manage requests from this site as well as mangaing requests from the city site and phone calls. Staff resources are limited already.

Nunya, you come across as a city employee tasked with monitoring this site and none to thrilled, at that. If that is the case, then I thank you for your diligence and your effort. Having the city here could be very useful and good.

The forms, while there, are very limited in their usability. Further, for each issue I have to go to a new form. The forms are not easy to fill in (requiring all kinds of information) and the information derived will be imprecise. Take the street light form, it asks for the nearest address which can be rather far away from a location, as is the one I listed here. There is no address close, as all the houses on this road back up to it.

Beyond that, though, the community can get involved. You'll see that others have "piled on" asking that this problem be fixed. You can see what the community considers important by noting how many people agree with the original post. You can also enter the location of something much more accurately by dropping a pin on the map. This, combined with a detailed description, should be sufficient for anyone to locate the problem.

Nope not a city employee. Wish I was but I am not. I just know how hard these people work and with this site, it adds another layer for staff to check and I really don't think it is happening. Just look at your ticket. It was opened a month a go and no one has even responded letting you know that something is being done about it. I can tell you right now that if you fill the form out on city site, it will be addressed a lot quicker. Probably would have been fixed by now.

Interestingly enough, I just received a link to an article about this site that was posted on the NYTimes. It goes into how it is being used in other areas with great success. This is really the new trend in government collaboration, termed by the popular phrase Gov 2.0. I invite you to check out the article and read more about Gov 2.0 in general (if you're not already familiar with it). http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/04/business/media/04click.html

Nunya, Anthony, & Michael:

My name is Jason Hall and I am the City's Webmaster. My team has been receiving all the email replies to this thread. I can't comment on this service, however I can tell you that I am working with my management on how we can address issues that are open on this site.

Thank you,
Jason Hall
City of Virginia Beach Web Team

Thank you Jason. Seeing the city utilize this site would indeed be a wonderful thing. I understand that dealing with a new technology can often times lead to issues of their own but I applaud your effort.

Thank you.

Just an FYI, I went ahead and submitted a form on vbgov.com for this outage. Public Works should take care of it if it has not already been taken care of.

FYI - Work order has been submitted.

We have received your email and Dominion Virginia Power has been notified. If you have any further questions, their phone number is 1-888-667-3000. Thank you.

Pic of the info on the light pole

Just as an update, this street light has still not been fixed. I've submitted it directly on the Virginia Beach website.

This has been reported to Dominion Power by the City of Virginia Beach. We will send another report.

Kathleen Hassen
Virginia Beach City Manager's Office
khassen@vbgov.com
757-385-4242

Dominion Power reports this has been repaired.

Kathleen Hassen
Virginia Beach City Manager's Office
khassen@vbgov.com

Dominion Power reports this was repaired 4/12/10.

Kathleen Hassen
Virginia Beach City Manager's Office
khassen@vbgov.com