Sustainability Tech

Brad's Note:

This post is another in a series by Rebecca Smart (a/k/a Citizen Y), a Midwesterner representing the growing population of engaged citizens residing in every town, city, and county in the USA.

Late last year, Cartegraph threw out a “no holds barred challenge,” to Ms. Smart: put its YourGOV Mobile citizen request application through its paces. In her column, Rebecca shares her experiences — and the genuine insight and candid observations that accompany them.

Find out how agencies like yours are using technology to engage citizens, increase sustainability, and cultivate intelligent workflow. Visit the Cartegraph Blog.

A lot of conversations in my neighborhood begin with, “What’s that smell?” Hold your fire, citizens: it’s not the garbage or even another failed attempt at dinner wafting out of my windows. It’s a chemical company. A big, smoke-stacked, barbed-wired, chain-linked, danger signed, “no smoking allowed!” chemical company. Its facility is uphill and upwind from the cluster of homes that constitute my little housing development; the neighborhood park abuts the factory’s property. With the prevailing winds blowing from their address to ours, there is often a very distinct smell in the breeze. It’s not the scent of lilacs and roses. It’s the smell of a chemical solvent whose description includes words like “explosive,” “reactive,” and “carcinogen.” Nifty. A bit of the smell wafting into the park gives the parents watching tee ball from the bleachers a homerun of a headache and a strange taste in their mouths. A thimble-full of this stuff could clear a room.

A few years ago, we heard a very loud explosion followed by alarms and sirens. A plume was visible over the factory. Fire trucks and news crews arrived on the scene in short order. What happened? The factory said it was a “controlled release.” What’s that? No offense, but a “controlled release” sounds like the best you can do when suffering G.I. distress on a first date in a quiet car.

In layman’s terms, a “controlled release” means they had an unplanned chemical explosion but nothing in the factory ignited beyond that. The good news, the company spokesperson said, was that the heavy winds dispersed the plume. (It’s good news unless you’re a bird in the area.) Furthermore, the company was happy to report that sprinklers inside the factory brought the particulates down to be cleaned up.

Pardon me for containing my excitement long enough to ask this question: what would have happened if it had been rainy instead of windy and the plume particulates were brought down into the dirt where our kids play tee ball and our gardens grow? (Insert cricket chirping noise here.) No answer.

This incident got some of us asking questions. In the next couple years, there were more inquiries about the smells and safety protocols. A few employees of the chemical company called off-the-record encouraging the neighborhood to keep asking questions and reporting odors. One suggested moving.

One Saturday, I got a whiff of something that made my eyes water. I called it. Monday morning, a company rep agreed to send a copy of the DNR report. The solvent we have smelled for years was allowed to leak into the ground next to the park. A truckload of dirt was dug out and removed for incineration. But it took a (pardon the pun) nosy neighbor to alert a chemical company that something stunk. They said they are making safety changes. We’ll see. And I mean that literally: we’re watching them. And we’re letting the local government and the DNR know what we see.

How? You got it. Erin Brockovich didn’t have the benefit of the YourGOV app. You and I do. And my neighbors are app-snapping (I just made that up: it means “to submit with a photo.”) proof that sometimes citizen involvement has bigger stakes than a pothole.

Smartphone: check.

Download YourGOV app: check.

That was easy. This is my first smartphone. My last cell phone was practically a rotary. Texting was a beast. So yes, the learning curve could be steep, but so far, the YourGOV app is the smoothest one I've got. And it's free.

I hit "Aerial" and the first thing I noticed was that I might need new shingles. Nice detail. The app pinpointed my exact location. It's so exact, it's got me in the correct part of the house. If I "pinch" the photo in, I can sail above my neighborhood. Looks like I'm not the only one that could use new shingles.

My initial reaction is that this is a great tool. How many times have you left your oil pan next to a pothole or wondered if your municipality knew that there was a deer carcass in the park next to the baby swings? (This actually happened in my local park two winters ago. No, they did not know. But I had to let them know the old-fashioned way: on my rotary.)

My second reaction is "was this app made for me?" If you consider yourself an engaged citizen, you're going to like this app. If you always wanted to know who to call when the streetlight went out, you're going to like this app. It's a simple tool to connect to local government, helping you be their eyes on the street to keep your community running smoothly.

But...my final reaction was wondering if this much citizen engagement would be intimidating to government staff. Will they worry that it could become too time-consuming?

Stay tuned!

When experts calculate the quality of life in your community how will you score? Will they say that you promote health and well being? Provide safe and enjoyable recreation opportunities? Protect green spaces?

Studies indicate that a community's quality of life plays a prominent role in attracting businesses and residents, boosting property values, and stimulating economic growth. And one of the most visible indicators of the quality of life in your community is the availability, upkeep, and condition of your public parks and facilities.

According to the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), as of 2010, there were more than 9,000 local public park and recreation organizations within the United States - each one focused on providing safe and enjoyable recreation opportunities, and a higher quality of life in their respective communities.

Think of how many times your parks are visited each summer, not just by members of your own community, but visitors, vacationers, and random passers-by. For example, New York's Central Park has 25 million visits annually - that's more than five times as many visits as the Grand Canyon.

Sure, not every community possesses a landmark like Central Park. Nonetheless, this statistic says a lot about how much the people of this country value parks and green spaces.

Unfortunately, when local government budgets face cuts, Parks and Recreation departments are often the first ones to feel the effects. And, perhaps, more than any other department, they are put in the unenviable position of finding ways to cut costs and do more with less - and the people of the community are the ones who suffer for it.

For many governments, this is a fact of life. But does it have to be?

Just like any other asset, your parks have their own special set of maintenance needs. But unlike utilities and transportation assets, your parks aren't so...unsung. In other words, people will judge a lot about a community by the condition of its parks.

But many organizations fail to acknowledge that parks are as much a part of infrastructure as a sewer system, traffic signal, or road. That's why best practices include parks as a major component of any successful infrastructural maintenance strategy.

It begins with technology. By automating your process for park maintenance - including inventory, inspections, and scheduled maintenance - you not only gain a firm grip on the condition of your parks, but you allow your crews to be more productive.

It's a simple case of proactive vs. reactive. And, as any successful municipal professional will tell you, proactive wins every time.

• Do you lack an established process for maintaining the integrity of the parks in your community?

• Do you rely on citizen complaints to learn about common problems such as graffiti, broken picnic tables, or unsafe playground equipment?

• Do your parks seem to attract crime and loitering?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, now is the time to re-examine your approach to parks maintenance.

The call for transparency in government is as old as democracy itself. However, recent times have seen those calls increase and work their way from the executive ranks all the way down to the local level.

This move toward greater transparency has given rise to a variety of organizations that champion citizen involvement and public empowerment. Groups such as America Speaks and the Sunlight Foundation seek to give citizens a more prominent voice in matters of local, regional and national decision making.

The current and most recognizable term for the transparency movement is Gov 2.0. By its own definition, Gov 2.0 emphasizes the principles collaboration, participation and innovation as the means for governments and citizens to work together in creating better communities.

Gov 2.0 is still considered a grassroots effort and open source movement in some circles. However, the ambitious nature of its overall concept and vision seems to hint toward a larger shift that will soon be coming to government, gaining Gov 2.0 the backing of the federal government and several technology industry giants, including ESRI, Google and Microsoft.

The trend toward greater citizen involvement has gained momentum through the use of technology. Some cities, such as San Francisco and Washington D.C., became pioneers in the transparency movement when they added Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to provide citizens richer access to their data systems. This interface not only allows citizens to read data, but also access live data and submit new information.

Following this lead, several software developers have introduced easy-to-use applications that allow citizens to interact with government by reporting non-emergency issues and forwarding them directly to their local government organizations. This type of citizen engagement interface has given rise to the term crowdsourcing.

Crowdsourcing was coined by writer Jeff Howe in 2006 and refers to the act of taking a job traditionally performed by a designated agent (usually an employee) and outsourcing it to an undefined, generally large group of people in the form of an open call.

In government, crowdsourcing takes shape when citizens assume a proactive role in the upkeep of their communities. Web-based applications are being added to local government websites, allowing citizens and employees to personally report common community issues, such as potholes, vandalism and street light outages. Users can enhance their submitted reports by including brief descriptions and digital photos of the reported issues. Once submitted, users can even access a mapped view of all open requests in their area to gain a shared knowledge of issues, issue trends and locations.

Developers have now taken this concept a step further, making these types of applications available for download to mobile smartphones including Android, iPhone and Blackberry Storm. Apps, such as YourGOV, SeeClickFix and 311 Universal, possess all the functionality of a web-based interface, but with the added convenience of mobility.

As of December, 2010, more than 205 million Americans reported having access to the internet. Statistics indicate that over 45 million of those people owned smartphones. The more your organization knows about the purpose and availability of the applications being accessed by internet and smartphone users, the better it can position itself to meet the needs of its citizens and encourage citizen involvement.