CitySourced is an app that lets you take a picture of a city problem that needs fixing—a pothole or missing streetsign, for example—and send that report straight to your government on the fly. The app uses geotagging so what you're required to do is little more than notice an issue and care enough to request it gets fixed. It's pretty brilliant. Here's a report on the technology from a local Los Angeles newscast:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jkz_PNW0IaE
CitySourced launched in San Jose back in September and it seems to be working well. (The guy in this YouTube video, at least, was happy when a street light got fixed a week-and-a-half after he reported it.)
Now CitySourced is about to start another pilot program in Los Angeles in Eric Garcetti's council district, which reaches form Hollywood to Glassell Park. If you're in town, they're inviting people to a "Download Day" this Saturday.
For now, CitySourced is limited to these neighborhood blight/maintenence issues like potholes and graffiti. You can report a "homeless encampment" but you can't report the problem of homelessness, or a lack of bike lanes on city streets. But it can only lead to more civic engagement and create a closer connection between voters and their representatives and that's certainly a big step in the right direction.
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