Greater City Providence

City technology rant: Reporting unsholved sidewalks edition

OK, see that post down there I just made ranting about sidewalks? See the bit at the end where I said:

We can continue to report these issues to the Office of Neighborhood Services or our City Councilors I suppose. But doesn’t it really seem that in a modern functioning city, these things should just be taken care of?

So I went to the Office of Neighborhood Services webpage to report on some sidewalks and this is what I got when I hit submit.

2008-1221_techrant

/rant

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

2 comments

  • Doesn’t matter — the ONS people never do anything anyway. National Grid tore up the concrete sidewalk at the end of my block almost 2 years ago. I submitted an ONS request and they wrote back saying that NG was committed to replacing it within 90 days. NG hasn’t replaced the sidewalk and ONS hasn’t done anything about it. They don’t even respond to my requests any more. With the city facing budget problems, you’d think that fining a large and law-flouting monopoly would be worthwhile… .

  • I gave up on ONS when I moved to Fed Hill after sending in several requests that went completely ignored. They were very responsive with my requests in Elmhurst. I bet they ignore certain areas.