I love using an app to report things to the city any time, any day; it is much better than sitting on hold, listening to Muzak, or navigating endless touchtone menus, especially since I most frequently come across things to report while walking my dog before and after work.
Lessening my love is my growing frustration with how limited the app is in its utility. The paucity of options we have for reporting problems (at first just graffiti and potholes, now expanded ever so slightly to include homeless encampments and abandoned cars) means that we cannot as readily offer photographic proof or detail to the departments responsible for, say, fixing broken water pipes. Also, while I don't mind helping Code Enforcement bust serious violators, I appreciate that Escondido has developed Project NEAT as an intermediate and less punitive step to encouraging property owners to comply with city ordinances. I wish the app would let us report to Project NEAT first, so that Project NEAT could give folks a chance before passing them along to Code Enforcement. On a technical note, the lack of sorting under the Reports tab is a problem. (How many of these graffiti reports came in over the last month? Why not allow us to exclude the closed reports from the map view? And so on.)
Finally, there is the issue of city response. When I started using the app, graffiti was dealt with in 48-72 hours, which was fantastic, and a good incentive to keep on using the app, recommending it to neighbors, etc. Nowadays I've got reports that are 2-3 weeks old and still say "in process". Meanwhile, the graffiti sits there, untouched, a stark advertisement to the artists and thuggish wannabe's that this block/alley/neighborhood is a safe place to make their mischief. It's disheartening.
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Citizen of Esco
EscondidoHero
EscoWillie
Heather C Mallory
Sandy R
