Comments on: Column: Ann Arbor Now 0-16

By: Rob Utterback

Rob Utterback — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 01:46:48 +0000

Matt, five days is nothing! I first complained about the vacant lot between 509 and 529 S. Ashley (the former A & L site) back on Jan. 12. I complained again this past Monday. Meanwhile, the property owner has piled additional snow from the driveway onto the sidewalk (sidewalk still unshoveled). Last night I complained a third time and cc:ed my 5th Ward representatives, figuring such a tactic might prove effective. I was wrong. However, I did get a quick reply from Mike Anglin, who wondered if I’d be willing to serve on some future group dealing with the issue.

By: Matt H

Matt H — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 17:47:09 +0000

Called Community Standards again today about Packard. They said someone was out today (5 days later!) We’ll see if there’s a change tomorrow.

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 14:01:15 +0000

The residential areas along S. Industrial always feel a bit neglected, which is odd considering that they’re on the same street as the AATA.

By: Edward Vielmetti

Edward Vielmetti — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:30:24 +0000

The bus stops along the 14 route between Industrial and Packard are almost entirely impassible. I would hate to try to get on the bus there as an able bodied individual, never mind if I were in a wheelchair.

By: Matt H

Matt H — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 02:09:23 +0000

I called Community Standards on Friday for the 1200, 1100, 1000, and 800 blocks of Packard; they said they were working through 200-300 complaints.

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 20:25:42 +0000

Ah, yes, those magnificently efficient CEOS …

I hate to say it, because I’m an orderly Germanic type, but I think by far the best way to put pressure on a public company is by embarrassing public demonstration, whether physical or virtual.

By: Edward Vielmetti

Edward Vielmetti — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 06:54:15 +0000

In Stopped Watched I noted that the Kroger on Stadium & S Industrial had piled 6+ feet of snow onto the sidewalk from their clearing of the parking lot.

I’ve made a few calls and sent a few letters and filled out a few web pages, and we’ll see which of those things gets a result.

Fortunately, it’s easy to get the name and address of the CEO of a public company, and I assume that someone in that kind of role is good at delegating responsibility and seeing that things get done.

By: Fred Zimmerman

Fred Zimmerman — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 14:02:37 +0000

Linda, I believe Dave’s point is that shared status information can create peer pressure which can be a) more effective and b) more cost-efficient than relying on a handful of busy community standard officers. I for one welcome our new mashup overlords.

By: Linda Diane Feldt

Linda Diane Feldt — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 22:08:11 +0000

Well, I e-mailed a couple of addresses to the community standards department on Sunday at 12:53 PM, about sidewalks being unshoveled. I got an e-mail this AM at 7:10 saying “Thank you, we’ll enforce a.s.a.p.” and signed by a person. Of course on a walk at 3:30 today they were mostly the same. No signs of enforcement.
I do feel a bit better knowing that my message was viewed and considered. But the snow is still there.
I’m one who greatly appreciates acknowledgement and progress reports. Love to track packages. Some people just want final results and that’s all. Takes all kinds.

By: Dave Askins

Dave Askins — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:13:35 +0000

Monday morning after the heavy Saturday snow, Liberty Street (a major east-west artery) was clear down to asphalt. The crumblies along the edges (i.e. bike lanes) are, I think, just about par for the course. One of the themes from Saturday's budget retreat was the importance of communication about service delivery. The idea is that it's one thing when the service delivery is bad, but it's another when service delivery is actually okay, but communication about it is poor. Right now, Sue McCormick said, the snow plowing information page is manually updated by someone walking from the snow plowing "war room" at the Wheeler Center to another room to log the information for the website. So there is some communication about snow plowing activity now. But Councilmember Christopher Taylor sketched the vision of a possible communication system: GPS transmitters on plow trucks with real-time data displayed on a web map. To that I'd add: opt in automatic telephone notification: "A plow truck is currently at 7th and Liberty heading west." Or whatever makes the most sense. It's easy to take potshots at this sort of thing: does any of this help plow the actual snow? Well, no. But having information about progress makes a huge difference about how people feel about the quality of the service. With computing, think about the display bars that tell you how much of a file has been downloaded. We feel more content that, yep, something is happening. Or think about the ability to track a package sent by UPS or FedEx. Does knowing where it is help it get there faster? Nope. But it satisfies some need to know that, yes, it's still on its way. In sum, communication like that about service delivery can improve perception about the quality of the service delivery, with no additional investment in its actual quality. It's still a fair question to ask though, if we have X additional dollars to invest, do we invest it in communication about the service, or in the service itself.