5/08/2008

Mapping Buffalo...

Ben from SeeClickFix shot me an email this afternoon and asked me to check out his google map mash-up and sort of test drive the new application. Immediately I found this so easy to use and it has a level of possibility for community organizing that I'm just beginning to get my hands around. So, I'm opening this post to fixBuffalo readers who may feel passionatly about a particular house or building in Buffalo and might want to share their interest(s) with others.

Though my focus is on Buffalo's East Side - I'm very aware that most of my readers live in neighborhoods on the the other side of Main Street - I'm curious to know where this might lead when you start placing additional points on the map.

So...drill down into the map, click on a location and fill in a couple fields. This could become very interesting.
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5 comments:

Unknown said...

In New Haven we are using seeclickfix to report potholes, graffiti, garbage on the streets, outed street lights, dangerous intersections that need crosswalks, repeated drug dealing etc.

We have councilman, city officials, merchant's association and special service districts that have created fixer areas where they are alerted everytime an issue is created in their area.

You guys can create fixer areas for your local officials or you can encourage them to do it themselves.

I'm excited to see how Buffalo unrolls seeclickfix.

Anonymous said...

I see great potential in this - if used in the way Ben says it's used in New Haven.

I'm frankly not sure about using it to post interesting information about local buildings/sites. It's easy enough to create a Google Map for that, and I fear using this for that will clutter up this map with non-"issue" content.

Sean Brodfuehrer said...

I always thought that google could be very interesting medium for mapping aspects of city life. I REALLY would like to figure out how to put in the NFTA bus routes in Google so people could actually see where the buses run, their maps are horrible. I will definitely check out this site.

Anonymous said...

St. Ann's is at Broadway and Emslie, not Dowtown. And who put that St. Anthony's was closed? It's open!

Also is this just for problem/derelict buildings? If so, then both churches should be taken off.

Unknown said...

see Click Fix did remove the Churches as This is just for reporting problems.
What I suggested to the churches is that if they want to create a watch on their neighborhood using seeclickfix.com they could stay abreast of community issues.

Things like community cleanups are great church activities that can provide "fixes" on the map.

"Closed" means that an issue has been resolved.

Anyways, we're getting off subject.
Does anybody have the email that potholes are sent to at Buffalo city Hall? Someone can create a watch on seeclickfix.com and enter the word "pot" and attach the city's pothole repair email address. Then when they are fixed, either the city or anyone else can close them for the world to see that the city of Buffalo is doing its job.

Buffalo has a great track record for fixing its potholes and it would be cool to be able to display that positive information to outsiders as they start using seeclickfix.


...just some thoughts on how to use the site.