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GerritsenBeach.net had been tracking the young life of a new bus shelter at Gerritsen and Cyrus in Brooklyn. Shortly after it was completed, someone tagged it and then shattered much of the glass. Then GerritsenBeach.net reported:
Today we found it with a note on it. Asking parents to ask their kids, who and why! We agree.CityRoom then takes up the story and gives it a happy ending: The Department of Transportation sent a crew to fix the shelter shortly after. Someone had called 311 about the damaged shelter, but assistant commissioner Kerry Gould-Schmidt said, "The shelters are inspected twice a week by the department’s contractors and sample inspections are completed by D.O.T. field staff, but the more eyes on the shelters the better.”We asked around, and we gathered that the ones causing the bus shelter destruction are most likely the pre-teen crowd.
Which is great news. But we have one quibble - we hate to say it, but 311 isn't always that efficient. We actually called 311 yesterday to report that a bus shelter at 61st Street and Broadway needed some repair (nothing as terrible as the Gerritsen Beach shelter; the bus shelter bench outside the Trump International was missing a bolt or something) and that took about ten times longer than it should have. The 311 operator initially told us that requests for bus shelters were made through the Department of Transportation; no, no, we said, "The bus shelter's bench is damaged." But we stuck with the call and made the report.
Photographs by GerritsenBeach.net
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hey dumbass 311 is just a central call center which directs you to the city agency (DOT) which would take care of the problem so it isn't the fault of 311. this is really shitty reporting.
seriously! jeeez!!!!!!!
oh and...
"The 311 operated initially told us...."
it should say "operator" not "operated"!
ouch! I called 311 last week for the number of my local police precinct to report an incident in progress. I quickly got an answer, "74". To which I replied, "um, great, how about the phone number?"
Hey, #1 - I am pretty sure the person I ended up speaking to was supposed to be the person assigned to take these kinds of calls (I've called 311 before and dealt with being transferred to the right department/are). Anyway, the distinct feeling I got yesterday was that the person didn't understand what I was trying to do - as in report the damage.
#2:
for police issues, and incidents, perhaps calling 911 is your best bet. or since it's clear you have an internet connection, maybe looking up your local precinct online and then adding the number to your phone would be wise for future incidents.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/html/phone.html
It must be racism, Jen.
what is with #1? get a life.
The real question is why NYC thought that a bus shelter made out of glass was actually going to work in this jungle? I mean come on, anyone with half a brain would have seen this coming. If not total destrcution by animals, then there will be scratchiti! You ask yourself, "What? Can't we have anything nice in this city?"
]
No you can't. I've got to wonder if the city has 25,000 cops, where the hell are they half the time?
(what is with #6?)
ok jen, i'm sorry.
really.
but you i think you should have been more specific in telling us what went wrong when you called 311 - as in how they failed to help you and/or why blah blah....
sometimes these gothamist blogs are so very general and watered down news from other news sources that there is too much room for conjecture by the reader.
well jen....if your telephone communication is as muddled as your reporting, then i can understand why you may have had a problem.
so, let me understand - your report is this:
most times, 311 is very helpful. this time, it was kind of slow and not really helpful.
faaantastic.
Why do we prefer to assign blame on a structure's properties before the real culprits? I'm sure that the glass wasn't easy to break and can withstand more than its share of wear and tear - but it isn't vandal proof - and much isn't... what we should focus on is curbing vandalism, making it punishable and holding parents more accountable.
The new bus shelter in my nabe at Third Ave. and 138th in the Bronx was tagged within four days of being put up. I had given it only 3 days. I guess I'm slipping. I took a picture of it, but it just made me sad.
I hate taggers... I really do...
elderta - that delay is a sign of the times. back in the day, it would have been tagged in a day or less!
Jrd550: I half agree with you on this one. While I absolutely am in line with personal responsibility without a doubt, and definitely fell that people who commit stupid acts of vandalism are to blame, on the other hand I do believe that by making vandalism or crime more difficult you tend to make incidents less tempting.
I would liken this to subway graffiti in the early 80's. As soon as the MTA started running trains that were harder to paint on, as well cleaning trains immediately after they were vandalized, subway graffiti disappeared really fast.
We have to blame the jerks that did that, but it would make more sense to use the 'Vandal Proof' Shelters(I use that term lightly, I know nothing is actually anything proof) that you see quite a bit of in Europe. Maybe we should just hand out sheets of plate glass for kids to smash in empty parking lots on their summer breaks.
1. First the vandals have to be caught. I think that's asking a lot, unless they start bragging about it.
Oh, #9. Here's another time I called 311:
http://gothamist.com/2007/05/11/to_balance_out.php
[Jake] But they're not taggers, they're street artists. [/Jake]
Although not related to the subject, this is about bus stops. Have you guys seen the bus stop ad on 14th and 1st in Manhattan? It is one of those Virgin ads and it says MURRAY HILL, YOU RULE. This area is far from being Murray Hill. Any clue why they put it there?
This is why we New Yorkers can't have nice things.
It's like all that talk about making subway stations that resemble those on Tokyo . (I remember this story from a month or two ago from Gothamist)(I sure hope it was Tokyo) New Yorkers for the most part aren't interested in enjoying things that require that "Classy" touch ! I'm sorry but I was born and raised here and you see things likes like this all the time . Let's face the facts here, New York will never have clean streets, polite citizens, Non-existent crime, A poverty level of anywhere near say [0] to [4]% OR Fine amenities like glass shelters ! As a whole We New Yorkers aren't sophisticated enough to handle it . Posted by; "Still Not Amused"
I think 311 is very good. It appears you are calling for non-non-non urgent issues.
My example: water was coming up from underneath the sidewalk in front of my building. I called 311. The next morning when I left for work it had gotten worse. When I came home from work it was fixed.
24 hrs. That's service to me.
I grew up in Gerritsen Beach...all the kids did was break the bus shelters, even when the glass was older. It's a waste to even put the shelters up there...the kids will only destroy them in a day.
http://whatpushesmybuttons.com