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Freaked out about the explosions in your neighborhood, only to find out via 311 that it's just fireworks? Or wondering about the fire around the corner? Well, the city actually does want you to know about what's going on in your neighborhoods and announced the pilot program launch of Notify NYC, which will deliver "emergency public information by email, text messages and reverse-911 alerts in four City community districts."
The four districts are Lower Manhattan, the Northeast Bronx, the Rockaways, and Southwest Staten Island, and you can sign up for the service here. According to the city, "Emergency information will be limited to events that directly impact the four communities in the pilot program, but anyone can sign up for the service, regardless of where they live or work."
Deputy Mayor Ed Skyler explained, "It would have been used in the Deutsche Bank fire. One of the messages we got from people was, 'Even if there's nothing we have to do, we still want information.'" Indeed, and it seems like the city may be interested in giving more information in the future: When we signed up, we were asked if we wanted information on:
- Major infrastructure repair work with road closures and detour routes,
- Suspension of normal parking rules,
- Public school holidays and Dept. of Education advisories for parents,
- Cultural events - local concerts; parades and performances,
- Movie and TV film sites (road closures; light and sound displays),
- Bus and subway service advisories - station closures; long-term route changes,
-Street fairs,
- Community Board meetings,
- Traffic and transit delays
Will you sign up for NotifyNYC?
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If I actually had any business or lived in any of the areas covered, I would sign up. Let me know when they cover midtown, Wash Heights, or NW Queens.
I would sign up if you could elect to receive info only when you wanted it; say, by sending a txt that said traffic, or MTA or something, and then receiving info about that days commute.
I don't want a bunch of random alerts arriving all the time; it would be like having a police scanner you couldn't turn off.
If it was restricted to true emergencies, then I'd do it, but the way it's worded it sounds more like random spam messages. Local concerts? Street fairs? Movie and tv filming? Traffic? Dept of Ed parent advisories? Community board meetings? I don't want a constant barrage of text messages with all that crap.
I think you'd be able to choose amongst those different things. If you have a car and have a kid in the public school system, it seems that being able to find out about film/TV shoots and DOE meetings would be handy.
The only problem with this is we get charged for receiving text messages. Or you have pay a significant amount of money for unlimited text messages. Seems like perhaps it might be better to change the model around and charge for people who send texts, and allow for free reception. Especially since so many services are now trying out emergency texting.