It wasn’t built on an old native burial ground, but two councilmen are up in arms over a Queens high school's location. The Department of Education failed to disclose that Information Technology High School in Long Island City, which opened in 2003, was built on the former location of the Gould Mercereau metal-plating warehouse – one apparently chock full of lead and petrochemicals.
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Results tagged “informationtechnology”
Toxic High
311: By The Numbers
Oh, 311. How we love you. Not only do you prodvide easy access to city information, and an even easier way to bitch about city services, but now you provide us with statistical porn each month!
The 411 on 311
Civic boosting is great, but we hope people calling 311 for restaurant information also get themselves a local NY magazine or guidebook, too. Actually, 311 would be a great application for wireless devices, but that's for the nerds to figure out. One new feature of 311 that Gothamist likes that they let you know about street closings and rainouts of performances. We'd like there to be a feature for "What streets to avoid" - if this is really to be useful during the convention.
Verizon Admits 911 Bungle
It seems that it was Verizon technicians working on a bank's phone system that made 911 calls from Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queen, and Staten Island disappear. Verizon said, "We determined that a human error resulted in the accidental rerouting of phone calls during a procedure to upgrade service for a corporate client. We have immediately altered our processes to ensure this type of situation does not reoccur. We have assured the city that we took immediate steps to make sure this doesn't happen again." Verizon will be giving the city a full report in the next few days, while Information Technology and Telecommunications Coommissioner Gino Menchini said, "I am going to be going through it in excruciating detail. This will be a big part of my life for the next couple of months," but emphasized that NYC's 911 system has other safeguards in place. Good luck, Gino - this will be a doozy of a report.
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Emergency for 911
Last night, 911's phone lines were down for 2 hours in Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, adn Staten Island. 911 operators noticed a drop in calls and alerted other officials, who then scrambled to set up other plans. Police patroled areas, and just as the NYPD finished setting up alternate emergency numbers of their site, the 911 system went back up. Verizon says that they were upgrading their call-switching software, but the city (and all of its residents) is worried because the back-up system failed to work. The City also says that Verizon did not tell them they were upgrading the software. Information Technology and Telecommunications commissioner Gino Menchini said, "This particular change affected not only the incoming calls, but in essence disabled the backup system that Verizon has in place. [The changes] ffected 911 in an extremely problematic way for us." It's too soon to tell if any critical emergencies were not addressed due to the outage.
Happy Birthday, 311
Our friendly government helpline, 311, turned one yesterday, and as with any birthday in an office, there was a cake. The introduction of 311 as a resource for New Yorkers to direct their non-emergency questions and complaints has reduced the number of calls to 911 (which is good, because then those operators can focus on the emergencies). To date, 311 has answered 6,542,240 calls, able to offer answers in 170 languages. Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Gino Menchini said, "The 311 Citizen Service Hotline has changed forever the way New Yorkers interact with their government," adding, "Over the next year, we will build on our successes by bringing many of 311's most popular features to the City's Web site - www.nyc.gov."
How 311 Works
For some reason, we're fascinated with the Behind-the-Scenes look at 311 and the city's Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Gino Menchini, in spite of its rah-rah-ism. Besides as explanation of how 311 works (operators fielding your calls, using global information services), apparently Commissioner Menchini calls 311 all the time to update the city about broken traffic lights and other transportation incidents, and Mayor Bloomberg has not only called 311, but given barbecues for the staff. Maybe this is because Gothamist is thinking 311 would make for a great high concept movie: Villain tries to control NYC by screwing up its traffic lights; clever 311 manager needs to stop the chaos.
NY City Tries to Locate Cell Phone Dead Zones
The Mayor, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications Commissioner Gino Menchini, and Department of Consumer Affairs Commissioner Gretchen Dykstra want to know about your cell phone service, specifically where your cell phone's dead zones are. This initiative to improve New Yorkers' cell phone service comes as users will be able to switch providers while keeping their numbers. Some of the Mayor's remarks from the press conference:
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