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April 11, 2012
Atlantic Yards and 311: An open letter to Mayor Bloomberg
Atlantic Yards Watch
Recently, we were informed by representatives of your office that all callers reporting Atlantic Yards incidents to 311 would be required to identify the location of the incident as “620 Atlantic Avenue” so 311 would be able to identify the report as being related to Atlantic Yards. This is the case even if the incident being reported is blocks away from 620 Atlantic Avenue. Frankly, we don’t think this is going to work. For the last eight years, thousands of people living near the project have been used to thinking of the site as “Atlantic Yards” or “Barclays Center,” in part because Forest City Ratner has spent hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of dollars publicizing those names. Nobody recognizes “620 Atlantic Avenue.” However, we were told that enabling the 311 system to key incident reports to “Atlantic Yards” or “Barclays Center” would require the entire system to be rewritten.
We admit we found this hard to believe. It doesn’t seem possible that 311 is unable to take a report based on a common place name instead of a street address. We doubt many people know the street addresses of Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium, or Citi Field, for instance. We would like to think that a person calling 311 about a problem at the Grand Army Plaza subway station would be able to be served.
NoLandGrab: Maybe there should be a separate phone number for reporting ceaseless Atlantic Yards infractions. Do you think 666 is taken?
Related coverage...
Atlantic Yards Report, Atlantic Yards Watch: maybe "620 Atlantic Avenue" isn't such a good ID for AY-related incidents
Posted by eric at April 11, 2012 12:45 PM