By Terry Miller
Officials in Pasadena offer residents a unique way to help deal with problems in their neighborhood or access services the city provides.
It’s a smart phone app that will help you get messages and pictures delivered to the Citizens Service Center – faster than a speeding bullet; and will even indicate your exact location via GPS.
Pasadena’s PIO, William Boyer, guided me through the process last week. Quite simple really, even for those of us who may be a less techno-savvy than the Millennials.
In fact, it’s kind of fun.
We needed to alert the city about trees growing out of control over some power lines in the alley behind our house. With a click of my iPhone, I was able to take a picture of the issue at hand, send the picture with a description of the problem all in a matter of nanoseconds, thanks to the free app I installed via iTunes.
I was given a case number and the application keeps track of your service requests, complete with a thumbnail of the image you send and details of the service request.
The app is basic but that’s what you need. No bells, whistles or stupid emoticons (I hate those stupid things … I use words and pictures to express myself!)
There’s a separate place in the app for employees of the city to login, as well as information about how to access to just about any service within city limits of Pasadena.
Does it really work? Oh, you bet. The trees hitting the power lines and cable lines were trimmed the very next day after I posted a picture via the app. As our dear old friend Huell Howser would say … “That’s amazing.”
To download the app go to www.cityofpasadena.net/csc. Follow the directions.