CityHall App is smart(phone) way to report trouble [Philadelphia Daily News] “[Councilman Bobby] Henon, who introduced his CityHall App last spring and quickly saw hundreds of Northeast residents download and use it, discovered that when property violations go viral, most offenders cave. If they don’t, he’ll summon them to public hearings and alert Licenses & Inspections – which is never good news for a noncomplying city property owner.”
We put out a call to Henon’s office to get exact numbers on downloads and service requests.
A lucky app-enstance: 2 places to complain to [Philadelphia Daily News] The Daily News compares Bobby Henon’s City Hall app and the city’s new 311 app.
Map of the week: 311 requests filed under ‘Other’ [PPIIN blog] “We took a look at the types of requests citizens have been filing with the city’s recently launched 311 mobile app to get a better idea of how the app is being used to report problems.”
City Hall service brings data to residents efficiently and effectively through interactive map [Philadelphia Inquirer]
Pivoting a City: Can Startups Help More Than Themselves?[The Atlantic] “Startups all over the country tend to be very white. And Pittsburgh, like many other major cities, has even more acute black unemployment problems than it does general ones. Unemployment data isn’t broken out by city and race, but nationally, black unemployment was almost twice that of whites in 2011, peaking at 16.7 percent (!) in August, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
So, as long as we’re thinking about scale, the biggest challenge facing Pittsburgh isn’t how to make a vibrant startup scene (though that’s not easy either) but how do you make one whose benefits extend beyond the edges of the start-up bubble?”
Related: Forget High-Tech [Slate] “Local governments spend way too much effort encouraging tech startups. They should encourage other kinds of startups instead.”
Penn and Drexel share CCTV cameras to fight crime across campuses [The Daily Pennsylvanian]
Can Philly Support a World Class Start-Up Community? [Purple Car]
Bresslergroup Names J.D. Albert Director of Engineering [Dexigner]
Sparking innovation in cities, one geek at a time [CNN] Philly Code for America fellow Alex Yule has a quick cameo in the preview video for a CNN profile of Code for America founder Jennifer Pahlka.
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