Welcome back to our weekly update that highlights some of the cases appearing on 311 in the North End/Waterfront neighborhoods. All 311 cases are public information and can be found at 311.boston.gov.
Metal Plates stored in Lombard Place
This 311 user says, “ATTN #ISD. Construction materials insafely stored in Lombard Place, 02113–metal plates unbalanced on the ground, rocking precariously underfoot & under vehicle. AND LOUDLY all night. This equipment left by Steve Miller Construction doing work at 10 Thacher St. Please quickly address & resolve this public safety & public nuisance matter.”
The original post can be found here. The post was submitted and opened on February 5, 2020 and was closed on February 7, 2020 with the following note, “Closed with status: Duplicate of Existing Case. Duplicate case, inspection requested. case # 3189432.”
Illegal Parking at Intersection Of Thatcher St & Endicott St
This 311 user writes, “Non-residents parked across Endicott Street for the Celtics game. There has to be a harsher punishment since this is an ongoing issue on nights the Celtics or Bruins play. Why does the Fenway area tow cars but not the North End? Our streets are hardly patrolled and it’s known that high traffic areas such as Hanover Street are your only concern. This issue has to be addressed.”
The original 311 post can be found here. Submitted, opened and closed on February 5, 2020 with the following note, “Closed with status: Case Resolved. vehicles have been tagged.”
Damaged Sign at 215 Endicott St North End
This 311 user says, “We received a message over the weekend that a handicap sign went missing on the pole in front of 215 Endicott Street and the constituent asked to have it replaced.”
The original 311 post can be found here. The case was submitted, opened and closed on February 10, 2020 with the following note, “Closed with status: Case Noted. Signs removed per directive of City of Boston Commission for Persons with Disabilities.”
Remember, to report a claim with 311, you can call 311, go to the 311 website, tweet at 311, or download the app. What do you think about these 311 cases? Follow our “What’s The 311?” tag to see past week’s postings!
“This equipment left by Steve Miller Construction…”
They took the money and ran.
They flew like an eagle.
“Duplicate case, inspection requested. case # 3189432.”
Inspection requested, not completed.
311 is completely useless…
> 311 is completely useless
It really is. The practice of closing reports with cryptic case numbers is among the more infuriating.
The first problem is that 3189432 isn’t a valid service_code ID. You might be able to figure out that the first five digits are 10100. But if you search for 101003189432 on 311.boston.gov the only report that is returned is 101003187688… which is the one that was closed as a duplicate!
If you request 101003189432 directly by going to https://311.boston.gov/reports/101003189432, you’ll get a “Report not available” message. Note that this is different from a “Report not found” message. So the report exists, the city has just decided to not make it available for some reason.
If you’re savvy enough, you’ll find that you can request these “hidden” service_code IDs directly through the API at https://mayors24.cityofboston.gov/open311/v2/requests.json?service_request_id=101003189432
For those of you that don’t have a way to view raw JSON easily, here’s the report that the city really doesn’t want you to see:
“status”: “open”,
“service_name”: “Unsafe Dangerous Conditions”,
“service_code”: “4f38920fe75084437f000192”,
“description”: “Emergency condition: construction materials left out | Specific location: Intersection of Thacher St and Lombard Pl, Boston, MA | Details: Construction materials insafely stored in Lombard Place, 02113–metal plates unbalanced on the ground, rocking precariously underfoot & under vehicle. AND LOUDLY all night. This equipment left by Steve Miller Construction doing work at 10 Thacher St. Please quickly address & resolve this public safety & public nuisance matter”,
“requested_datetime”: “2020-02-07T10:04:15-05:00”,
“updated_datetime”: “2020-02-07T10:04:00-05:00”,
“address”: “Intersection Of Thacher St & Lombard Pl, Boston”,
The service_name and service_code for this report (Unsafe Dangerous Conditions) isn’t listed in the API services response. I suspect that the city hides all reports in this category for some reason.
Postman is free from Google.
Today, I called ISD, and left a message for North End inspector Jason Grant who is presumably working on BOS311 case #3189432 on the subject of #SteveMillerConstructionCo steel plates left to rumble underfoot which replaced my BOS311 case #3187688 which included a photograph and was entered 02/05/20. Presumably, you have been working on this matter about 2 weeks. Would you please call me back? we abutting neighbors haven’t slept since those steel plates were stashed in #LombardPlace. Is it now city of Boston practice to allow contractors to leave equipment wherever they please?
I hope to hear from Mr. Grant soon.
No word? I guess by this time with a long weekend coming, he’s all but gone.
Whatever the actual situation, the case was closed this afternoon at 2:30 with the following note:
“ADCLSD: Administratively Closed”