Heres my $.02 from Greenville:

1. JCIA, responsive and helpful
2. Parks and Forestry--never returns or acknowledges calls
3. JCPA (Parking), see #2
4. JCPD--sincere effort to respond to specific issues and respectful dialogue with Deputy Chief Donahue. But quick to go to headcount problems.
5. Mayors Action Bureau (Judy)--helpful and returns calls, but similar response when they deal with the aforementioned agencies.

I have also contacted Conuncilpersons, and of all, Rolando Lavarro was the one who took sustained action and followed up. I really felt like i got results from him with our Neighborhood association.

Vote wisely on May 14. I will vote for the person who has responded to my emails with action since he took office, even when I was no longer in his ward.

I guess the city response is going to be hit or miss depending on who you deal with. I was thinking of contacting Gerry McCann. Love him or not I figure he might be the relentless pitbull we need to get after the trash violators. For myself, I am a renter but I believe in caring for the property I rent. I sweep the front and often will sweep my neighbors areas as well. I put out the garbage and clean up what the trashmen have left behind. I also once walked a large bag of garbage 3 blocks back to its rightfull owner and left it in their foyer. They had left plenty of discarded mail near the top so it was an easy fix. When I confront others who dump their household trash they seem to have no knowledge of the laws.

Quote: Each property owner is supposed to take a broom to their property whether commecial or otherwise but since most do no reside within the city they feel no pride. Maybe because I was brought up in a different time I feel strongly about this. I remember tenants just sweeping the hallway outside their apartment door, this was their home. I remember the men putting out the trash if the landlord or super was ill or going to get there late. Ditto shovelling the walk. Today, it is nobody's job. Tenants do no care how they treat the property they live on, it's not theirs so who cares. The sweepers in Union City & North Bergen do an ace job of keeping the streets clean. I think the problem is an aging, badly maintained sweeper fleet. Maybe it's time to trade them in for something that works. Maybe if we got the smaller sweepers like Unio City & North Bergen they could be better maintained & effectively used.

Quote: This post couldn't be more timely. Walking home from Brickhaus this morning at 11 I passed 337 Grove. The trash can was overflowing with what appears to be mostly household garbage ( it was bagged). I took pictures and was going to send it to Fulop. Used to be that the city would randomly open some of the bags and if they could identify, thru addressed mail I think, the depositor got a ticket. I really think that there are buildings that don't provide trash cans for the interim deposit of garbage between pickup days. The stretch of 1st from Porto Lounge to Jersey might be one of them. Maybe a systematic survey or just a letter to all property owners reminding them of their responsibilities would help. Mechanical sweepers are pretty worthless. How much more (or less) would it cost to hire people with brooms?

Quote: As to the public cans, how do you catch the violators? When Schundler instituted the practice of the cans it was a case of another well intentioned idea gone awry. The funny thing is that the cans serve no purpose in helping keep the sidewalks clean. People are still walking down the street & tossing their candy wrappers, slices of pizza, jelly donuts, etc on the street while I shudder to think what some people's homes must look like judging by the amount of garbage they generate. There are a poop load of commercial vehicles that park overnight in my area. I have called both the Parking Authority & the Police & have addressed this issue at neighborhood meetings to no avail. Another issue is fire hydrants. I understand that parking is difficult at best & sometimes the 10 foot rule on either side of the hydrant should be at the ticketing authority's discretion but to drive right buy a hydrant that is blatantly blocked or just cruise on by commercial vehicles is not only putting people at risk if heaven forbid there is a fire but in the case of commerical vehicles, depriving people of what little parking there is & denying the city revenue. Another is Handicap parking spots. In my neighborhood alone I have had THREE signs taken down, one took 5 years. Now I have just found another in my immediate neighborhood & have sent in the appropriate information & pictures. The spot is being used by the adult kids of a retired officer who doesn't live at the particular residence! This type of nonsense has got to stop.

http://mygovhelp.com/JERSEYCITYNJ/_cs ... t.aspx?cat=0&sSessionID=&

I use the above link from time to time. Just yesterday I reported a commercial vehicle with out of state plates that has been parking overnight in my neighborhood. (Lets see what actually happens!) I have had quick responses in the past when reporting potholes. The main problem I encounter in my area is homeowners using the public cans to dispose of their household trash. It is illegal plus it quickly overflows the cans and the trash goes everywhere. I am going to contact the proper authorities about tracking down violators. I cannot understand why people do this. They have cans but insist on stuffing their crap into public cans.

Inspectors

(201) 432-4645 ext.671

Government isn't super responsive because it doesn't have to be, it's a monopoly. If there was actual competition, you'd see customer service ramp up real quick.

Quote:

Most of the variation hovers in the range between poor and abysmal. Many residents have actually given up on expecting the city to take an active role in resolving quality of life or long-term safety issues.

In downtown JC I have reported time and time again about the cable wires precariously hanging down on to the sidewalks, feet and feet of it. When walking my dog I wrap them around trees, throw them up in to branches but yet it doesn't resolve how many more by the month are lying around, dangling on to cars and sidewalks. The response? Contact the cable company. No cable company has admitted fault and one came out to state it wasn't theirs. The fire department came by once and said the same thing - it's not a danger. Well, who wants dangling wires all over their sidewalks? Up and down Jersey Ave. Tacky.

http://www.hudsonreporter.com/view/fu ... ndary_stories_left_column

In the event of a fire or other emergency, everyone knows to call 911. And like the Ghostbusters, the Jersey City Fire Department or local cops are on the scene within minutes.

Yet how responsive are city services when lives are not immediately being threatened but help is needed all the same? A look at three recent and random examples shows that the city?s responsiveness can vary.

?Disgusted? in the Heights

Since January, resident Paul D. Fitzgerald has been trying to get the trash picked up in his Jersey City Heights neighborhood.

In an e-mail dated Jan. 2 to retiring Ward D City Councilman William Gaughan, Fitzgerald described the hellish daily walk to his son?s day care center.

?This morning has hit a tipping point that needs to be addressed,? Fitzgerald begins. ?I walked my son over to his daycare today [in the Heights] and the level of garbage everywhere was deplorable! It was as if we live in a Third World country. I mean bags and bags of garbage strewn in the streets and the sidewalks, plus there is dog feces everywhere! The quality of life is getting worse by the day. I know there is street cleaning twice a week, but if you follow the trucks, they barely clean at all and garbage just gets flung around?Something needs to be done, I implore you, please! I hate walking my children through this every day.?

Gaughan responded on Jan. 10, stating, ?I am in contact regularly with [Jersey City Incinerator Authority Director Oren] Dabney with regard to trash problems. It will be brought to his attention.?

Fitzgerald and his wife, Cyndi Fitzgerald, responded later that day, thanking Gaughan for his time.
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?Can we please correct this issue?? ? John Lynch
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But they continued the e-mail by further complaining about the filth in their community, noting that ?all the way down past 59 Webster Ave. to the corner of Webster and Hutton there is a grand total of one public garbage can. One. Do you think people generally have no concern for the neighborhood and freely leave their dog feces everywhere. Yes. But even if they pick it up, there is nowhere to put garbage. Are you going to carry three pounds of dog crap five blocks? Probably not. There are hundreds of apartments/homes on this road and the incinerator department set us an e-mail that they gave out six warnings. They sent the e-mail like it was impressive. ?We gave out six warnings?? Really? Hundreds of dwellings, crap everywhere, garbage blowing up and down the street and the answer? Six warnings.?

At the beginning of March, Fitzgerald contacted Gaughan by e-mail again. In an e-mail dated March 5, he wrote, ?I have not seen a hair of improvement in this neighborhood. In fact, it may be worse.?

Fed up by March 7, Fitzgerald contacted the Reporter. A day earlier, on March 6, he had also reached out to Ward C City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, whose ward includes a portion of the Heights community.

?That is the No. 1 complaint I receive,? Lopez said recently, referring to the city?s dirty streets.

In an interview last year, Dabney said, ?All main thorough-streets are swept six times per week, and all secondary streets are swept four times per week, twice on each side. For example Tuesday and Friday we?ll do the north side and Monday and Thursday we?ll do the south side. Street sweeping takes place citywide and is broken down into 11 routes.?

In addition to the street sweeping schedule, Dabney added that the JCIA also responds to residential complaints each day regarding trash, both on city-owned and private property.

?Our Division of Environmental Compliance inspectors are assigned to different areas throughout the city,? said Dabney. ?They take pictures and monitor locations such as abandoned properties, common areas, vacant lots, graffiti, and other violators who don?t maintain properties. From that point our Division of Property Maintenance responds by removing litter, debris, vegetation, and graffiti from these locations.?

Those who fail to maintain vacant property can be fined.

Members of the Washington Park Association and the Riverview Neighborhood Association team up several times a year to hold their own community clean-up days to improve the appearance of streets in the Heights. A similar clean-up day that focused on commercial properties was held last summer along West Side Avenue. These efforts were all organized and spearheaded by residents who said they were fed up with the filth in their neighborhoods. At the behest of Ward B resident and activist Esther Wintner, the city did a power wash of West Side Avenue last summer.

Rocky road

More recently another Heights resident, John Lynch, has renewed his plea to get a rock wall repaired along Reservoir No. 3. His complaints to the city date back to July 2012.

Last summer, on July 10, Lynch noticed that a large rock had fallen from the stone wall and alerted the city. At the time he requested that the fallen rock be removed from the sidewalk and that the wall be inspected to see if it was safe.

Two days after raising his concerns, city engineer Chuck Lee asked the city?s Department of Public Works to ?move the stone away from the sidewalk area and assess the integrity of the wall. We will discuss our options afterward.?

That same day, Lee was informed that the rock had been removed and Assistant City Engineer Jeffrey Reeves suggested that the wall be inspected the week of July 16.

On March 17, Lee wrote an e-mail to Rosemary McFadden, chief of staff to Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy, DPW Director Rodney Hadley, and John Hanussak, president of the Highland Avenue Neighborhood Association. In that e-mail, Lee stated: ?Our DPW crew removed the hazardous condition from the sidewalk last week and also determined that the wall was not in any imminent dangerous condition. Therefore, the Division of Engineering scheduled a structural integrity inspection for sometime during this week.?

Two weeks later an angry Lynch, however, wrote back saying the fallen rocks had not been removed. The rocks were finally removed after this second complaint.

Two weeks ago, Lynch was back at, it after he noticed that more rocks had fallen from the Reservoir No. 3 wall.

?Can we please correct this issue?? he wrote in an e-mail dated March 24. ?Obviously, whoever determined the wall is not a dangerous situation?is incorrect. Parents with children, seniors, and residents pass by this wall. If someone trips over a rock on the sidewalk, or a rock falls off the wall and someone gets injured, it is the city?s fault.?

As of April 3, this new round of fallen rocks had not been repaired.

STOP in the name of safety

Despite the experiences of Fitzgerald and Lynch, occasionally action is taken quickly to alleviate a problem.

Acting in her capacity as a private citizen, this reporter was able to get a stop sign replaced that had been removed earlier this year by PSE&G.

As part of some project that was never explained to the community, utility giant PSE&G last year ripped up several blocks of roadway along Pavonia Avenue in the Journal Square community. As a part of this work, the pavement at several street corners was also jackhammered and the stop sign at the corner of Pavonia Avenue and Garrison Avenue was removed. This one-way stop had regulated traffic on Garrison at the approach to Pavonia.

When PSE&G repaved the street corners, the one-way stop sign at Garrison and Pavonia was not replaced. Since there was no stop sign at this intersection on Pavonia, there was nothing at this corner to regulate traffic on either street, creating a serious safety hazard.

On March 25 this reporter contacted Rosemary McFadden, chief of staff to Mayor Healy; Ward C City Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, and Council members At-large Rolando Lavarro Jr., Viola Richardson, and Peter Brennan. McFadden immediately asked Chuck Lee and the city?s Engineering Department to address the problem, and council members Lavarro and Lopez also followed-up quickly.

Within four days, a stop sign was returned to this corner.