Hours of free fun with the new 311 app. Recently I was waiting for a bus on Michigan Avenue at Pearson and a car came screaming by and hit a puddle in a giant pothole in front of the bus stop. In slow motion, while I was saying “Oh noooooo!”, I was sprayed by a wave of filthy water from about my waist down. After I stopped laughing I remembered that the City has released a new 311 app so you can report things like gigantic potholes on the fly. I decided to get it! See my explanation in each step in Red.
Get the app
The app is available for both ios and Android.
You can report almost anything
I noticed a fire hydrant at Grand and Rush had a cap removed. I decided to test out the app. I was sure that the cap would have been stolen and sold for scrap by the time the city got over there but a possibly non-working fire hydrant is not a good thing. I took the pictures, went to Happy Hour and while consuming discount bourbon I submitted the Service Request. The process has about 10-12 steps and took about four minutes. The app worked extremely well and had no bugs. See most of the steps below. The final image shows that the city responded within a day! My next report is that pothole/crater!
I typed in “65 E. Grand” and an address popped up.
Add up to three photos.
Photos can be taken while you file or from your camera roll.
Final request summary. Take a screenshot of the #SRXX-XXXXXXXX so you can check back later to see the status of the request.
I checked back a day later and it looks like the city fixed the problem!
