SeeClickFeast: Shake Shack comes to New Haven

Like every member of the New Haven Community, our stomachs rumbled in approval at the recent news that Shake Shack will be opening a location here in town; in fact, it will be right down the street from our office on Chapel Street.  For those of you who don’t know, Shake Shack is a mini-chain that originated in New York that has developed a devoted following, especially for its signature “roadside” burgers.   A problematic temptation for those trying to abide by diets? Perhaps.  A positive development for the “thrilling urban renaissance,” in the words of Shake Shack Founder Danny Meyer, currently underway in New Haven? Definitely.  

In fact, the restaurant will open in a space that is owned by Yale University, but has been unoccupied for years.  For some New Haveners, this became a source of frustration, because they felt that this prime location should not have languished, underutilized, for so long.  Where do engaged citizens turn when they want to express themselves on an issue relevant to their community?  SeeClickFix, of course.

In SeeClickFix Issue # 14074, New Haven residents bandied about ideas for the space, and encouraged Yale to find a suitable tenant for the location.  The issue received a lot of attention, garnering nearly six thousand views.  Yale representative Bruce Anderson even contributed to the comment thread, writing, “...we are within 30-60 days of announcing a tenant for this space.”  This is another great example of how we’re helping to bring communities together, and its especially satisfying since it concerns our own neighborhood.

So, a hearty welcome to our soon to be neighbors, Shake Shack.  We look forward to enjoying a burger in the near future.

A Bike-Friendly Fix in Brooklyn

Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood Association (CoWNA) member Brad Kerr had a neighbor with a seemingly simple request: a bike rack in front of his home. Realizing that the lack of racks was widespread in their neighborhood, Brad spearheaded an effort to bring more bike parking to the Columbia Waterfront last year. Brad's research on how to fix an issue for his neighbor ended up empowering him to fix the issue for the entire neighborhood! After speaking with Dave Abraham from Transportation Alternatives and SeeClickFix bike rack expert Dan Latorre, he learned while it was a hard mission to accomplish it wasn't impossible.

SEE: An empty sidewalk in need of a bike rack

The key to getting a bike rack? Ask for a lot! Armed community manpower and the SeeClickFix mobile app, Brad and 10 of his neighbors set out to document the need for bike racks. The crew met at the corner of Columbia and Union where they received a quick lesson on how to use the SeeClickFix app, and how to identify potential bike rack locations to report. The group fanned out around the neighborhood, SeeClickFixin' locations that needed a proper place to park a bike. In total, the group reported over 30 issues with their suggestions from their mobile phones.

CLICK: CoWNA organized a team to hit the streets and map locations for bike racks using the SeeClickFix mobile app

Nearly a year after the bike rack blitz, CoWNA board member Chris Barker woke up last week to see some welcomed additions to the neighborhood. Bike racks had been installed overnight, and in the places suggested on SeeClickFix! He quickly shared the news on Twitter, showcasing this community accomplishment to the world. Chris was even kind enough to share a slew of pictures of the new bike racks with us and our followers.

FIX: One of many bike racks recently installed in the Columbia Waterfront Neighborhood!

According to Brad, residents have been putting the racks to good use since the moment they were installed last week. However, a mystery remains: who was responsible for the fix? If anyone knows who was behind the bounty of new bike racks, let us know! Leave a comment here, or give us your tip @seeclickfix! Whoever the fixer may be, the SeeClickFix team couldn't be happier to see the positive changes Brad, Chris and all at CoWNA made to their neighborhood using our platform!

SubSeries Announces Partnership with SeeClickFix

SubSeries Announces Partnership with SeeClickFix

SeeClickFix Will Provide SubSeries With Online Tool to Generate Citizen Feedback

New York, New York (June 6, 2011) -- With hopes of engaging public imagination and soliciting ideas from subway riders, SubSeries announces its new partnership with citizen-reporting platform SeeClickFix to transform the urban landscape of New York City subway stations. Curated by design partnership Baukunst Studio, SubSeries serves as an unsolicited design initiative to visualize the future of the public space at twelve subway stations.

The project brings together over 20 emerging New York-based architects, designers, and artists to address the question: "What are the most optimistic strategies for reforming this network of unclaimed public space?" SubSeries will not only highlight existing problems, but also envision a positive urban future that builds upon the existing subway infrastructure.

Through SeeClickFix's platform, SubSeries hopes to collect information and suggestions from NYC residents about how to improve these urban environments. The project opened one 'ticket' for each of the twelve SubSeries subway stations including Grand Central, Columbus Circle, and Harlem 125th Street. By posting comments, users can share what they think should change and suggest their visions for these spaces.

“Over the years, the Internet has proven itself as a powerful tool for empowering citizens and enacting change,” said Ben Berkowitz, SeeClickFix CEO and co-founder. “With our technology, we hope NYC residents will actively engage with one another and suggest offline changes to reclaim the city’s public spaces.”

This evening, SubSeries will continue sparking public dialogue at the “preview” of its upcoming fall exhibition (date TBD) at Columbia University’s Studio X gallery (180 Varick Street). The free event starts at 6:00pm and will be open to the public.

“We plan to present a rapid synopsis of the design ideas for the twelve subway stations followed by an open conversation about the future of SubSeries,” said Elizabeth Lasater, exhibition co-curator and Baukunst Studio co-founder. “The goal of this discussion is to develop a strategy to attract attention from city and community organizations so that the project reaches beyond the architecture community to penetrate the imagination of New York City residents.”

Throughout the year, SubSeries hosted 12 charrettes, or in-depth conversations focused on re-imagining the public space of subway stations, which resulted in visual documentation of these visions. SubSeries presented these work-in-progress sketches at the Festival of Ideas for the New City earlier this month. Next year, SubSeries is invited to display its exhibition in both Rio de Janeiro and Mumbai. These exhibitions will act as catalysts for two additional unsolicited design series about the public space and urban infrastructure within each of these cities.

About SeeClickFix

SeeClickFix allows citizens anywhere in the world to report and monitor non-emergency community issues ranging from potholes and planted trees to garbage and graffiti. Launched in 2008, it empowers citizens, community groups, media organizations, and governments to work together and improve their neighborhoods. Through mobile web, web, iPhone, Android, and Blackberry apps, the SeeClickFix platform is the most widely-distributed citizen reporting tool in the country. The platform is fun and easy to use for citizens while being inexpensive and easily adaptable for governments. Over 40 percent of issues reported on SeeClickFix are ultimately resolved. For more information or to report an issue, visit www.seeclickfix.com.

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Digitizing the Big Apple

From 'The Big Apple' and 'Empire City' to 'Gotham' and 'The City That Never Sleeps,' New York City has worn many hats over the years. With the release of NYC Digital's roadmap, NYC hopes to add 'The Digital City' to its nickname collection.

Yesterday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chief Digital Officer Rachel Sterne announced the city's comprehensive strategy to unlocking NYC's digital future in its "Roadmap for the Digital City: Achieving New York City's Digital Future." Established last summer, NYC Digital seeks to create a "healthier civil society and stronger democracy through the use of technology that engages, serves, and connects citizens." Mayor Bloomberg explained the context behind the agency's planned initiatives:

New York City has taken great strides in the last nine years with digital innovation. More than 25 million people visit NYC.gov each year, which is nearly the same amount of people who come to Central Park. This digital roadmap paves the way for the coming years of innovation in City government and demonstrates the importance of everyone having access to new technological advancements and resources.

In collaboration with city agencies, public and private sectors, and citizens, the 90-day report consists of four pillars: Access, Open Government, Engagement, and Industry. With these pillars, NYC seeks to improve the lives of New Yorkers by increasing its transparency, engagement, efficiency, accessibility, and innovation. To do this, the city will unveil new social media partnerships. Listed among these possible partnerships was SeeClickFix.

There is a wide range of additional digital tools that the City of New York is currently evaluating for use by agencies, including platforms that support civic engagement, community, creativity, and sustainability, such as Catchafire, Kickstarter, Meetup, and SeeClickFix.

With SeeClickFix, the city can engage with residents in a more efficient and transparent manner, and allow citizens to connect with their government and each other about issues in their neighborhoods. We're excited to see how NYC transforms itself with technology and hope to support the city on its digital journey! View the full document here.

SubSeries: Designing an Optimistic Urban Future

Hoping to transform the urban landscape of NYC subway stations, SubSeries recently partnered with SeeClickFix to engage public imagination and solicit ideas from local subway riders. Curated by design partnership Baukunst Studio, SubSeries serves as an unsolicited architecture project to redesign the public space of 12 subway stations.

The project brings together over 20 emerging New York-based architects, designers, and artists to address the question: "What are the most optimistic strategies for reforming this network of unclaimed public space?" Throughout the year, SubSeries will host 12 charrettes, or in-depth conversations focused on re-imagining public space, which will result in visual and written documentation translating their visions. SubSeries will not only highlight existing problems, but also "envision a positive urban future that builds upon the existing subway infrastructure."

Through SeeClickFix's platform, SubSeries hopes to collect information and suggestions from NYC residents about how to improve these urban environments. The project opened one 'ticket' for each of the twelve SubSeries subway stations including Grand Central, Columbus Circle, and Harlem 125th Street. By posting comments, users can share what they think should change and suggest their visions for these spaces. If you have an idea to reclaim these public spaces, join the conversation!

To continue sparking public imagination, SubSeries will be attending NYC's Festival of Ideas tomorrow (Saturday, May 7th) from 11am to 7pm with their installation located in Sarah Roosevelt Park between Chrystie and Forsyth, south of Stanton Street. This event will be just one way SubSeries hopes to engage the public. On June 6th, the collaborators will also be hosting an exhibition preview at Columbia University's Studio-X gallery in SoHo with the final exhibition opening in Fall 2011.

We're incredibly excited to see how SubSeries continues to empower NYC citizens to reclaim their urban environment. Follow the project or learn more here.

Mr. Berkowitz Goes to City Hall

Pizza isn't the only data set that New Haveners can teach New Yorkers how to perfect. Yesterday morning, New York City Council listened to Ben Berkowitz offer some tips about how New York should proceed with opening up its municipal data, to increase government accountability and encourage entrepreneurship.

"Set aggressive deadlines. It's time for this to happen," Ben told the Committee for Technology and a crowd of 50 or so gathered in a hearing room on lower Broadway. Ben stressed the importance of developing the "write side" as well as the "read side" of the city's data systems. Third parties like SeeClickFix need to be able to add to the city's databases, as well as draw from it. "It's not just listening: it's speaking up and communicating," said Ben.

While other municipalities like Washington, DC and San Francisco have positioned themselves at the forefront of open data practices by transitioning to an Open311 API, New York City lags behind. A new bill, Introduction 029-2010 by Council Member Gale Brewer, will push all city departments to open up their data within the next few years. Yesterday's committee hearing took testimony from entrepreneurs, politicians, administrators, and educators in reference to the proposed bill.

Brewer said that she expects that "having this bill would help 311 operators answer some of their calls." SeeClickFix hopes so too. More open data practices on NYC's end would help SeeClickFix take the burden off of call centers by directing service requests to the proper authorities. Closed data policies make it harder for SeeClickFix to work with existing 311 data and service request channels.

Check out the full content of the proposed bill below. Also, see yesterday's blog post to read SeeClickFix's written testimony as submitted to the city council.

Int. 029-2010 Details