PVD311 4+

I initially thought this was great. I reported a pothole and it was fixed within a few day. Mind you, they just dumped loose gravel in, so the pothole was back within a few days, but this is Providence - the home of the tire busting potholes. The issue is with any other request. Either they simply don’t complete them or they get lost in some kind of bureaucratic quagmire.

PVD 311 is a great mechanism to report issues in your community. When I want to check in on a case—I call or email—or use the app to follow up. I usually find it easier to get a response by calling as I have come to find out—each rep—usually has several hundred active cases.

If you’re looking for a place to complain about issues in your neighborhood, unshoveled sidewalks, unsafe conditions, inaccessible transit due to city workers just not doing their jobs, this is your app.

Get ready for workers “merging” duplicate complaints to increase their clearance rate, and excuses to be made for why unsafe conditions persist until they just sort themselves out.

Don’t be surprised when the public servant manning this app tells you that public infrastructure isn’t operational because their buddy at highways says it’s “under construction”, when there hasn’t been a city worker in sight for weeks.

If you actually want the city to take your needs seriously though, don’t bother. This is municipal window dressing at best, and a public disinformation campaign at worst.