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from the Your-honor,-there-was-a-tree-branch-blocking-the-sign! dept.
Utilizing FOIA and some clever software Mr. Chapman quickly identifies a troubled spot for parking in Chicago and gets results!
http://mchap.io/using-foia-data-and-unix-to-halve-major-source-of-parking-tickets.html
The story relates how the author used Freedom of Information Act requests to gather raw data on parking tickets issued in Chicago. What he received was a semicolon-delimited text file containing a great number of data entry errors. The author outlines the steps taken to clean and extract data on a likely problematic parking location. Armed with this data, he visited the location and discovered very confusing signage. He reported this to the city, who rectified the signage. This led to a 50 percent decrease in the number of tickets issued for that location.
I immediately asked myself three things
1. How much more effective has that corner become?
2. Who's grumbling about the loss of revenue?
3. What would happen if more of us did this very thing?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday August 15 2018, @11:58PM
> The main times you see this kind of mustache-twirling abuse is at a higher level than departments, such as the city council installing red light cameras
That does a lot of damage to their reputation. If that was the only bit of corruption going on, it wouldn't be so bad. But some city governments seem determined to find out how many scams they can pull, and how far they can push the voters. We had a mayor who was a decent fellow until he got into a shady deal to build the world's tallest building in our humble community of about 50,000. He made a cool million flipping the land where the building was to go, and lost the next election. His replacement was a religious zealot who, with her fellow zealots, went on a moral crusade to run all the liquor stores out of town, using every trick they could, not caring about the legality. Cost the city plenty in lost revenue and lost lawsuits. She lasted only one term, then her replacement was another one termer, a heavy drug user with serious kidney problems and a drug dealer husband. She was absent much of her term due to her illnesses, or so we were given to believe.
> I get really annoyed at the commonly accepted cynical view that "government is the problem."
You'll just have to accept a constant low level of suspicion and distrust. Corruption is the problem, power corrupts, and government has a lot of power.
I wish the high level stuff was all, but there are plenty of petty officials who seem to delight in throwing bureaucratic obstacles in people's way.
By now, I expect nearly everyone has heard dozens of stories of police abuse of power-- their profiling and racism, and their escalation of situations particularly against the mentally ill.
However, government tone and manner can be the worst problem. When they act cynical towards citizens, treat citizens like we're a bunch of takers and helpless losers, with finger wagging at us for breaking petty rules as if we're naughty little children-- all the more infuriating when those rules are bullcrap rules designed to line someone's pockets in the name of safety or whatever-- when they take that attitude, they're going to get it right back at them. They rob us of dignity.
Departments whose entire mission is enforcing some petty rules can be a huge problem. They're staffed by people who know they'll be out of a job if there isn't any enforcing to be done. A good example of this is lawn care. The city had a few restaurants dish out some food poisoning. There is a state agency that handles restaurant inspections, but the city decided to start up their own health inspection department. So far, I know of one restaurant that for months regularly served spoiled food that poisoned people. They were not stopped by the city's health inspection, they went out of business. The city also has a group that inspects homes when they are sold.
All of these enforcement actions are done in a punitive manner, as if it is a given that the owner knew all about the rules and was deliberately flouting them. Instead of helping citizens comply with reasonable regulations, citizens are treated as if they're criminals who got caught trying to break the rules, and fined out the wazoo.
The typical lawn care violation for letting your grass get too tall is a case in point. It is loaded with assumptions that tall grass is a "nuisance" which attracts undesirable "vermin", and that "we take pride on our city's appearance" and you are a dirty rotten deadbeat who doesn't care about your neighbors' property values. I found the notice highly offensive, and I let the city officials have it for having dared to talk to citizens in such an insulting and belittling manner. And I voted against all the incumbents in the next election. Also, checking the regulations, I found several discrepancies in which the letter omitted various mitigating circumstances. It was so obviously written to scare and bully the recipient. Stupid to make enemies of their own citizens with such ham handed treatment.