Home › Groups › DIYcity Main Group › City of Los Angeles online survey asks the people

DIYcity Main Group

User login

City of Los Angeles online survey asks the people

Submitted by element6 on 6 January 2009 - 6:33pm to DIYcity Main Group.

City of Los Angeles: Online Survey
LA Times article

Los Angeles survey seeks input on budget crisis:
The online questionnaire asks residents to pick which programs and services to cut and suggest ways to bridge the city's $433-million gap. (By Maeve Reston, December 21, 2008)

06 Jan21:09

re: City of Los Angeles online survey

By John Geraci

Wow, this is an interesting document, and kind of fascinating that the city of LA is inviting its citizens to weigh in on this issue via the web. That in itself is a tiny step towards a DIY city. (Though they don't seem to be limiting the survey to people located in LA strangely.)

Here's the breakdown on how each dollar of tax revenue is spent in LA currently:

42¢ .......Community Safety
27¢ .......Home & Community Environment
12¢ .......Transportation & Infrastructure
6¢ ........Cultural, Educational, and Recreational Services
2¢ ........Human Services, Econ Dev & Employment Opportunities
11¢ .......General Administration and Support

The questionnaire then asks questions such as:

In the area of Community Safety, what program or service would you reduce to help balance the budget?

Crime Control
Fire Control
Ambulance Services
City Attorney Services
Animal Control Services

In the area of Home & Community Environment, what program or service would you reduce to help balance the budget?

Sewage Treatment and Water Quality Services
Trash Collection and Recycling
Building Code Enforcement
City Planning and Zoning
Housing Services
Street Cleaning

etc etc for all of the above-mentioned categories.

i think the thing cities are so far failing to pick up on, and the thing that DIYcity is proposing, is that maybe these services don't need to be reduced or eliminated in order to reduce the money spent on them.

Maybe there is a smarter, more web-centric, more decentralized way to organize some of these services that can result in better efficiency, better ROI for the city, maybe even better overall SERVICE, than the current system provides. And maybe it's time with this recession and the current budget shortfalls, to begin exploring these options.

And maybe they can get put in place cheaply.

That's what I would throw back at the city of LA, and every other city currently considering which service to reduce in order to meet their sudden budget shortfall for 2009. That's a discussion I want to be having right now with those city councils.