Chicagoans may find requesting and tracking city services a little easier to do, directly from their smart phones.
"We've opened up reams of city data for programmers to have at it and come up with the most innovative apps for their fellow residents to use," Emanuel explained to a crowd at Chicago's TechWeek. "An app to find a towed car, snow plows, and street closures, an app for 311 calls, including tracking like a fedex shipping order."
Emanuel said the apps will provide a tracking number for service requests like tree trimming and pot holing so citizens can check the status of their requests easily from a smart phone. The apps could be available as early as Fall, Emanuel told the crowd.
Chicagoans can call 311 or visit the service's website to request city services and information, but this is the first time both will be available through smart phones.
"You may not like where you are in the queue, but you'll be able to track it. You'll be able to get information back," he said.
Emanuel hopes apps and digital innovations such as these will hold the city services more accountable, and will prove that the city is only trying to facilitate innovation in tech businesses, according to a report in Forbes.
"The city of Chicago is known as the Second City. In three years from now it will be known as the Startup City if we do everything right," he said Friday morning. "That is the goal that I'm going to be working on."
