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Bloomberg Adds 'Quality Of Life' Staff On Wheels

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Aug 16, 2007 6:53 pm US/Eastern

Bloomberg Adds 'Quality Of Life' Staff On Wheels

'Scouts' Assigned To Report Potholes, Litter, Graffiti And Other Environmental Issues

by Marcia Kramer
NEW YORK (CBS) ― Mayor Michael Bloomberg used to drive around the city calling 311 every time he saw a pothole, graffiti, or some other problem that needed fixing.

Now he'll have a small army of people doing it full-time. On three-wheeled buggies.

It's the latest quality of life initiative taken by the environmentally-friendly mayor. He's calling the program "Scout."

"It would be nice if when you see a scout guy you honk your horn and say, 'Way to go baby, you're making my city better!'" the mayor enthused Thursday.

Scouts are actually a fleet of three-wheel mini-truck-like vehicles whose mission is to drive every city street once a month and report to 311 conditions that negatively impact the quality of life in the city. The scout operator will drive down a street with a BlackBerry connected to a GPS system. When the operator sees something like litter or graffiti or a pothole, they'll just push a button and enter in the information into the system.

"Right now we think they can get anywhere from 50 to 200 reports a day ... per inspector team," said Jeffrey Kay, Director of Bloomberg's Office of Operations.

That's an additional 3,000 reports a day going into the 311 system and sent to the agencies to fix.

"Right now 311 gets about 7,000 calls a day, so we're adding an extra 3,000 calls that the agency is going to go out and take care of ... whatever they need to do," Kay said.

New Yorkers seem to approve the new program, agreeing it will improve the quality of life.

"It will be a good thing. It will change our life, it's gonna be more safe and our streets and community will look clean," one city resident said.

As they roam the streets, scouts will report 38 different problems. There are eight different categories of potholes alone.

Although you won't see Bloomberg behind the wheel of a scout, he still intends to call 311 when he spots a quality of life issue he wants fixed.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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