The Somerville Fire Department [url=http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1521... robo-called every resident of the city[/url], instead of just emergency responders, regarding a fire at 3:50 this morning.
The recorded phone call was scary and incoherent, at least to me shaken out of a sound sleep. I looked out the window, didn't see or hear or smell anything, and tried to go back to bed.
(Beyond the cut, you can read my earlier version of this post, which I wrote before the city posted their apology and explanation.)
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Why did the city of Somerville [url=http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1520... people up[/url] with [url=http://community.livejournal.com/davis_square/1520... 3:50 am robo-call[/url] about [url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/x119777... fire all the way on the other side of town[/url] ?
The recorded phone call was scary and incoherent, at least to me shaken out of a sound sleep. I looked out the window, didn't see or hear or smell anything, and tried to go back to bed. I don't understand why the city would do this.
(Some more discussion [url=http://www.wickedlocal.com/somerville/news/police_....)
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Comments
Mistakes happen, I for one
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 9:53am
Mistakes happen, I for one would openly embrace a world class 311 system like you guys have over there in Somerville, even if it meant being woken up at 3 in the morning by a robocall once or twice in a multiyear time accidentally.
Ah, I had already forgotten about it!
By Eighthman
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:28am
Thanks to the color-coded CallerID thing I bought from Brookstone, I knew it was the city, but didn't answer it. I listened to it on the answering machine after getting up. I figured it was something about the election ("don't forget to vote") -- mistakenly sent at the wrong time. I guess I should answer it next time in case there is some emergency I need to evacuate for.
Give this to Q1
By liveinvt
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:33am
Let's earmark this for being cut when Q1 passes. What a god damn waste! How many "technicians" did they contract for this job? ROFL
Its a public service that
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:40am
Its a public service that normally works great from what I understand, and cities across the state are paying attention to it in hopes that within the next decade everyone else will have it as well... Its relativly cheap, and is a great way to mobilize your citizens.
You get a call telling you there is a snow emergency, you run out and move the car, since you moved the car the plow can now plow the whole street instead of going around you and just leaving a ticket. While tickets are normally great things for the city coffers the city would much rather trade the 15 dollars for a clean main street anytime. If theres a dirty bomb in Davis Square it would be handy for people who live nearby to be notified of it, and the message can tell you how to best protect yourself and where to go. Any natural or man made diasater is when you realize how much of a life saver a simple 311 system could really be.
City o' Boston
By fenwayguy
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:49am
Boston does the snow emergency robocall thing (or txt or email) but it's opt-in. If you live on a snow emergency route where your ass (or your car's ass) will be ticketed AND towed, that first $150 trip to the tow lot in JP is a good motivator to opt in for next time.
Also in Boston
By adamg
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:49am
The week before school starts, parents get two robocalls, one from the school superintendent and one from the mayor himself, advising them that, in fact, school starts next week.
Sigh
By liveinvt
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:51am
!!SPAM!! You must conform to society !!SPAM!!
Is home schooling illegal in this state? I wouldn't be surprised.
I love paying to spam myself. Freedom!
What?
By adamg
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:53am
While I think two calls are one call too many, it's targeted at the right audience. I'd only call it spam if non-parents got the calls.
Call everyone in the city! It snowed!
By liveinvt
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:48am
They could raise the tickets to $150. I bet that'd get the roads cleared during a "snow emergency" to the residents that live in Somerville with cars. I know there are some parts a good distance from a T station, but I lived in Somerville for years without a car.
Aren't there enough signs on every residential street informing them of the snow emergency policy? You need a city-wide phone call to tell people to move their cars? To tell them that it snowed?
Hilarious.
Don't forget to fill out your "survey" or you get dropped from voting. That's freedom right there.
I dont live in Somerville
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:54am
I dont live in Somerville but I know many people there who own cars...
When does the snow emergency start? 2pm, 3pm, 7pm? It makes a big difference. Sometimes my city doesnt call a snow emergency because the snow is falling overnight and its going to be 50 tomorrow so they assume it will take care of itself. Sometimes they call one even though I look outside and dont see any snow (oops snow storm blew off the coast, but my car is still towed/ticketed.) I dont know what they are thinking at city hall. Maybe Im spending the night in Quincy where its raining but back on the North Shore its snowing like crazy, I get a call on my phone and have to decide to either take the T back home or have my roomate move my car for me. Its not as clear cut as "snow on ground, it snow emergency, snow not on ground it not."
That's true
By liveinvt
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 11:10am
It's much, much more complicated than anything I would qualify on a simple blog comment. No doubt about that!
Old problem, new technology
By Neal
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:52am
I remember being shaken out of bed on a few occasions when the fire/Noon horn blasted at odd hours from the firehouse in my hometown. Most people would gripe about it the next morning, but it was a rare enough occurrence that it wasn't a big deal. Many of the same people complained when they took the horn down when the the firehouse was renovated.
We used to have a curfew
By ShadyMilkMan
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:56am
We used to have a curfew horn that would go off at the same time every night. It was also used to declare snow emergencys when I was a kid. I believe it would go off on the hour during a storm in the event of a snow emergnecy so we would all be outside at like 7pm listening for the horn to go off lol. I miss that horn, I can just imagine how loud it was right next door tho!
Snow day no school signal
By Neal
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 5:00pm
Yeah, the one on Burlington's main fire station signaled snow days too (it was actually two horns pointing in different directions that blasted simultaneously so it could be heard throughout most of the town). It would blast in a 3-3-3 pattern at like 6 AM on snow days to signal that school had been cancelled. It was pretty loud and sounded like a ship's horn. We lived about a half mile from it and could hear it quite clearly. We were about two and a half miles from the fire station in Wilmington and could hear their horn too, but not as clearly. I think their pattern was 2-2-2, so there would be no confusion when one town cancelled school when the other didn't.
HOW MANY MORE!
By GarrettQuinn
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 10:53am
How many more Mr. Speaker! How many more robocalls will upset the general public!
Vote YES on Question 1
Robocall
By liveinvt
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 11:14am
Boston should make a robocall to tell everyone to pay taxes in April, and if they see something, say something, or to be kind, rewind.
Wouldn't this place be so much better?
If a private company offered such a service, nobody would sign up. But since the government does it, it's a vital public service!
Okay, I'm done, rant over.
A good enema
By SwirlyGrrl
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 11:24am
might make you feel better.
I can't tell
By JimboJones
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 1:58pm
I can't tell if the "Vote No on 1" comments are supposed to be serious or not.
The Somerville "robo-calls" would be paid for by the city, not the state, so out of property taxes. So voting "no" would have no effect on whether or not you receive a robo-call.
I would assume that voting no on 1 would raise property taxes, so I guess it would make sense to vote no if you want higher property taxes.
Um, you've got Yes and No reversed
By Jeff F
Tue, 11/04/2008 - 2:44pm
A vote "Yes" on Question 1 is an affirmative vote to get rid of the state income tax (and supposedly would lead to raised property taxes). I hope you didn't confuse them at the polling booth!