The City's New "GoModesto!" App
The City of Modesto has created an app on which citizens can take a picture of trash in the streets and issue a report along with information on the addresses on which the trash is found. A citizen with an iPhone can download the GoModesto! app at https://appsto.re/us/ic2qcb.i. A person with an Android phone can download the app at:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.publicstuff.modesto_ca. The app is very easy to use. It uses GPS to ascertain your address; so all that you have to do is to type a little bit of text describing that it is trash on any given street, click to take a picture, and click "Submit."
When you click "Submit," you will get a response to the effect that you have posted a new issue. A day or so later, you will receive notification that your post has been "received." A day or so later, you will receive notification that your issue is "In Progress." Finally, when the trash has been picked up, you will receive notification that the issue has been "Resolved."
As this observer sees it, the City is to be commended for creating the GoModesto! app. It is a significant first step towards resolving a problem that has been slowly getting out of hand for quite some time.
By the way, one neat feature of the app is that if you are outside the City limits and don't know it, the app will automatically notify you that the newly discovered trash pile is outside the City limits. And so you will not end up wasting your time submitting a post on trash that is outside the City limits.
How about using inmates?
As everyone knows, money is a major issue for the City of Modesto, principally because of escalating pension costs. It is expensive to use city employees to clean up all of this trash because it requires manpower and manpower is money. So why not utilize low risk, non-violent inmates from the County Jail and/or County Honor Farm to pick up the trash? The inmates could earn "time served" for the work performed on the city streets picking up trash and the City could save a lot of money. And Modesto's streets once again will be trash free and its citizens will be proud of Modesto again.
It is this observer's belief that one of the reasons that Modesto is having such a hard time attracting manufacturers and big name businesses is its shabby appearance. The new courthouse will help, as will the facelift of Ninth Street around the courthouse. However, that will not be sufficient to attract manufacturers and businesses to Modesto if the streets are littered with trash.
It makes perfect sense that the trash clean up by the City through its new GoModesto! app will suffice as a springboard for greater things for Modesto. And maybe, just maybe, some major industries with J-O-B-S will like our clean city streets and locate here! We can only hope, right?
