The Responsive City: Engaging Communities Through Data-Smart Governance

Chapter FiveThe Responsive Employee

In 2011, a blizzard of complaints from residents living on Manhattan's Second Avenue fell on the shoulders of Lolita Jackson, then a special projects officer in the New York City Mayor's office. The city's Metropolitan Transportation Authority had stepped up its work on its decades-old plan to build a subway under the avenue, beginning with a mile-and-a-half stretch from 64th to 96th streets. More than seventy years had passed since the last time new subway lines were built in New York, and citizens weren't prepared for or happy about what they had to endure. Noise, debris, and obstructions closed one small shop after another in the construction zone, infuriating residents. So did the sudden lack of parking ...