The Mayor's Hotline

I claim to be civically engaged. I vote. I volunteer. I read the community newspaper. I attend community events. I pay attention to the crime in my neighborhood. I give money when it's needed for causes I care about. Sometimes I wonder if I do enough.

Here's a story. You tell me, civic engagement or not?

I drive the same way every morning to work. It first involves getting out of my neighborhood, which is not readily accessible to a highway. (This, as a side note, is thanks to lots of other folks' own civic engagement in the 1980s to keep the Southwest Corridor Highway from running smack through the middle of some of the poorest and already marginalized neighborhoods in Boston.) So first it takes me 12 minutes to get from my house to the entrance to 93N. This entrance is at the intersection of Mass Ave and Melnea Cass Boulevard, a huge, very busy intersection near Boston City Hospital. Everyone trying to get on 93, North or South, ends up in a giant 4-lane road. Those going South peel off to the right about half way up this feeder road. Those going North stay on the road, going up a hill and around a very small bend in order to eventually take a hard left onto another feeder road that could take you to Downtown or South Boston, but has a left exit to gain entrance to 93N. At the top of this hill is a traffic light. This is because the crazy intersection where the traffic light is happens to also be where those coming off of 93N from the south must exit to get onto Mass Ave and Melnea Cass Boulevard (where I just came from). They have to exit, go straight and then take a hard left themselves to get where they are going. Sound confusing? That's because it is!

Although confusing, most morning commuters know what they are doing here and the light is timed well, and traffic keeps moving in both directions, rarely backing up very far.

Monday, March 15, day three of the crazy Nor'easter Monsoon. I arrive at the intersection of Melnea Cass Blvd and Mass Ave and see that the traffic going up the hill to the traffic light is worse than usual. This is weird, considering that there's been hardly any other traffic on my 12 minute commute from the 'hood to this point. I think a lot of people just stayed home that day because the flooding and storm were so bad. I slowly progress up the hill and then see the light is blinking red. In both directions.

And so now, folks, I enter the biggest game of chicken ever in traffic history. Those going straight have the advantage. They are coming straight and therefore it appears they have the right of way. But us left-takers, we have got to have a turn or eventually we will be backed up onto Mass Ave, and let me tell you, that would be none-too-pretty. The people who end up as the front cars on either side after a stream of the other lane has been going for a while must seriously have balls or grow some, because the fate of the rest of us lies upon their shoulders.

On Tuesday, when I arrived and the light was still flashing red in both directions I figured it must be broken because of some complication due to the storm. Makes sense, right?

Wednesday. Same deal. Okay. That's it. Time to do something. While I'm still half-way up the hill, I start trying to remember the Mayor's Hotline number. I know that the city offices exchange is 635 because of all my work with them during my Boston Cares days. So I try round numbers after that. 635-2000. 635-4000. Nothing. They just ring and ring. I remember that the Mayor doesn't let anyone have voicemail at City Hall (folks are supposed to answer their phones) and it's before 9. I try 635-4500. I get Massport. I tell him I'm trying to get the Mayor's Hotline. He says, "Oh, it's 635-3500." (He must get that a lot.)

So I call. And I get one Ms. Terri G, whose name I learned later. Also, at this point, I've completely forgotten that it is a city holiday in Boston. It's March 17. Most of the world knows this as St. Patrick's Day and nobody gets that off from work. But, it just so happens that on March 17, 1776, the British were driven from Boston following the Siege, so-called Evacuation Day. And city offices, schools, libraries, etc. in Boston are closed that day. Super convenient for a city full of Irish peeps. But I digress.

The woman who answers the Mayor's Hotline listens to my tale as I ask her who I need to talk to. She says she's not sure, so she patches me through on a three-way call to some department (I don't remember which) and I tell that dude my story while she stays on the line. When we determine it is the wrong place, she confirms with him what the right place is and then we hang up with him. She patches me through to the next place and waits while she listens to my story for a third time. Once we determine we've got the right people, she hangs up. I am assured by these people that my concern will be registered.

I call the Mayor's Hotline back again. I must get her name and thank her. This is the best customer service I've received practically ever. I thank her. I get her name. Now realizing it's a holiday, I thank her even more as she's clearly drawn the short straw at the Mayor's Office that day. (I refrain from making an ethnic joke since she tells me her name and I realize she's Italian - that's right, Irish peeps, stick the Italian with working on Evacuation Day. It was a coincidence, really!)

I got to work and went to the Mayor's Office page online and I emailed the Mayor a commendation for this woman as well as thank him in general for the Hotline. Super great idea. (I've used it before - got patched through to animal control one night at midnight when I drove into my street in the city and had to stop because there was a lurching, frothy-mouthed raccoon in the middle of the street.)

And today, folks? Today, Thursday, the light is fixed. No more blinking red. (The timing appears to be off, in favor of those going straight, but it could be that I was later driving to work today than usual.)

And so, is this civic engagement? Is my call to the Mayor's Hotline to change a problem in which I saw potential danger, definite annoyance and delay civic engagement?

I think so.