Issues at City of Somerville (Boston, Framingham: credit, neighborhood, buying)

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by johngolf

Maybe because Somerville is not in Boston. It is a town unto itself.

Right so why get them involved? If there's issues locally then go to the higher rungs of management and then go to the state.

With respects to 311 many communities have this. The place that started the ball rolling was SeeClickFix out of New Haven. From SeeClickFix came the Commonwealth Connect App. The premise for much of this is the same but there is always a back and forth.

https://en.seeclickfix.com/new-haven

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by wolfgang239

Sometimes I feel like you and I live in two different cities. Articles say nothing about how it took me 3 weeks to have my bathroom electrical final, only to be failed because of other ongoing work under another permit that they "lost". Or the countless times I've had to call the city about DPW related issues, or my old landlord, etc.

Based on your posts, every aspect of your existence within the city has been absolutely perfect, but others have had a more difficult time.

I was even part of the "secret resident" program. We met once and received an assignment. For months I hounded them about my results because they couldn't even put together a report or demonstrate that the program had accomplished anything other than lip service. I wanted to show them how awful our experiences could be, and ironically that program fell victim to the city's incompetence in a way only they could manage to do.

If you want I can show you a work order number for a streetlight outage I reported in January of 2016. Guess what is still burnt out?

I love this city, many people here do it has a very dedicated and involved population. Inspectors were tough, but i'm ok with that. A few weeks ago I logged a 311 request via the iphone app about trash on a street nearby. Within 24 hours it was cleaned up. Recently I reported a big pothole - they fixed it that day.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

Inspectors were tough, but i'm ok with that.

Why would you be ok with that? It places an unnecessary financial burden on homeowners and landlords when making repairs. They required me to build a box using 1/2" drywall to surround any recessed lighting fixtures on the 1st floor of my house. This isn't part of either the building or electrical code, but the inspector "likes to see it". Typical of other city employees, making things unreasonably or unnecessarily difficult because "that's how we do it".

Sending Jimmy out on double OT to patch a pothole isn't what I'm talking about. That they do an ok job with. I'm talking about incompetent and crony run city departments. There is plenty of evidence about that.

[mdovell]

Just wondering but did they put this in writing? The issue I see is that if it isn't in writing then you pretty much have administration by people and not code. If building code then varies on who is in office it can create a huge liability.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by mdovell

Just wondering but did they put this in writing? The issue I see is that if it isn't in writing then you pretty much have administration by people and not code. If building code then varies on who is in office it can create a huge liability.

Nope, all verbal. And unfortunately my options were to either appeal to the state electrical board which would delay my project indefinitely and put me on a "list" at the ISD, or bite the bullet and only delay the renovation a few days but spend the extra money after the work had been done. They didn't inform me in advance, which would still have been BS but at least I wouldn't have installed the fixtures already.

This was only one example amongst many others I've had to deal with during the course of trying to renovate my house. They frown upon DIY or using out of town contractors even when the work is done correctly and up to code. Several contractors I've spoken with refuse to even work here despite the crazy amount of work going on. Being "tough" on code is one thing, but writing the rules as you go with no real way to push back is complete BS.

This is an article from 2012 detailing some of their problems. Sadly not much has changed.

[mdovell]

Originally Posted by wolfgang239

Nope, all verbal.

Yeah I was afraid of that. That can be legally null and void based on the equal protection clause. What if you were deaf

The state has changed various rules that made verbal illegal. For example verbal quotes are no longer legal forms of procurement. Why not? Because you can get into a "he said she said" argument really fast.

If someone legally orders you to do something, anything. Get it in writing. I've heard of way too many "promises" that were verbal and not legally binding and yet some still believe them.

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by wolfgang239

Why would you be ok with that? It places an unnecessary financial burden on homeowners and landlords when making repairs. They required me to build a box using 1/2" drywall to surround any recessed lighting fixtures on the 1st floor of my house. This isn't part of either the building or electrical code, but the inspector "likes to see it". Typical of other city employees, making things unreasonably or unnecessarily difficult because "that's how we do it".

Sending Jimmy out on double OT to patch a pothole isn't what I'm talking about. That they do an ok job with. I'm talking about incompetent and crony run city departments. There is plenty of evidence about that.

I'm ok with it because whoever owned my house in the 80s didn't follow some codes,and I paid the price. I've never had an inspector stipulate anything that was not in the code, but they are pretty strict on the codes that are in place.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

I'm ok with it because whoever owned my house in the 80s didn't follow some codes,and I paid the price. I've never had an inspector stipulate anything that was not in the code, but they are pretty strict on the codes that are in place.

That isn't being tough, that is doing their job. Which is surprising because I've encountered so many people at ISD who do their best to not do anything at all, let alone their job.

Again, I feel like we live in two completely different places. I come on here and say how something happened but meanwhile you have never had any issues ever, everything is perfect, all employees have been a dream to deal with and it isn't possible that the dear noble city of Somerville could possibly do anything wrong.

How about this.. Call the electrical inspector and ask him what you need to do to install recessed lighting on your 1st floor.

[semiurbanite]

Originally Posted by wolfgang239

That isn't being tough, that is doing their job. Which is surprising because I've encountered so many people at ISD who do their best to not do anything at all, let alone their job.

Again, I feel like we live in two completely different places. I come on here and say how something happened but meanwhile you have never had any issues ever, everything is perfect, all employees have been a dream to deal with and it isn't possible that the dear noble city of Somerville could possibly do anything wrong.

How about this.. Call the electrical inspector and ask him what you need to do to install recessed lighting on your 1st floor.

We installed recessed lights on our first floor, no problems! My main gripe with inspectors is that they delay the project while we were waiting for the inspection. I think they key is get a contractor who know how to work with the city and has a relationship with the inspectors.

[wolfgang239]

Originally Posted by semiurbanite

We installed recessed lights on our first floor, no problems! My main gripe with inspectors is that they delay the project while we were waiting for the inspection. I think they key is get a contractor who know how to work with the city and has a relationship with the inspectors.

Yep everything is perfect in dear Somerville!

I assume you didn't do that work since the new inspector was hired, or the 2014 code was implemented. You know, the one that they added their own requirements to.