Pothole? There's an App for That.

Allow me to introduce you to one of my closest neighbors.

That’s right, it’s the friendly neighborhood pothole here at the corner of 16th and Delaware. Don’t get me wrong, I know potholes can be a lot worse, but riding around town in your car or on your bike is so much better on smooth, newly paved asphalt. But potholes, road damage, and various other forms of urban decay are an unfortunate reality, which is why the Mayor’s Action Center recently released a new tool to keep Indy looking good for years to come.

It’s an app called RequestIndy, and it’s a free download for both iPhone and Android devices.

With RequestIndy, you can identify non-emergency problems you see in the city ranging from trash to potholes to stray animals and everything in between. All you do is fill out the appropriate information to clarify your request and its location. As you begin filling out the electronic form, you can drop a pin on a map of Indy to specify its location. Then you send the request and it is filtered by request type to the appropriate city department or service.

Got an abandoned vehicle just taking space on the side of your road? Take a picture and send it in. Same thing for overgrown weeds and pretty much anything else you could think of.

It really is that easy. Submit any time of the day from your smartphone, and submit as many different requests as you’d like in order to fix those lingering nuisances in your neighborhood. But know that resubmitting the same request multiple times will not get you a faster response.

Users can fill anonymous requests if they want, but by providing contact information you will receive a service number in order to keep up with the progress being made on that illegal dumping you notified the city about. Providing contact information also allows the city service to follow up for clarifying details about location and other information that might be needed in order to rectify the situation.

The RequestIndy app is pretty comprehensive, but there are a few select city functions not included that can be addressed by contacting separate groups. For instance, calling Citizens Energy Group would be the best way to handle issues with broken sewer grates and standing water. A small list of these additional services and their contact information can be found online here.

So go make sure your block is looking pristine. Indy is a beautiful city, and RequestIndy is one simple tool that can help us keep it that way. Plus, it will keep me from spilling over the handlebars of my bike because of unexpected damage in the road.