Hampton Roads Magazine

July 2003

Reporter: Information Please

Area cities vary in efficiency when responding to questions

by Jo Ann M. Hofheimer

How efficient is your city?

In this communication-savvy, techno-jive information-deluged culture we live in, how easy is it to get answers to common questions? How does your city talk to you? How fast can you get to the right person or get the right answer?

Say you’ve got a question for your city government about trash collection or schools. You might check the phone book first, but sometimes the phone listings just don’t get you where you need to go. Maybe you go to the Web, but the Web site (can you imagine?) doesn’t cover it. And what about the things that don’t fall into a neat category, that might require some thoughtful digging?

I’ve had some modest experience with this, having grown up in a part of Portsmouth that was once Chesapeake, lived for almost 30 years in Norfolk, and now reside in Virginia Beach. Is there a consistent city voice? Are they enthusiastic, helpful, indifferent or rude? End of Excerpt

For the rest of this story, you can order the July 2003 issue of Hampton Roads Monthly magazine.