This is a community proposal for an Oakland improvement! Please comment and improve on it. Check out the full list of community proposals and add your own!
Oakland would really benefit from a "City Hall To Go" mobile city services truck. This would be modeled after a new program in Boston:
"Starting Wednesday, residents can pay parking tickets and tax bills, get a library card and dog license, even register to vote, at a van dubbed “City Hall To Go.” A newly refurbished bomb squad van, the vehicle was made to resemble a food truck, but is essentially a rolling office, outfitted with laptop computers, wireless access, and the necessary paperwork from a host of city departments." [2012-12-05: "With new truck, City Hall services go mobile" The Boston Globe.]
Perhaps more importantly than providing a way for residents to pay bills, etc., any kind of mobile presence for city hall would provide a single point of information about city services, policies, and more. Also, if a truck would be too expensive, a preliminary version of this idea would be an info &/or services booth on Frank Ogawa Plaza or another point in the city, maybe at Eastmont Mall/police substation. Any single point of contact between the city and residents would be preferrable to the current situation which consists of a difficult to navigate website and a difficult to navigate (and privately run!)phone service.
