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From YouTube: CityTalk with John McIntire: Wendy Urbanic
Description
On this episode of CityTalk, John interviews Wendy Urbanic from the Department of Innovation & Performance and 311.
A
A
Welcome
to
a
new
edition
of
city
talk
where
we
try
to
figure
out
what
on
earth
these
people
do
all
day
and
by
these
people
I
mean
the
human
beings
who
work
for
the
taxpayers
of
the
city
of
pittsburgh,
say
hello
to
the
head
of
the
whole
shebang
when
it
comes
to
the
3-1-1
non-emergency
services
operation,
the
lovely
and
talented
wendy
urbanic
wendy.
Welcome
to
the
program.
A
I
was
just
thinking
before
we
started
talking
that
I've
worked
at
seven
television
stations,
a
walgreens
bar
and
grill,
a
pizzeria,
a
sewage
plant
and
probably
a
couple
of
other
places.
I'm
I'm
forgetting,
and
I
have
never
run
across
any
colleague
or
cult
worker
with
as
consistently
a
positive
happy
attitude
as
wendy
or
bannon.
How
do
you,
how
do
you
maintain
the
positive
attitude.
B
A
Good
for
you
and
good
for
them,
so
you
and
they're
actually
able
to
perform
at
home
just
as
well
as
if
they
were
next
to
you
absolutely,
but
I'm
I'm
bearing
the
lead,
as
they
say
in
journalism
3-1-1.
I
think
I'm
familiar
with
it,
but
for
the
folks
that
don't
know
what
all
what
all
kinds
of
calls
do
you
take.
B
B
A
B
A
B
Baltimore
actually
started
us
off,
I
think
back
in
1999,
and
they
originally
did
it
as
a
pilot
program
to
try
to
take
some
of
the
burden
off
of
the
police
9-1-1
system
and
it
was
very
successful.
So
it's
expanded
to
a
lot
of
different
cities
and
municipalities.
Now
we
were
pretty
close
to
the
beginning.
I
think.
B
Yes,
as
a
matter
of
fact,
I
started
with
the
city
in
1999
and
my
previous
role
was
to
work
with
careerlink
and
help
folks,
who
were
job
searching,
try
to
find
jobs,
help
them
with
their
resumes
and
do
online
computer
searches
and
back
then,
computers
weren't
as
popular.
So
a
lot
of
people
didn't
have
those
basic
skills,
even.
B
B
B
A
A
A
A
A
B
Mostly
seeing
my
colleagues
highlighted,
one
of
my
goals
and
it's
going
to
be
very
difficult-
would
is
to
meet
every
city,
employee
and
we're
so
spread
out
throughout
the
city
makes
it
kind
of
difficult,
but
I
love
seeing
what
they
do
and
see
their
work
being
recognized
and
learning
more
about
their
jobs,
because
the
more
I
learn
about
them,
the
better.
I
can
do
my
job.
B
A
That's
fantastic,
so
you
were
were
you
at
all
surprised.
You
recall
when
you
first
joined
the
city
that
as
I've
often
afraid
that
there
weren't
a
bunch
of
people
sitting
around
with
their
feet
up
on
the
desk
smoking
cigarettes
and
they
don't
have
little
dedicated
employees
like
some
people,
do
a
dim
view
of
government
workers
until
you
got
here
and
realized
that
they're
not
so
bad.
After
all,.
A
Interesting
to
get
back
to
the
311
calls
and
I'm
not
trying
to
embarrass
anybody,
or
maybe
you
can
be
vague
about
it,
but
you
probably
have
to
get
some
unusual
calls
every
now
and
then
not
just
hey,
there's
a
pothole
over
here.
My
neighbor's
tree
is
overgrown.
There's
got
to
be
stuff
beyond
the
mundane.
B
Oh
yeah
we've
had
some
exciting
ones
when
we
first
opened.
I
got
an
interesting
letter
about
a
note
in
a
bottle.
It
was
found
in
the
gulf
of
mexico
and
they
were
trying
to
figure
out
who
could
have
written
them.
The
note
with
a
vague
name
and
vague
pittsburgh
address,
so
I
ended
up
contacting
the
pittsburgh
history
center
and
we
did
what
we
could
to
try
to
figure
it
out,
but
we
never
did
get
to
the
bottom
of
that.
One.
A
B
B
Oh
absolutely,
when
we
started
out
we
did
not
have
we
only
had
three
operators
when
we
first
began,
so
I
was
on
the
phone
a
lot
and
also
at
that
time
email
was
relatively
new.
Still
every
city,
every
department
on
the
city
website
had
my
email
listed
for
their.
If
you
have
questions
or
information,
so
I
was
like
permanently
attached
to
a
laptop
for
probably
three
or
four
years.
A
B
We
do
stay
really
busy
events
usually
spike
our
calls.
For
example,
a
big
snowstorm
will
get
flooded
with
calls
a
large
water
main
break.
Might
do
that
if
there's
a
water
outage
somewhere,
we
try
to
take
as
much
as
we
can
off
of
911
without
overstepping,
because
it's
important
people
realize
that
9-1-1
is
for
emergencies.
A
And
do
you
I
know
you're
in
you
have
to
interact
with
other
departments
to
say
hey.
This
is
a
complaint.
This
would
be
a
department
of
public
works
type
of
plane,
or
this
would
be
another
department
kind
of
complaint.
Is
that
all
through
email?
Do
you
going
out
and
see
them
are
all
sorts
of
communication
between
you
guys.
B
B
B
B
A
I
was
actually
I
reincorporated
jumping
jacks
into
my
routine,
and
then
I
found
that
I
could
no
longer
walk
so
I
stopped
oh,
I
found
out
it's
not
like
when
you
do
100,
jumping
jacks
when
you're
18.,
you
know
at
least
not
for
me.
Do
you
have
any
hobbies?
Do
you
even
have
time
for
hobbies
with
as
busy
as
you
guys
are.