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Description
On this episode of CityTalk, John interviews Ernest Rajakone from the Office of Community Affairs and Chris Belasco from the Department of Innovation & Performance.
A
I'm
John
McIntyre
welcome
to
another
edition
of
City
talk
where
we
find
out,
among
other
things,
when
it
comes
to
city
employees.
What
are
these
people
do
all
day
meet
Ernest
Roger
Cohen?
Who
is
the
deputy
director
of
the
Office
of
Community
Affairs?
He
does
a
lot
every
day
or
Annis
welcome
to
the
program.
Hi
John
thanks
for
having
me
thanks
so
much
for
being
here
so
before
we
find
out
what
happens
in
the
office
of
Community
Affairs.
Where
are
you
from
originally.
B
B
Absolutely
the
offices
Community
Affairs,
they
work
with
over
95
different
community
organizations
across
the
city
and,
as
anyone
can
attest
to
every
one
of
our
90
neighborhoods
are
different.
They
have
their
own
history,
their
own
stories,
their
own
challenges,
their
own
opportunities,
and
so
it's
sort
of
meeting
people
where
they
are
seeing
what
their
needs
are
and
seeing
how
we
can
make
government
more
accessible
for
them.
Do.
A
B
Unfortunately,
that's
just
the
the
nature
of
government
is
a
little
bit
of
a
slow
grind
in
terms
of
getting
things
done
and
sometimes
just
the
nature
of
ways
things
are.
It
takes
consistent
follow-up
to
really
get
something
done,
but
you
know
public
is
generally
very
patient.
They
at
least
understand
that
you
know
we're
working
to
try
and
get
things
done
as
soon
as
possible.
You
know
it's
not
a
perfect
world,
but
we
try
and
serve
the
people.
The
best
we
can
are.
A
B
A
B
Them
fully
so
through
the
snow
angels
program,
elderly
residents,
disabled
residents
and
across
the
city
they're
able
to
reach
out
to
our
office
and
what
we
try
and
do
is
to
connect
with
most
volunteers
in
the
neighborhood
who
can
help
them
with
snow
removal.
So
it's
you
know
a
lot
of
difficulty
to
remove
snow
in.
C
B
B
Least,
it's
been
two
years
of
the
commute
office
of
community
affairs.
It
was
going
it's
been
going
on
for
a
few
years
now.
At
one
point
it
was
in
the
county
at
one
point
it
was
parts
of
city
parts,
but
right
now,
last
year
and
this
year
been
the
office
of
community
affairs,
it's
been
going
well,
but
you
know
we
can
always
use
more
volunteers.
So.
A
B
We
run
a
program
called
city
cuts
where
we
connect
elderly,
disabled
elderly
residents,
disabled
residents
and
veterans
with
a
grass
cutting
service
called
City
cuts,
and
essentially
we
have
contractors
go
out
and
cut
their
lawns,
but
that's
that's
a
lot
of
the
issues
that
you
know
we'll
see
doing
this
summer
issue
the
route
and
vacant
land
issues
around
infrastructure.
You
know
road
repairs,
paving
how
it
can
be
communicative
of
that
doing
doing
those
months
and
so.
B
B
You
know
what
neighborhood
planning
is
doing
around
community
groups
and
registering
them
and
neighborhood
plans
and
things
at
DPW
and
domi
are
working
on
in
terms
of
what
infrastructure
looks
like
and
how
that
affects
everyday
people,
basically
anything
going
on
in
the
city.
We
try
and
collect
that
information.
The
best
we
can
and
put
it
out
via
our
social
media.
Put
it
out
the
you
know
us
going
to
meetings
and
talking
with
constituents
directly
just
any
channel.
We
can
to
make
more
accessible,
make
sure
that
public
knows
what's
going
on
so.
A
B
B
Medias
been
pretty
effective,
you
know,
Twitter
helps.
Facebook
helps
the
newsletter
that
we
just
started
has
been
getting
some
traction.
It's
just
a
nice
way
to
every
month,
sort
of
just
summarize.
What's
going
on
in
the
city
and
get
it
out
there,
we
also
have
a
next
door
account
that
we
run
that's
citywide,
so
we
can
put
neighborhood
specific
update.
B
Tools,
internet
next
door
were
a
citywide
agency,
community
affairs,
and
you
know
we
can
put
out
neighborhood
specific
information
that
way.
We
can
also
put
out
citywide
information
that
way
and
I
think
we
have
about
18%
of
all
the
households
in
the
city
that
are
on
next-door,
subscribed
to
the
office
community.
A
B
I
mean
at
the
end
of
the
day
you
know
we
just
try
and
keep
the
public
informed
the
best
we
can.
We
try
to
make
sure
that
our
services
are
accessible
as
possible,
and
you
know
our
is
the
public.
Always
gonna
be
happy
with
you
know.
What's
going
on
in
the
decisions
being
made
by
the
city?
Probably
not,
but
at
the
same
time
the
public
deserves
to
have
a
government,
that's
accountable
to
them
and
that's
the
you
know
listening
to
their
concerns
and
responding
to
their
needs.
A
A
B
B
A
B
Agree
with
that
I'm
a
big
fan
of
the
chief
but
yeah,
all
things
considered.
You
know
whether
it's
blame
or
not
or
complaints
or
whatever
it
may
be.
At
the
end
of
the
day.
It's
just
you
know
it
is
the
services
that
we
need
to
provide,
and
you
know
if
the
public
you
know
feel
a
certain
way
about
how
it's
being
provided.
You
know,
part
of
a
role
of
government
is
to
take
that
into
account.
You
know
and
see
what
we
can
do
about
better
addressing
their
needs
and
better
providing
the
service
furnace.
A
A
A
C
A
C
Yeah,
that's
something
that
we're
we're
working
with
a
bunch
of
the
different
service
tiers
in
our
department
to
make
sure
that
that
transition
happens
smoothly,
making
things
like
training
materials
available.
Just
like
thinking
about
the
people
who
are
involved
in
you
know
what
what
their
changes
are.
Gonna
be
in
their
lives
and
making
sure
it
works.
But.
C
A
C
Know
where
you're
from
originally
and
how
you
came
up-
oh
great,
so
I
grew
up
in
Ingram,
which
is
just
on
the
other
side
of
the
city
border
next
to
Sheridan
spent
a
lot
of
time
in
Sheridan
as
a
kid.
My
dad
taught
it
shared
in
public
school
and
that's
very
public,
so
I
grew
up.
I
went
to
Pitt
and
I
live
in
Bloomfield
what'd
you
major
in
at
Pitt
I,
actually
I
majored
in
information
science,
but
I
did
some
graduate
work
there
too.
So
information.
C
C
C
Well,
that
position
was
sort
of
changing
a
little
bit
and
and
I
was
looking
for
a
new
challenge
and
became
really
interested
in
coming
to
work
for
innovation
and
performance
because
of
how
it
was
thinking
about
solving
problems.
I
knew
a
couple
of
people
who
were
involved
and
their
work
was
really
interesting
to
me
and
I
said
well.
This
would
be
a
great
place
to
sort
of
engage
and
work
with
the
city
in
a
way
that
I
would
feel
really
happy
at
night.
So
do.
C
C
C
So
thinking
of
big
projects,
one
of
the
things
that
I'm
doing
right
now
is
working
with
the
Office
of
Management
budget
and
our
primary
client
Department,
the
Department
of
Public
Works.
And
what
we're
doing
is
we're
going
through
a
fleet
upgrade
so
upgrading
the
technology
on
each
of
their
snowplow
vehicles.
Right.
We're
also
upgrading
the
public's
plow
tracker
right
to
improve
the
quality
of
the
information.
C
C
C
C
A
C
You
know,
ultimately,
one
of
the
things
that
surprised
me
and
not
not
in
a
negative
way
is
when
I
came
here,
and
he
found
that
and
I
found
that
people
were
totally
committed
to
getting
something
done.
You
know,
though,
they'll
put
their
heads
together
and
just
work
really
hard
at
it
and
very
be
very
thoughtful
to
do
it
and
that's
anybody
in
any
line
at
any
profession.
That
was,
that
would
be
what
they
would
hope
to
have
and
hope
to
work
with
them
on
so.