Well, the vote was just one person – me – but I think if there really were a contest for worst municipal web site, New Rochelle would certainly win in the “30,000 – 74,999 population category” and make a strong challenge for “Worst in Show”.
The New Rochelle web site is a byzantine monstrosity that is largely useless for all except the most dedicated and persistent users. Many of the most useful links – and there are a few – are buried so deep within the web site, the path to arrive at those links is so slow and confused, the wall surrounding the information so impenetrable that the only purpose for having the information there is so the City can say it’s there. Suffice to say, the phrase “user friendly” does not come to mind while connected to the New Rochelle Online web site. The good news is that the link to pay your parking fines works!
Let me be blunt. Whoever is in charge of the City’s web site should be fired or relieved of their responsibilities. Even the simplest, easiest to correct problem with the site has been left unaddressed for YEARS. Here is the home page as of 10:30 AM this morning. See any problems?
You do not need to be an expert in technology to know that photograph of City Hall on the home page is perhaps the least flattering representation of City Hall that could possibly be obtained – the image is low resolution, the colors are washed out and oh by the way, it’s CROOKED. Now some malcontents might say that a picture showing a crooked City Hall is an ACCURATE representation but I am not sure why the City wants to represent itself to the world in this manner. Anyone with even the most basic photo editor and two minutes to spare could enhance the color, sharpen the resolution and align the photo correctly. Of course, no software is going to correct for the DEAD TREES in the photo. I wish I knew what the two flag-less flag poles are meant to symbolize, maybe they are meant to make a statement about how the City of New Rochelle is a law unto itself.
Although it would take a minute to fix, the image on the home page, the image that most prominently greets visitors to the City of New Rochelle web site is a washed out, faded, slightly out-of-focus, slightly crooked photo of a building, doors closed (Welcome to Oz! The Wizard says go away!)
In the upper right corner you will see a vague sort of error message which reminds me. Here’s another tip. You do not make changes to a LIVE web site in the middle of the day. Any decent web site developer would work on the site in a digital “sandbox”. This is a version of the web site that is stored locally – not live on the web – where the developer first tries out any changes to the site. Once everything appears to work, you copy over the files to the live server. This is always done during off-peak hours – not at 10:00 AM on a Tuesday as is the case here. This carelessness is why the New Rochelle web site is displaying error messages in the middle of the day.
Incredibly, a third of all Internet users are blocked from accessing the vast majority of the information available at “newrochelleny.com”. That is because of the much of the content is actually hosted by a third-party provider at “gistrend.com” which does not support web browsers other than Microsoft Internet Explorer. If you attempt to view the gistrend.com link using anything other than Internet Explorer you will get the following error message: “GIS portal currently not supporting browsers other than IE”.
NEWSFLASH…to City Hall…and all ships at sea! More than 30% of Internet users do NOT use Internet Explorer. Ever hear of Firefox, Safari, Opera, etc.? By using a service that only works with one browser (there are hundreds) the City has blocked about a third of all Internet users from accessing most of the information available on the New Rochelle On-Line site – and 100% of Mac users (Microsoft stopped updating “IE for Mac” about nine years ago).
Don’t even get me started on how slowly the site loads – if you are not connecting via broadband you can fugghetaboutit. As I have broadband the speed of the site is tolerable but I am in the minority. According to the most recent estimates high-speed or “broadband” internet penetration in the United States is about 25% . So, the vast majority of users accessing the site are forced to crawl through hyperlinks at a snail’s pace in order to navigate the City’s web site.
Maybe the site could be renamed New Rochelle On-Line but Only for Extremely Patient Microsoft Customers Affluent Enough or Lucky Enough to Have a Broadband Internet Connection.
Is it any wonder then that the City’s web site get just a few hundred visitors a month? By the time a resident find what they are looking for on the site they could have driven to City Hall and back.
For those interested in what a quality web site looks like check out the Center for Digital Government. The National League of Cities partners with the Center to promote the Digital Cities Survey. Hundreds of cities participate. Here are just a few of the top-ranked web sites listed there (all cities the size of New Rochelle – or smaller):
I know the City is going to cry poor or tell us that there is a new site “coming soon” or something like that but if Flower Mound, Texas can have a first class web site then why can’t New Rochelle. For pity’s sake alone how about investing just a buck or two for a new photo on the home page. Heck, I have a very nice Nikon D-80 that takes great pictures. I’ll even lend the City my camera.
Its hard to work on fixing
Its hard to work on fixing the New Rochelle City Web site when you are hard at work on the Noam Bramson news letter web site and publications quarterly.
There is so much to do for a mayor.
This one is waiting for Nita to be wheeled out.
The City has been rotting
The City has been rotting from the Top.Bramson and Strome are the reason.
They put all their eggs in Lou Cappelli and his ability to fix downtown.
We now have a downtown further decaying with New Roc half in use, Parcel 1A 39 story monster with 10% occupancy. Boarded up windows and stores for LeCount Place. Decaying Armory as the City let it go.
Even the mayors favorite Gnarly Vine has moved on.
These are the Bramson Strome years. Nice Huh?
The site doesn’t have to be
The site doesn’t have to be pretty, but it should at the very least provide proper timely and accessable info regarding the city. Have you ever seen the page for Echo Bay? First of all you need GPS to find it. When you finally get there it’s so out of date you’re sorry you bothered. It was suggested at a meeting at Five Islands Park to provide development info to let people stay on top of these issues. It started out with promise, but as you said it’s only there now so they can say they have a site. Why can’t the people have access to info in a timely manner? If these developments are SO important to the city you would think they would welcome the oppurtunity to showcase what an outstanding job our leaders are doing. If you really look into the facts, you would see why they want it buried and obscure. City business should be able to stand on it’s own merit have no need for obfusction. Maintaining sites is so mainstream now, the only possible reason the site looks that way is because that’s the way THEY want it
What else is new? New
What else is new? New Rochelle belongs in jail for its dishonesty to its citizens. Number one is the Con Ed. site and all the years the city representing it as clean. Con Ed has removed over one BILLION lbs. of PCB contamination from that site. The people have never been warned, kids can fish. swim or walk right on the AGENT ORANGE like chemicals. Did they know? They sure did. BUT their grandiose plans and ambitions trumped peoples health. Not only is their web site the worst in NY but the Echo Ave site has been called the worst toxic site in NY also. Time to “STORM THE BASTILLE with pitch forks.
While that is all very
While that is all very interesting, the home page photo of City Hall seems a pretty simply fix. So, what does it say that this has been left in the current condition for many years.
The problems with the city’s
The problems with the city’s website need to be corrected very soon.