Check out your neighborhood on My Neighborhood Web link
A feature on the county's Web site maps everything from crime to road projects around users' street addresses.
By JILLIAN BANDES
Published June 7, 2004
Pinellas County residents can now get information with the click of a button about county services, crime in their neighborhoods, schools, hurricane evacuation zones, property values and more.
My Neighborhood, launched May 11, brings topics that residents of Pinellas County inquire about most to one place on the Web. Since then, it has had more than 3,000 visitors.
By typing in a house number and street name, users can view information on neighborhood crime trends, nearby county parks, public schools, hospitals, recreation facilities, voting precincts and surrounding land uses and local road projects.
This report is presented with a clickable map that covers all of Pinellas County's 24 municipalities and unincorporated areas.
Internet users can access My Neighborhood by clicking on the "Resident" link at the top of Pinellas County's home page, www.pinellascounty.org. The Web address of the My Neighborhood page is http://www.pinellascounty.org/resident/default.htm In the "Quick Find Search" box, click on "Information About Your Property," then follow the prompts to fill in an address and look up data about the location.
There are limits to the data. For example, the reports on crime give a color-coded display mainly for various kinds of burglaries, thefts and vandalism.
They do not say when the incidents shown on the screen occurred. The Web site notes that crime data is available for six jurisdictions: the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and police departments in Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park, Belleair Beach and Tarpon Springs. Other jurisdictions will be added as they come available.
The feature is part of an overhaul in Pinellas' online services that began two years ago.
"If you would have clicked on the "Resident' section of Pinellas County's Web site before May 11, you would have pretty much been redirected to information on the main Web site," said Lori Hudson, the assistant director at the Pinellas County communications department.
The project was a collaborative effort between county officials who work in communications, community development, planning, information systems and the three County Connection Centers.
The Connection Centers field questions from residents by phone and in person. Those questions played a large role in determining what information was included in My Neighborhood.
"The menu for the site was developed through citizen inquiries and community groups," Hudson said. "Most of what you see on this site is just the kind of info folks are asking for."
Michael Roiland, the county's Web site coordinator, said My Neighborhood's creators worked to present existing information in a way that users could get to it and use it easily.
"We tried to develop the page so when users look at the page it makes a lot of sense to them," Roiland said.
"We set it up in such a way that it would load very fast and would be very user-friendly."
