Yes, it can happen. I reported a broken crosswalk button that has been that way since August [View all]

[progree]

Last edited Sun Feb 16, 2025, 05:41 PM - Edit history (1)

It was in the city of Crystal, Minnesota, an inner-ring suburb of Minneapolis. I found a contact form on the city's website on January 31 or so. I got an email from the Streets Superintendant on Feb 3 that they had not known about this before, and thank you, and hopefully it will be repaired sometime this week.

I found it working on February 14. (I don't know exactly what day it was repaired. My last 2 visits to that area were on Feb 5 (not repaired) and Feb 14 (repaired), so it just might have been repaired sometime that first week, or the week following).

I had thought it would be such a minor concern that nobody would respond, and nothing would be done, so why bother to look up how to contact them and write something. Also, the button housing was very visibly dangling by a wire from where it's supposed to be, for at least 6 months, so I had figured they would have known about it before. So it's nice to see that one can actually make a difference.

It's a busy 4-laner that I have to walk 3-4 heavy bags of groceries across (plus wearing a heavy backpack stuffed with groceries), and while it was broken, there was no walk-cycle. Others carrying grocery bags also use this crosswalk which is in front of the grocery store and goes across the street to the west-bound busstop -- another reason to think it probably was reported multiple times in the past, and so why bother.

ETA: I sent the Streets Superintendant a note of appreciation /EDIT

Anyway, just to encourage people to report "minor" issues.