Last fall, the city began accepting online suggestions on how NYC can save some desperately needed money; now, four months later, they have revealed highlights of those money-saving, pleb-originated ideas on their website. Let's take a look at the top three most suggested things:
- 62 people wrote in to request the city turn off lights in city buildings at night. In a related story, just last week the city announced plans to spend $708 million replacing leaking PCB lights at 772 public school buildings.
- 37 people wrote in to suggest that the city reduce the number of city vehicles, including take-home vehicles for city workers. They say that making the city's 26,000 vehicle fleet more efficient could save up to $71 million over the next four years. 12 people also suggested the city make its fleet more energy efficient.
- 27 people wrote in to suggest that the city centralize or reform the process by which the city purchases goods and services from outside sources. They say that Bloomberg has proposed a series of state law changes meant "to eliminate costly and burdensome procurement mandates imposed by the State," but we're a little skeptical about this one.
There were several other suggestions, such as reducing the amount of bottled water in city agencies, consolidating unused city property, and our favorite: one person suggested setting all printers to print double-sided automatically. This actually seems reasonable! They are still accepting ideas on how to penny-pinch here. Of course, this isn't the only crowd-sourced, problem-solving website out there for NYC: we're especially excited to see the results of the "Give A Minute" program, part of PlaNYC2030, which gives residents the chance to make suggestions such as, "would like to develop my ability to drink three margaritas at lunch, every day."
