UPDATE 10:40am Wednesday | The smartphone app “Go Long Beach” is now available for Android phones, in addition to iPhones and Blackberries and others, after almost exactly two months on the market. The app, which allows Long Beach residents to photograph and map graffiti or sidewalk damage, could be very useful this week as rains threaten to cause potholes. Users can snap a photo of the damage and immediately upload it to notify City crews for service.

The app can be downloaded from the Android Market for iPhone App Store, or used by visiting GoLBCity.com. It can also be used to report illegal dumping, broken drinking fountains, missing street signs, overgrown weeds and much more. Since its October launch, the “Go Long Beach” app has resulted in more than 800 requests for service.

11:00am October 29 | Long Beach took another step into the future this week with the launch of the “Go Long Beach” smartphone app, that allows residents to instantly photograph, map and report any graffiti, potholes, sidewalk damage or other requests that can be forwarded to City services, all with their cellular phones. The service is intended to allow quicker response to community issues.

Officials plan to add more options to the app in the future, but the initial categories that can be reported include graffiti, graffiti in parks, broken water fountains in parks, potholes, illegal dumping, missing street signs, sidewalk damage and overgrown weeds on private property. People reporting these issues can even include precise GPS locations.

The idea was originally proposed in January by City Councilmembers Robert Garcia, Gary DeLong and Patrick O’Donnell.

“The ‘Go Long Beach’ App helps keep our community safe, clean and beautiful,” Mayor Bob Foster said in a statement. “This tool literally puts local government in the hands of the community at any time of the day or night, 24/7, and it will help enhance our residents’ connection and interaction with their City.”

To access the Go Long Beach app, iPhone users can find it in the App Store, while Blackberry users can find it from the Mobile Web App at golbcity.com, and Android users can download it from the Android Market when it launches this December.

“The City of Long Beach already has great response times for cleaning up graffiti and other problems that cities face,” said Michael Conway, Director of Public Works. “The ‘Go Long Beach’” App will help us be even more responsive, because the quicker we know about a problem, the quicker we can fix it.”

The video below demonstrates how to use the app:

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