In Toronto It Is More Like Penis Envy.....

....considering the screwing we are getting on our 311 system. Our own little eHealth fiasco?

Dialing up iPhone envy in Toronto

By ROB GRANATSTEIN

The lucky people of Pittsburgh, home of the Super Bowl and Stanley Cup champs and Sidney Crosby, now have a little city hall pride to boast about, too.

According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the city is the first to have an iPhone application that allows residents to register complaints through their handheld device.

The application, called iBurgh, allows residents to snap iPhone photos of potholes, graffiti and other nuisances and send them to the city's 311 complaint system, embedded with Global Positioning System data pinpointing the problem's exact location.

It also will forward the reports to city departments for review, just as the city's current 311 complaint phone line does.

Better yet, the application designed by YinzCam Inc. of Squirrel Hill, didn't cost the city a cent and is a free download for residents. YinzCam hopes to market the software to other cities based on success in Pittsburgh.

So, Toronto, how about it?

Well, the city's long-awaited 311 one-stop citizen service phone line, long promised and not yet delivered, is supposed to open soon.

It was supposed to open in June. Actually, it was supposed to open in 2008. Check that. When approved in June 2005 the completion date for the then $30-million project was mid-2007.

The approved cost is now $35 million.

And we're still waiting for the big ribbon cutting.

An interactive iPhone app like that for Toronto? We're not holding our collective breath.