Editorial: San Jose councilman has an app for blight Thursday, December 10, 2009 By San Jose Mercury News It's a frustration that San Jose City Hall, in the heart of Silicon Valley, isn't in the vanguard of cutting-edge technology. So we like to cheer initiative. The latest entrepreneurial venture is by Councilman Pete Constant, who's running a pilot project with an iPhone application that allows people to instantly report blight or other problems — complete with a photo. No longer will somebody at City Hall be able to say: "Oh, that pothole people are talking about can't really be that deep...." Constant is trying out the application by CitySourced in his district, kicking off with a blight-fighting event Saturday morning where people can download the application. It'll be available on other platforms soon. Constant believes the photo and GPS features will save the city time and money. Meanwhile, the council's other tech pioneer, Pierluigi Oliverio — who, unlike Constant, is a geek by profession — has logged 5,000 reports from 1,851 users on his Web site's innovative Constituent Self Service Portal. It allows residents to file complaints or requests and track their progress. Wondering if they've been forgotten, constituents can check in and find, perhaps, that Oliverio's staff just that day pinged the code enforcement people again. Check both their Web sites to learn more. (On the sanjoseca.gov home page, click on the City Council link on the right.) You'll find details for Constant's event Saturday. It's billed as for District 1 residents, but we're pretty sure no iPhone will be turned away.