Long-time readers may know about the app that started off as How’s My Driving DC and became OurStreets. OurStreets is a crowdsourced app that lets you report bad driver behavior on the go, so that DC agencies can ticket and boot repeat offenders faster and get dangerous cars off the streets. When the stay at home order was issued back in March, app developers Mark Sussman and Daniel Schep worked hard to add a great feature to OurStreets: reports of essential supplies in the area.
One of the things that has become essential at a hyperlocal level during this pandemic is to know whether the trip to the store is worth it. Through Twitter, our The Hill is Home community and I were able to know which places were carrying a certain type of staple by crowdsourcing it. Readers would share which stores seemed to be out of staples such as toilet paper (really) and other necessities such as hand sanitizer. People were reunited with flour and leavening and were pointed toward toilet paper and paper towels across the neighborhood. As happy as I am to help connect people through the power of Twitter, I am only one person. The power of OurStreets supplies organizes our collective community power and lets you plan out your shopping better so you can make your trip worthwhile. When you are out shopping, submit a report to the app, so that others may check before they go.
Make sure you also follow OurStreets on Twitter and that you download it here. And if you don’t follow us on Twitter, please do!