Become a dripping faucet to your local government
We all know that the government moves slowly. But it moves even slower when nobody is voicing the concerns repeatedly. Admittedly, I understand this will not work for everything.
About a year ago the easement (an underground area where utilities are running) began collapsing. 2-3ft deep holes in the side yard after each rain as the soil would wash away. We opened tickets with the city and they would come to fill up the holes with a mix of rocks and dirt. And the next rain it would get washed away, and we had to do this again.
Eventually, the city closed the ticket and said the resolution is on the backlog and they have a lot of other easements to get to before ours. I don't know about other situations, but in our case it's an eyesore and also next to a sidewalk creating a tripping and falling hazard. Mowing the yard became a pain in that section. Our street is full of kids and last thing I wanted is for some kid to trip and break a foot.
This is where I decided to become a dripping faucet to the city.
First, I began emailing the person that closed the original ticket. It didn't go far, so I spent a bit more time poking through the city website to understand the organizational structure and departments. I began adding more people to the thread, and following up constantly. City manager, assistant city manager, department heads, etc.
Very shortly I began getting responses, and people were getting removed from the thread (managers in the responsible department). I added them right back. I work corporate, I know how it works: if your boss is on the email, the urgency is different.
All in all, it took about 3 months and 18 emails since I began the process. Today, there is a contractor in my front yard fixing the issue.
Persistency pays off.