{"id":547717,"date":"2026-03-19T22:55:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/547717\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T22:55:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T22:55:07","slug":"fed-up-with-311-this-toronto-developer-created-a-faster-way-to-report-city-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/547717\/","title":{"rendered":"Fed up with 311? This Toronto developer created a faster way to report city issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

What to know<\/p>\n

Toronto developer Ahmed Abunadar created SolveTo, an AI-powered website that simplifies reporting issues like potholes.<\/p>\n

Users can upload a photo and location, and the tool automatically submits reports to 311 and local councillors.<\/p>\n

The platform also tracks reports publicly, allowing residents to monitor progress and engagement.<\/p>\n

Early users say issues have been resolved within days, with growing interest from residents and councillors.<\/p>\n

A Toronto resident has decided to do his part to make the city better for his community by developing a website that allows residents to capture and report issues through 311 and local councillors, making it easier for the city to tackle concerns.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Torontonian Ahmed Abunadar, who works with software development, said he decided to create the tool after experiencing frustration first-hand while trying to report a pothole to the city\u2019s non-emergency service.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the Torontonian says he was driving at the Eglinton and Don Mills intersection near the former Science Centre, when he fell in a pothole. After making sure his car was undamaged, he called 311 to report the issue, but said nobody picked up the phone within 20 minutes of the call. He also tried reporting the issue through the city\u2019s website, but also found that the process could be difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI selected [pothole], and [got] lots of questions, lots of drop down menus are selected, and it can set people off. And I think this is one of the reasons people either give up on reporting or they [are] not excited about reporting,\u201d Abunadar told Now Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when he had the idea to create SolveTo<\/a>, a website that makes the process of reporting issues easier and more fun for the users.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Through the website, residents can submit a photo of the issue they\u2019d like to report, along with its location, and any more information they\u2019d like to include. The AI-powered tool then submits the report to the city, and sends an email to the local city council about the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The website also keeps a record of all the issues reported, which allow other users to also view the issue and the image, and keep track of their progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want people to care about the city. I love the city, and I want [other residents] to show this passion, they should care about the city,\u201d Abunadar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do is to [close] a gap they\u2019re not covering, which is immediate response, excitement for the citizen to find a problem and take a picture and that\u2019s it. You don\u2019t do anything else. They don\u2019t write anything because, [as] I mentioned, the experience on the web is not really interesting, and it\u2019s sometimes disappointing, and that\u2019s the reason I created this solution.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The resident says he has started developing the website mid-January, and launched it online about a month ago, but continues to work on it to address any necessary issues or upgrades, and keep the service smooth.<\/p>\n

Since the launch, Abunadar said he\u2019s received lots of positive feedback from other residents, with one even saying they\u2019ve had a report addressed by the city within days.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt happened this morning. Someone tweeted, \u2018Thank Ahmed, it has been resolved.\u2019 It seems he had an issue with a pothole in his area, and he shared it on SolveTo, and it got fixed yesterday, because of the application as well. So, it works,\u201d Abunadar said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Website will not substitute the city\u2019s work<\/p>\n

As the website is well-received by residents, Abunadar explains he is not looking to substitute the city\u2019s non-emergency services. In fact, the Torontonian hopes his tool can help the city address people\u2019s concerns and deal with complaints more efficiently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city is busy with 311, and the city is doing an amazing job, and it\u2019s too much, actually too much. We\u2019re growing a lot, and [there are] too many troubles and problems and everything. I understand the councillors as well, they are overwhelmed with new things,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201c311 is not going to go away. I\u2019m not surplusing it, I\u2019m complementing 311. Those people give up on reporting; I want to give these people back in a different way, to make it easy and fun.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Moving forward, Abunadar says he hopes to partner with the city to advance the project even more. The resident says he hopes to integrate his website with the city\u2019s system, similar to existing programs in other countries, including Australia and the U.K. which have a similar website<\/a> led by a private corporation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The resident says although he hasn\u2019t directly spoken to city staff about his idea, he has contacted a few city councillors who have expressed interest in the project, and hopes to meet with them soon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to him, partnering up with the city would enable him to increase the reach of his service to other regions and make the service run more efficiently.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to do the same thing, not just in Toronto, [but] across Canada. This is my big picture right now. People [can] communicate with me; [if] they want to connect with their cities, I\u2019m willing to work with them. I just want to see how Toronto [will work] first\u2026understand how it works, understand the management and work with the city crew, stuff like that, and then I will expand it across the country.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now Toronto has also reached out to the City of Toronto for a comment, but didn\u2019t receive a response on time for publication.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What to know Toronto developer Ahmed Abunadar created SolveTo, an AI-powered website that simplifies reporting issues like potholes.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":547718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[213247,49,48,163325,213248,3302],"class_list":["post-547717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-213247","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-potholes","tag-solveto","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=547717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/547717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/547718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=547717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=547717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=547717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}