Call Block by Area Code; Fun with the NCRC

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — I don’t often use this soapbox to address things not directly related to Downtown, but I have to take a second to say that I’m not at all a fan of the Neighborhood Council Review Commission. It’s not that I have any opposition to what they’re doing or to their draft guidelines (which I actually haven’t yet read). No, I’m just fed up with the fact that they keep calling me.

For the past six or eight months I’ve gotten fairly regular calls from callbanks hired by the NCRC, trying to ask me questions about neighborhood councils or let me know about some meeting. If they don’t get me the first time they’ll just keep calling, even after leaving a message.

Monday I was sitting in the Atlanta airport when a call came in from a number I didn’t recognize. I answered to be greeted by a guy calling for the NCRC, asking me to take a survey they were giving out (this after he started to launch into a whole explanation of what the commission was). I explained that I certainly knew what the commission was and really didn’t feel like taking a survey, after which he politely ended the call.

Just a minute or two later the phone rang again. I didn’t answer, and checked to find a message from a woman in the same office asking me to take the same survey. Tuesday I got calls at 2:45, 4:45 and 6pm. Just now I got another.

The solution: Until the NCRC is decommissioned I’m not going to answer any calls from the 714 area code. Thankfully the call center (for the City of LA’s NCRC) is in the OC, somewhere I don’t get legit calls from.