Call by Call, 311 System Redefines the City

The 311 call system, a non-emergency customer-service hotline for New York City’s many departments was announced in January 2002. Since then, the hotline has been redefining the way the city runs. New Yorker have been calling for things like, landlord complaints and for losing property in a taxi.

Love thy neighbor, hate thy landlord.

That seemed the sentiment of New Yorkers last year, according to one key barometer: the calls they placed to 311.

The city’s nonemergency hotline received 18.6 million calls in the fiscal year just ended, a 1.5% increase from the previous year. The service has been a cornerstone of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s effort to make government more accessible and customer-service oriented.

Taken as a whole, the calls offer a pulse of the city’s life and times.

Could it be a sign of improvement in the labor market, for example, that 17% fewer callers asked for unemployment information last year?

Noise complaints about neighbors dropped more than 20%. The drop reflects a decline in customers calling multiple times to check the status of complaints and better education on handling noise complaints, according to 311.

Dr. Arline L. Bronzaft, an environmental psychologist and expert on noise, hypothesizes that the decline could be attributed to a greater awareness among New Yorkers that noise is an issue, or possibly to landlords stepping in to settle issues. Or, that calling 311 to report a booming speaker or a heavy-stepping neighbor “is primarily a waste of time because the city’s noise code does not cover neighbor noise.”

Meanwhile, gripes about landlords increased nearly 15%, and became the single biggest reason New Yorkers called 311. A drop in heat complaints is due to an increase in traffic to the city’s 311 website to report problems, 311 said.

In the city that never sleeps, neither does 311. Calls are handled anonymously, and around the clock. Saturday at 1 a.m. is the peak time for noise complaints. The staff totals 450 people, including student workers from the City University of New York.

To be sure, there are plenty of questions that 311 won’t answer. The rote response to Yankees fans that want to know if the team won last night?

“That’s outside the city’s jurisdiction,” said Joseph R. Morrisroe, executive director of 311. “Frankly, it’s talk time and that costs money.”

The 311 website was visited 750,000 times. Most log on to browse lost-and-found information for cabs and to check on alternate-side-parking rules.

About 40% of calls are for a specific answer, more than a third require an answer from another agency or resource and nearly a quarter end in a service request, such as to fix a pothole.

Health and human service inquiries are growing, comprising roughly 19% of all calls.

The city began taking these calls via 311 in the spring of 2008. These calls, more traditionally known as 211 calls across the country, cover issues such as income support, health care, family and mental-health services.

During a recent visit to the city’s 311 call center, a dozen such 211 operators joined the roughly 200 workers on the floor.

One 211 call was from a frustrated building owner in the Bronx who called to complain that he was owed back rent. The operator, Kayon Rose-Bucknor, took down his information and passed it along to the relevant agency. The call lasted more than 13 minutes, and an answer was promised within four business days.

On a one-to-10 scale of angry callers, Ms. Rose-Bucknor rated him a four, saying, “At least he didn’t curse.”

Corrections & Amplifications

An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported the number of 311 calls received by the city in the fiscal year just ended. The city’s 311 line fielded 18.6 million calls in FY2010