1001 Smart Cities
🇺🇸 New York City

NYC311 Service Requests & Open Data

🤖 AI-generated summary · ◆ 6 sourced claims · 🔎 Last verified

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

6 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

✎ Updated 22 Aug 2026 Publication date recorded for 10 sources. What changed →

Every request is published daily, with opening and closing timestamps. The City Council's own dashboard warns the resolution descriptions are too vague to tell whether anything was fixed.

Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence🏛️ Official
what does this mean?The strongest source is the operator's or the city's own reporting — an official report, dataset or press release. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byNYC311 (City of New York)
Scale🏙️ City-wide

Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 17 more in New York City · 🪪 Digital government guide · 🏛️ Governance projects

New York City opened 311 at 12:01 a.m. on 9 March 2003, folding more than 40 agency hotlines into one non-emergency number. It was telephone-only until a web channel arrived in 2009 and texting in 2011; in fiscal 2024 the website carried more contacts than the phone line. Since 2010 the city publishes every request daily as open data, with type, agency, location and both opening and closing timestamps, which is why outsiders can audit it. The City Council's own dashboard warns that vague resolution descriptions make it nearly impossible to tell whether an issue was actually fixed.

Live 📅 since 2003

📊 Impact

38.2 million contacts in fiscal 2024 (Mayor's Management Report): about 18.2 million through the website, 17.5 million calls, and 2.5 million by app, text or social media.

🎓 Lesson

Complaint volume measures who complains, not where the problems are. Peer-reviewed work on New York's heating and hot-water requests finds neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics predict underreporting, so allocating service by complaint counts can widen the gap it appears to close.

🏛️ GovernanceDigital governmentOpen dataCitizen participation

Sources

↗ NYC311 — AboutOperator page: launch at 12:01 a.m. on 9 March 2003, the first call, the 311-692 text channel added in 2011, and open datasets published from 2010 onward.
↗ Office of the Mayor — Ten years of NYC311 (2013)Supports the origin: announced in Bloomberg's 2002 State of the City, consolidating more than 40 call centres and hotlines and 12 pages of phone-book listings.
↗ Mayor's Management Report FY2024 — 311 Customer Service CenterSource of the impact figures: 38.2 million contacts in fiscal 2024, of which roughly 18.2 million via the website (up 21% on FY2023), nearly 17.5 million calls and almost 2.5 million by app, text and social media.
↗ Gotham Gazette — Inside 311, the City's Front Door to GovernmentSupports the channel chronology: telephone-only from 2003, 311 Online added in 2009, text and social media in 2011.
↗ NYC Open Data — 311 Service Requests from 2010 to PresentThe dataset itself: daily updates, one row per request with complaint type, responding agency, location, and created and closed timestamps, no personally identifying information.
Show 5 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ New York City Council — 311 by agencyThe accountability counterweight: agency shares (NYPD 29.0%, HPD 23.0%, Sanitation 15.4%) and the Council's finding that vague, misleading or inaccurate resolution descriptions make it nearly impossible to track whether an issue was resolved.
↗ Streetsblog NYC — Ignored, Dismissed (21 Oct 2021)Worked example of journalism built on the closing timestamps: 26 million requests analysed, roughly 8,000 driver-misconduct complaints closed in under five minutes during 2020, and only 11% of such complaints producing a summons since 2010.
↗ NY State Comptroller — NYC311 Monitoring Tool (May 2025)Independent oversight body built a public neighbourhood-level monitoring tool directly on the daily open-data feed; also confirms the dataset and service are active in 2025.
↗ Boxer, Hong, Kontokosta & Neill, Annals of Applied Statistics 19(2), 2025Published 1 June 2025Peer-reviewed basis for the lesson: modelling heating and hot-water complaints finds neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics predict which buildings underreport to 311.
↗ Kontokosta, Hong & Korsberg — Equity in 311 Reporting (NYU, 2017)Published 6 October 2017Second, independent equity finding: 20 million-plus requests compared with building violation records show the propensity to complain varies with socioeconomic, demographic, cultural and internet-access differences.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2003. 3 of 10 sources carry a publication date, from 6 October 2017 to 1 June 2025.

When the sources were published

  1. arXiv (preprint repository) · researchKontokosta, Hong & Korsberg — Equity in 311 Reporting (NYU, 2017)
  2. Streetsblog NYC · pressStreetsblog NYC — Ignored, Dismissed (21 Oct 2021)
  3. Institute of Mathematical Statistics · researchBoxer, Hong, Kontokosta & Neill, Annals of Applied Statistics 19(2), 2025

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Sources last read
  2. Entered the record
  3. Publication date recorded for 10 sources

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 6 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 6 addressable claims, 10 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 6

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-731f190129f1debb quantitative
New York City opened 311 at 12:01 a.m. on 9 March 2003, folding more than 40 agency hotlines into one non-emergency number
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The operator page dates the launch to 12:01 a.m. on 9 March 2003 and records the first call. The tenth-anniversary account gives the origin — announced in the mayor's 2002 State of the City address — and the scope of the consolidation: more than 40 call centres and hotlines and 12 pages of phone-book listings.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. NYC311 — About
  2. Office of the Mayor — Ten years of NYC311 (2013)
Claim 2 clm-0c27f8b34c2acf7e quantitative
It was telephone-only until a web channel arrived in 2009 and texting in 2011; in fiscal 2024 the website carried more contacts than the phone line
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The channel chronology is telephone-only from 2003, an online channel added in 2009, and text and social media in 2011; the operator page dates the text channel to 2011 as well. The fiscal 2024 management report puts roughly 18.2 million contacts through the website against nearly 17.5 million calls — the first year the web channel is the larger of the two.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Gotham Gazette — Inside 311, the City's Front Door to Government
  2. NYC311 — About
  3. Mayor's Management Report FY2024 — 311 Customer Service Center
Claim 3 clm-0ee3c8ed167f431d quantitative
Since 2010 the city publishes every request daily as open data, with type, agency, location and both opening and closing timestamps, which is why outsiders can audit it
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The dataset updates daily with one row per request carrying complaint type, responding agency, location, and created and closed timestamps, and no personally identifying information. Two outside uses show what those timestamps allow: a newsroom analysed 26 million requests and found roughly 8,000 driver-misconduct complaints closed in under five minutes during 2020, with only 11 per cent of such complaints producing a summons since 2010; and the state comptroller built a public neighbourhood-level monitoring tool directly on the daily feed.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. NYC Open Data — 311 Service Requests from 2010 to Present
  2. Streetsblog NYC — Ignored, Dismissed (21 Oct 2021)
  3. NY State Comptroller — NYC311 Monitoring Tool (May 2025)
Claim 4 clm-72919cb045b9c12d descriptive
The City Council's own dashboard warns that vague resolution descriptions make it nearly impossible to tell whether an issue was actually fixed
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Council's dashboard carries the agency shares — police 29.0 per cent, housing 23.0 per cent, sanitation 15.4 per cent — and its own finding that vague, misleading or inaccurate resolution descriptions make it nearly impossible to track whether an issue was resolved.
Caveat
This is the legislature auditing the executive's own dataset, which is why it is the entry's accountability counterweight rather than an outside critique.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. New York City Council — 311 by agency
Claim 5 clm-5f7cebb101353eb5 quantitative
38.2 million contacts in fiscal 2024 (Mayor's Management Report): about 18.2 million through the website, 17.5 million calls, and 2.5 million by app, text or social media
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The management report gives 38.2 million contacts in fiscal 2024, of which roughly 18.2 million via the website — up 21 per cent on the previous year — nearly 17.5 million calls and almost 2.5 million by app, text and social media.
Caveat
A city self-report. It counts contacts, not distinct residents or resolved problems.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Mayor's Management Report FY2024 — 311 Customer Service Center
Claim 6 clm-9e4b6a2c509d9dd6 descriptive
Peer-reviewed work on New York's heating and hot-water requests finds neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics predict underreporting, so allocating service by complaint counts can widen the gap it appears to close
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The peer-reviewed model of heating and hot-water complaints finds that neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics predict which buildings underreport. A second, independent study comparing more than 20 million requests with building violation records finds the propensity to complain varies with socioeconomic, demographic, cultural and internet-access differences.
Caveat
The consequence — that allocating service by complaint counts can widen the gap — is the entry's own inference from two findings about reporting, not a claim either study makes about service allocation.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Boxer, Hong, Kontokosta & Neill, Annals of Applied Statistics 19(2), 2025
  2. Kontokosta, Hong & Korsberg — Equity in 311 Reporting (NYU, 2017)
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-21-source-dates effective 2026-07-26 · created 2026-08-22

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:45cb0f4d72ac9e3be85cba3a76b036dea35672ab309c90b0e124b5d4f556655d
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
6
of 6 claims mapped
10
source dossiers
3
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
NYC311 (City of New York)
Actor types
city-government
Funding model
public
Funding description
Not recorded
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

10 source dossiers

NYC311 — About portal.311.nyc.gov · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-419a0433b0996d03
Publisher
Name not classified · portal.311.nyc.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Operator page: launch at 12:01 a.m. on 9 March 2003, the first call, the 311-692 text channel added in 2011, and open datasets published from 2010 onward.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Office of the Mayor — Ten years of NYC311 (2013) nyc.gov · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-04f66e4ab455ddbc
Publisher
Name not classified · nyc.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Supports the origin: announced in Bloomberg's 2002 State of the City, consolidating more than 40 call centres and hotlines and 12 pages of phone-book listings.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Mayor's Management Report FY2024 — 311 Customer Service Center nyc.gov · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-ac75ea94548c03c6
Publisher
Name not classified · nyc.gov
Type / language
pdf · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Source of the impact figures: 38.2 million contacts in fiscal 2024, of which roughly 18.2 million via the website (up 21% on FY2023), nearly 17.5 million calls and almost 2.5 million by app, text and social media.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Gotham Gazette — Inside 311, the City's Front Door to Government gothamgazette.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-777044bf15b9f9c9
Publisher
Name not classified · gothamgazette.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Supports the channel chronology: telephone-only from 2003, 311 Online added in 2009, text and social media in 2011.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
NYC Open Data — 311 Service Requests from 2010 to Present data.cityofnewyork.us · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a943bb47635dc8f5
Publisher
Name not classified · data.cityofnewyork.us
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The dataset itself: daily updates, one row per request with complaint type, responding agency, location, and created and closed timestamps, no personally identifying information.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
New York City Council — 311 by agency council.nyc.gov · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-9c1c0d7ab16e0e07
Publisher
Name not classified · council.nyc.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The accountability counterweight: agency shares (NYPD 29.0%, HPD 23.0%, Sanitation 15.4%) and the Council's finding that vague, misleading or inaccurate resolution descriptions make it nearly impossible to track whether an issue was resolved.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Streetsblog NYC — Ignored, Dismissed (21 Oct 2021) nyc.streetsblog.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-bb7b147ed854e716
Publisher
Name not classified · nyc.streetsblog.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2021-10-21
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Worked example of journalism built on the closing timestamps: 26 million requests analysed, roughly 8,000 driver-misconduct complaints closed in under five minutes during 2020, and only 11% of such complaints producing a summons since 2010.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
NY State Comptroller — NYC311 Monitoring Tool (May 2025) osc.ny.gov · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-5a9eb65533c8a5ec
Publisher
Name not classified · osc.ny.gov
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Independent oversight body built a public neighbourhood-level monitoring tool directly on the daily open-data feed; also confirms the dataset and service are active in 2025.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Boxer, Hong, Kontokosta & Neill, Annals of Applied Statistics 19(2), 2025 doi.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-9fc82934ca1fc2be
Publisher
Name not classified · doi.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-06-01
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Peer-reviewed basis for the lesson: modelling heating and hot-water complaints finds neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics predict which buildings underreport to 311.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Kontokosta, Hong & Korsberg — Equity in 311 Reporting (NYU, 2017) arxiv.org · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-40a6d0dd711ac4d7
Publisher
Name not classified · arxiv.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2017-10-06
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-07-26
Dossier created
2026-08-22
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Second, independent equity finding: 20 million-plus requests compared with building violation records show the propensity to complain varies with socioeconomic, demographic, cultural and internet-access differences.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

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Explore the wider context

🗺️ Your City's Problem Map Is Really a Map of Who Complains📖 Civic participation platform📖 Digital identity📖 Government super-app
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “NYC311 Service Requests & Open Data” — New York City, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/nyc-311/ (last verified 2026-07-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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