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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PR- 092-05
March 9, 2005

MAYOR MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG CONGRATULATES 311 ON TWO YEARS OF SUCCESSFULLY SERVING NEW YORK CITY

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg today congratulated members of the 311 Citizen Service Center on two years of successfully providing New Yorkers with non-emergency government information and services.  The 311 Citizen Service Center was launched on March 9th, 2003 and has become one of the most popular services provided by the City of New York.  The 311 Hotline received 11,488,792 calls during its second year of operation, which is a 75% increase in calls from the prior year.  Since 311 was launched, it has received 18,055,894 calls.

"It's only been two years since we launched 311, but it's hard to remember New York City without it,' said Mayor Bloomberg.  "Every New Yorkers knows that to get any non-emergency government information or request a City service, all they need to do is dial 311."

"311 has been a remarkable success.  In just two years we have revolutionized the manner in which New Yorkers access government information and services," said Commissioner Gino Menchini.  "I am remarkably proud of the members of my team that work extremely hard every day to provide a great service to all New Yorkers." 

Over the past year, the five busiest days at 311 were:

Day Number of Calls    Reason for Increased
Call Volume
March 1, 2005    130,400 Cold Weather
Sept. 30, 2004    111,347 $400 Property Tax Rebate
Jan. 24, 2005    100,196 Cold Weather
Jan. 23, 2005    97,701 Cold Weather
Feb. 28, 2005    96,218 Cold Weather

Over the first two years, the 10 most common calls were:

Type of Call Number of Calls
Heat and Hot Water Complaints 667,608
Noise Complaints 620,185
$400 Tax Rebate 457,613
CFC and Freon Removal 265,474
Landlord Maintenance Complaints 220,309
Parking Violations and Ticket Assistance    190,567
Towed Vehicle Information 159,750
Garbage Pickup Missed 127,410
Traffic Signal Defect 118,944
Subway or Bus Information 105,551

All calls to 311 are answered by a live operator, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  The average time it takes to speak to a live operator is 27 seconds and 80% of the calls are answered within 30 seconds.  311 provides services in over 170 languages and receives an average of 47,000 calls per day. 

"311 provides us real-time feedback on how the City is doing in terms of street cleanliness, park conditions and other quality of life indicators. We use this information to more efficiently allocate our resources. But noise-related complaints are still at the top of the list so I urge the City Council to continue to work with us to pass the much-needed revision of the noise code. We have to act; the people are pleading for relief," the Mayor concluded.







MEDIA CONTACT:


Edward Skyler / Jonathan Werbell   (212) 788-2958




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