Data Graphic Shows What New Yorkers Complain About

311 is New York City’s main source of government information and non-emergency services. The service, launched in 2003, currently receives some 50,000 calls a day and offers information about more than 3,600 topics — school closings, recycling rules, homeless shelters, park events, pothole repairs, you name it. Each complaint is logged, tagged and mapped, allowing for further analysis. Pitch Interactive came up with this interesting data visualization that provides insight in common complaints by time of the day. The graphic shows 34,522 complaints that were collected between 8 September and 15 September, 2010.

311 has been avoiding to share specific calls records with the general public, but it appears that they increasingly allow researchers to work on the data. The system enables ordinary people to detect emergent patterns, and gather real time information about the city’s state. The illustration above displays what the most common complaints are, according to the time of the day. Have a look at this article on Wired for more info.