| Need
Help From City Government? Call 311
by Mayor
Michael R. Bloomberg
Getting help from
the City shouldn’t be a chore. It should be as easy as picking
up the phone and dialing one number to get in touch with any service
you need.
Now it is that
easy. The City has launched the 311 Citizen Service Hotline, which
provides easy access to all non-emergency services in the City.
(Remember, for an emergency, you still should dial 911.) No more
going through the phone book to find the right number; no more
spending hours on the phone trying to find the right person to
talk to. Now all you need to do is dial 311 from any phone within
the City. (You can also call 212- NEW-YORK from outside New York
City.)
When are alternate
side of the street parking rules in effect? Call 311. Need to
report a pothole or quality of life problem? Call 311. Want to
find out how to reserve a ball field? Call 311. Anytime you need
any non-emergency service from City government, 311 is the one
number you need to know.
311 is open 24
hours a day, 365 days a year. When you call 311, you’ll be talking
to a trained Citizen Service professional who will help you get
the information you need. 311 call takers answer questions, take
service requests and refer callers to City government agencies.
And in the world’s second home, 311 offers translation services
in more than 170 languages.
When you call
the 311 Citizen Service Hotline, the operator will give you a
service request number. You can use this number to follow up on
your request. Soon you will have the ability to request services,
check the status of requests and search for other information
on the city’s web site, www.nyc.gov. Wherever you are,
online, at home or on a cell phone, the 311 Citizen Service Hotline
gives you the information you need when you need it.
311 is also saving
the City money and making government more efficient. Instead of
having over 40 call centers around the City, 311 lets us have
one Citizen Service Hotline that can be used by every City agency.
311 also helps the City better manage our scarce resources and
measure how effective we are at delivering them. For the first
time we will know how long it takes to fill potholes, fix a leaky
fire hydrant, or repair a broken street light. Now, we will be
able to see problems and can address them.
For example, the
311 Citizen Service Hotline is helping the NYPD combat quality
of life violations. 311 allows the NYPD to track all quality of
life complaints on a system similar to CompStat, the computerized
crime tracking system that helped bring down crime in New York
City to record lows. 311 gives the NYPD the tools to rapidly address
quality of life complaints and plan proactively to prevent such
problems in the future. For example, if you call 311 with a complaint
about loud noise in your neighborhood, that complaint will instantly
show up on a computer screen at your local precinct with all the
information necessary for the police to take action.
The 311 Citizen
Service Hotline was created to make interacting with City government
easy. Now, you have two numbers that you can call: 911 for emergencies
and 311 for everything else. To get action from City government,
New Yorkers will never have to search for another number again.
With the 311 Citizen Service Hotline, the information you need
is a phone call away.#
Education
Update, Inc., P.O. Box 20005, New York, NY 10001.
Tel: (212) 481-5519. Fax: (212) 481-3919.Email: ednews1@aol.com.
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consent of the publisher. © 2003.
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