I used 311 to report a lost item (left an expensive piece of clothing in a cab); they took the TLC complaint, and it was returned to me.

Also used it to report the street lamp was out. Called a couple weeks later and they said there is a work order. Its been a month, and its still dark on our block.

When you submit a noise complaint to 311 it is instantly forwarded to the NYPD and it is up to them to handle the complaint. 311 on average recieves between 40,000 and 60,000 calls a day, which is a huge increase from the pre-311 era for every agency. Agency response time is a problem, but it is also very hard for them to adapt to the higher call volume while also adapting to their lowered budgets. With the changes to the noise code, many of the previous posters 311 related problems could be solved or at least reduced. Noise complaints are, in reality, very low priority to the NYPD. Wouldn't you rather have policemen preventing murders and rapes? In regards to the 311 call takers, please give them a break, it's a hard job, and many callers are not the nicest of people.

People who tend to call 311 are not the type to go right to the source. On the contrary, they're the type who are scared to talk to their Puerto Rican neighbors. Even if they wait on line for an hour at the post office, these people won't speak up when someone cuts in front of them. These people are too scared to upset a taxi driver who insists on taking the long route to their Park Slope domicile. These are timid people who can't do anything for themselves. 311 is like crack for these pitiful, timid people.

jim:

having spent a lot of time working with 311 for work, filing for problems for constituents of my work, i can tell you the local precinct is a lot more direct. if it is a continual problem, a call to the Community Affairs desk and possibly a letter to the precinct C.O. is a lot more effective than 311. the operators there will not connect you directly to whom you want to speak with, but they divine what your complaint is about and direct it wherever they think best. sometimes it is easier to go right to the source.

For those of you recommending that people call their local precinct, the whole point of 311 is that it's a lot easier to remember and dial than 718-XXX-YYcan't remember the last 2 digits. The people who work for 311 should be able to either put the caller directly in touch with the local precinct, or call the precinct themselves and get a solution to the citizen's problem. Otherwise, what the hell good is 311 at all? As a city-run enterprise, its personnel should be trained in how best to take advantage of city resources on behalf of New Yorkers.

From some of the comments it sounds like you would be better off calling your local police precinct with the complaint. You can find a list of phone numbers here as well as a link to maps of precinct boundaries.

I like 311- we had some road repair outside our building that was started and never finished. They covered the unpaved holes they made with big metal plates, which came loose and began to go BOOM BOOM everytime someone drove over them. It drove us crazy. I called 311, and the road was paved the very next day.

311 is not for immediate solutions to problems. I used to live above a club that created too much noise AND periodically pumped out noxious diesel fumes from their rooftop emergency generator. I was able to talk to the manager about the noise but could not get any satisfaction on the fumes so I called 311. It took about a week but someone from the city did go to check it out and called me back. If you want immediate results on a noise complaint, call you local police precinct's non-emergency number.

I had 2 unsatisfactory experiences with 311.

The first was when these teenagers kept riding a super-loud motorized scooter up and down my block about a hundred times. Not an emergency, but certainly a nuisance. 311 said they'd refer the complaint to the cops. Cops never showed up. That time, there was too little follow-through. The next time, there was way too much follow-through, or at least of the wrong kind.

It was a winter day a couple years ago. I was working at home. I heard firetrucks out front, and then the buzzer rang. A truck full of NY's bravest had shown up to check out a weird fissure in the sidewalk that was spewing steam or smoke. They wanted to get into our building to make sure the basement was clear. I let the guys in and went back upstairs. After some investigating, they put police tape around the area and took off. Then I started to smell the smell. Something was in fact burning, and the smoke was still coming out. So an hour or so later, I decided to call 311 just to try to get an explanation of what the firefighters had found out and why they had left, and also whether they planned to follow up further.

The 311 operator, after listening to my story, says, "This is an emergency. I have to connect you to 911." "No," I said, "It's not an emergency. FDNY has already been here and I'm assuming they knew what they were doing, but I'd just like an answer from someone about what is going on with the smoke." He insisted that he was required to call 911. I figured, OK, if that's the only way I'm going to get an answer, fine. But what happened was that neither the 311 or 911 operators would listen to me or try to get a simple phone response from the FDNY. Instead, they sent the whole truckload of firefighters back to my house, upon which I apologized and they explained that it was a ConEd problem and therefore beyond their jurisdiction (which wasn't comforting, but certainly could have been told to me over the phone). However much it costs the city to rally a whole crew of firefighters and send them out to a location, that much was wasted because the damn 311 operator couldn't tell an emergency from a non-emergency.

Hey suburbanites, DON'T call 311 for the noisy club next door. Just put on your shoes, go downstairs and talk to the owner. 9 times out of 10 he/she will probably be willing to work something out or buy sound proofing. On the off-change you're dealing with an asshole, THEN call 311.

Your habit of calling 311 for things you can solve yourself is what gets our favorites places padlocked. Then you guys write blogs about how gentrification is ruining New York, and you are puzzled why your favorite places close. We all have a right to be here.

I love 311 in theory, but I haven't found them to be terribly effective. Like when the trustafarian jackasses across the street decide to have an ear-splitting party on their terrace at 1 AM on a Tuesday, I call and nothing happens. I did notice that when I added that several of the partiers were naked (not exactly true, but the operator didn't seem to be paying attention until then), I got some action.

I SO love 311! I've used it myself on several occassions and have often wondered what to do on the occassions that nothing happens. Lawsuit!

While I'm only 23, I will proudly admit that I'm like a homebound 68 year old woman who will pester 311 until the firehydrant stops leaking and making me slip on it everymorning (in my housecoat).