New Yorkers are complaining about what?
About their housing, apparently. Surprising? Not really. Of 1,837,991 complaints filed with 311 in 2014, fully a third, 611,588, were directed to the department of Housing Preservation and Development (@NYCHousing). Evidently, HPD is running a little short on the “preservation” part and hence the complaints. Or maybe not, I have no idea (yet) how much housing stock they own but clearly the more housing stock, the higher the complaint numbers. As well, the complaints are not all about public housing.
One of those 611,588 is my own complaint about four “flowing” sewage leaks from the apartment above me, aside from countless wet patches that grew and shrank, within the space of one year. Gateway Plaza, where I live, is privately owned and getting no civilized response worth the name from the manager, I called 311 and they put me through to HPD and that is how I bumped up HPD’s count by 1.
Anyone who’s even walked by the city’s public housing will have seen their dilapidated state, so an average 1675 complaints per day shouldn’t be that surprising. Huge city, huge amount of public housing stock, so expect a huge number of complaints. I get that, but somehow I’m not entirely convinced really. A call to 311 every 70 seconds – that’s a LOT of complaints!
The only reason you’re seeing these factoids is mostly thanks to the Dept. of Buildings (@NYC_Buildings) which issues permits for night noise (they call it an After Hours Variance) and Brookfield Properties (@BrookfieldPLNY) – the noise from that symbiotic duo kept me awake innumerable nights (and days, like today). I figure if I’m awake – might as well keep myself occupied?
