In early June, I published a standalone article on how Philly's 311 wait times vary significantly by income, pulling and analyzing over 1.3M records. Aside from statistically robust findings, what surprised me was how much inbound interest I received from reddit and reporters to dig deeper. So I did. This series is the culmination of that effort, cutting the data in lots of ways, not just to understand the income impact, but also to gain a deeper understanding of what Philly 311 is, how it functions, and how well it serves us - culminating in 5 recommendations I think are universally palitable - regardless of politics, race or location. Also, here's a tool on where you can look up 311 service levels for your zip or ward, by ticket type (e.g., potholes vs abandoned cars) and by operational department (e.g., Streets vs Police).
From a 1.3M-record 311 article that drew reddit and reporter interest. Five cross-partisan recommendations. Read in order. Also, here's a tool to look up 311 service levels by zip or ward, ticket type, and department.
Of 1.3M Philadelphia 311 records since 2024, 57% are phone calls, not service tickets. The contact center logs one every 38 seconds.
L&I and two other discretionary complaint categories explain most of Philadelphia 311's 2.6-day income gap. Routine departments are nearly equal.
Lower-income Philadelphia neighborhoods wait 16 days longer for 311. Two-thirds of the gap is the work itself — abandoned cars, blight.
23,229 of 75,929 open Philadelphia 311 tickets haven't been updated in 365+ days. 88.1% untouched in 30+ days. The system stopped.
7 of Philadelphia 311's 27 published SLAs are met less than half the time. Two are 1-Business-Day safety promises. The published numbers are fiction.
Income tier predicts only 19% of Philadelphia 311 wait times. The other 81% is zip-by-zip — Fairhill outpaces higher-tier zips; Elmwood waits 17.9 days.
A small number of Philadelphia addresses generate a disproportionate share of 311 complaints — sometimes the same complaint, year after year.
In lower-income Philly zips, 28% of closed 311 tickets ended with real action; in higher-income zips, 50%. The 22-point gap is what 'closed' means.
The eight articles above make the case. This one makes the ask — five policy moves, each anchored in a number the city itself generated.