NYC 311 · the year since August 15, 2025 · 2,568,716 complaints, top 15 types

received
Aug 16, 2026
nyc open data

Almost every one: Closed

But closed is a status code, not an outcome. We read the closure text the city attaches to every ticket - 2,568,716 complaints collapse into a few hundred templates - and asked an AI what each one actually means.

51% - 1,320,879 complaints were closed without the problem being verified fixed: nobody got inside, the condition was gone on arrival, or it was somebody else's desk.

The ticket closes. The building doesn't. At addresses with ten or more heat complaints last winter, 95% of closures were followed by another complaint within 30 days - even closures marked fixed (95%). The unit of failure isn't the ticket; it's the building.

135,095 closures at chronic-complaint buildings, Nov 2025-Feb 2026. We also tested whether cosmetic closures get re-filed more than verified fixes - they don't (12% vs 12% at small buildings) - so we don't claim it.

sec. 01 · disposition of complaints

The Honesty Index

What “closed” really meant, by complaint type. Click a row for the actual closure language - start with Illegal Parking.

Verified fixedCosmetic closureDuplicate / pending / unclear
sort:

Browse the full Template Atlas - every sentence the city closes with →

sec. 02 · responding agencies

Who actually writes “fixed”?

The same honesty math, by responding agency. Different agencies end complaints in very different ways - a structural fact about how each one works, not a report card on the people in the field.

sort:
sec. 03 · premises of record

Where complaints go to die

The buildings with the most housing complaints closed for no access in the last year - addresses where inspections keep not happening, complaint after complaint.

  1. 1.2081 MADISON AVENUEMANHATTAN×201 no-access closures
  2. 2.99-04 57 AVENUEQUEENS×150 no-access closures
  3. 3.30-70 34 STREETQUEENS×110 no-access closures
  4. 4.1201 SHAKESPEARE AVENUEBRONX×90 no-access closures
  5. 5.30 3 AVENUEBROOKLYN×83 no-access closures

Open any building's file - including the one you're about to sign a lease in →

sec. 04 · the record over time

The Time Machine

Every 311 closure since 2020 - 18,946,762 of them - run through the same honesty math. Cosmetic closure went from 51% in 2020 to 52% in 2025 - up 1 points.

  • 2020

    2.6M

    51%

  • 2021

    3.0M

    48%

  • 2022

    3.1M

    49%

  • 2023

    3.2M

    51%

  • 2024

    3.4M

    52%

  • 2025

    3.6M

    52%

Method: complaint outcomes are locked in free-text resolution descriptions no query can filter. Grouping by that text collapses 2,568,716 rows into a few hundred templates; Gemini classifies each template once; the labels join back to every row. Every number above expands to the exact NYC Open Data query that produced it.

Data: NYC Open Data, 311 Service Requests (erm2-nwe9), refreshed daily. Built at the NYPL Built for NYC AI Hackathon, Aug 2026.