Equity in Resident Crowdsourcing

New York City’s 311 system receives more than 3 million requests a year — a rich source of crowdsourced information used to guide municipal decisions both immediate (e.g. which downed trees to clear) and strategic (e.g. which streets to resurface). But disparities in income, education, and social capital mean some neighborhoods are more likely to make more complaints (and receive faster responses) than others. How might city agencies better understand the needs of those who don’t complain?

Working with NYC’s Department of Parks and Recreation, a team led by Assistant Professor Nikhil Garg (in collaboration with Zhi Liu, Gabriel Agostini, Anum Ahmad, Ben Laufer, and Emma Pierson) aims to quantify these reporting disparities and account for them when allocating resources and priorities.

Using statistical methods to estimate reporting delays in different boroughs and for different types of incidents, the team was able to detect where report times lag across the city. They are currently building a dashboard for NYC Parks staff to visualize response times and reporting rates to help managers understand these disparities and to optimize their operations.

For the next phase, Garg and his colleagues are exploring pairing 311 calls with sensor data to better map flood response and emergency coordination during storms. The ultimate goal is to partner with corresponding city agencies to deploy these tools and study how they impact government service delivery, especially concerning optimizing operations and increasing equity.