Texas Report on City 311 Calls
America Has No National Standard for 311 Service Requests
Why Texas Policymakers Cannot Compare Cities by Complaint Counts Alone
An analysis of more than 22.7 million public service requests from New York City, Houston and San Antonio found that America’s largest cities measure neighborhood problems through fundamentally different systems.
Every day, residents dial 311 expecting local government to answer a simple request: fix what is wrong.
A pothole damages a tire. A traffic signal stops working. Trash is not collected. A water line breaks. An overgrown property becomes a neighborhood concern. A caller may be frustrated, worried or trying to prevent a small problem from becoming a larger one.
Behind every call is an expectation that government will document the problem, send it to the correct department and provide a meaningful response.
Consumer.info analyzed more than 22.7 million public 311 service records from New York City, Houston and San Antonio. The analysis found that the three cities do not merely record different problems. They use different categories, agency structures, location fields and resolution systems to define what a civic service request means.
Public officials often compare city performance without first comparing the systems behind the data.
Legislators, mayors, city councils, oversight bodies, journalists and researchers frequently use 311 data to evaluate infrastructure, sanitation, neighborhood conditions and service delivery. Those comparisons often assume that a request means the same thing in every city.
It does not.
New York City uses hundreds of highly specialized complaint categories. Houston organizes many requests around infrastructure and operational systems. San Antonio relies on a small number of broad departmental categories supported by detailed subcategories.
The same public problem can appear under different labels, departments and reporting structures.
Specialized complaint reporting
New York City’s largest categories include residential noise, illegal parking, heat and hot water, blocked driveways, housing conditions and street issues. The system reflects the detail and density of urban life.
- 21.9 million records in the analyzed source
- Detailed service categories and subcategories
- Written agency outcome descriptions
- ZIP, borough and coordinate fields
Infrastructure and operations
Houston’s leading categories center on water leaks, sewer and wastewater, drainage, traffic signals, potholes, street hazards and solid waste operations.
- 361,308 records in the analyzed source
- Detailed operational categories
- Internal service codes rather than comparable outcome narratives
- Coordinates available; ZIP codes absent from the source
Broad municipal service departments
San Antonio organizes most requests through broad service areas such as solid waste, property maintenance, animal services, streets, traffic signals, parks and health.
- 450,765 valid service records
- 249 category and subcategory combinations
- Detailed service subcategories
- ZIP and council district information available for many records
What happens when state leaders compare municipalities that define public problems differently?
Texas lawmakers and state agencies routinely compare cities when discussing infrastructure, housing, transportation, sanitation, public safety, neighborhood investment and local government performance. But the evidence shows that raw 311 totals may reflect administrative design as much as underlying community conditions.
Road, drainage, water and signal complaints may be classified differently across cities.
Property, plumbing, heat and code concerns may appear under different departments.
Higher request counts may reflect easier reporting, broader service coverage or greater public trust.
Statewide comparisons require equivalent service definitions before conclusions are drawn.
Nearly 95% of San Antonio’s requests fall into five broad service categories.
Solid Waste Services, Property Maintenance, Animals, Streets & Infrastructure, and Traffic Signals & Signs account for 94.77% of San Antonio’s records. In New York City, the five largest categories account for 39.98%. In Houston, they account for 31.79%.
That does not mean San Antonio faces fewer kinds of problems. The city places more detail inside subcategories beneath broad departmental headings. The difference is structural, not necessarily operational.
Texas could preserve local flexibility while improving statewide comparability.
A common reporting framework would not require every municipality to abandon its local categories. Cities could continue operating systems that fit local needs while mapping equivalent services into shared statewide or national civic domains.
That translation layer would help lawmakers distinguish genuine differences in community conditions from differences created by local administrative design.
A high number of requests may indicate problems—or a system residents know how to use.
Transparency is not enough if public data cannot be compared accurately.
Open 311 records provide an extraordinary window into neighborhood conditions and local government workload. But publishing data is only the first step. Policymakers also need clear definitions, documented classifications and comparable service families.
America currently has millions of public service requests—but no common national standard for understanding what those requests mean.
For Texas, the opportunity is clear: preserve local control while building a stronger framework for statewide transparency, oversight and public accountability.
About the analysis
Consumer.info standardized public 311 records from New York City, Houston and San Antonio into a common civic-response dataset. The analysis examined source categories, subcategory depth, record quality, geographic fields and category concentration.
The datasets cover different populations and time periods. Houston’s source covers 2016, San Antonio’s records span 2018 through early 2026, and New York City’s records span 2020 through 2026. Record totals are presented as dataset counts, not direct performance rankings.
Explore Texas Capital Report Topics
City of San Antonio Leadership Accountable for 311 Policy and Oversight
San Antonio’s mayor is elected citywide, while ten councilmembers represent single-member districts. Together, the mayor and City Council serve as the City’s policy-making and legislative body, shaping budgets, service priorities and public accountability for the systems residents rely on when they dial 311.
The mayor and City Council establish policy, approve budgets and provide legislative oversight. Day-to-day administration of 311 services is carried out through the City Manager and municipal departments.
Gina Ortiz Jones
The mayor presides over the City Council and represents the city as a whole.
