This week we tried to figure out what the complainingest neighborhoods in Baltimore have been over the past three years. In other words, we wanted to know who called 311 the most. We figured there were a couple of ways it could go--either the poorest parts of the city would have more calls because they have more problems, or the richest sections because they had more time on their hands. After adding data from the 2000 U.S. Census for median household income and population (to figure out the rate of complaints), and using the ZIP codes (and the U.S. Postal Service names for the ZIP codes, which, please note, don't conform to the neighborhoods), the results don't support either hypothesis. Nonetheless, here are the top 10 ZIP codes and how much they complain to the city.
| ZIP Code |
Neighborhood |
Median Income |
311 Calls Per Thousand Population |
| 21213 |
Belair-Edison-Clifton |
$26,801 |
811 |
| 21214 |
Lauraville - Hamilton |
$43,723 |
798 |
| 21216 |
Walbrook - Forest Park |
$26,946 |
791 |
| 21211 |
Remington - Hampden |
$33,380 |
784 |
| 21230 |
Westport - Locust Point |
$36,606 |
739 |
| 21223 |
Carroll - Union Square - Franklin |
$23,616 |
727 |
| 21231 |
Fells Point - Patterson Park |
$30,121 |
681 |
| 21224 |
Highlandtown - O'Donnell Heights |
$30,489 |
679 |
| 21239 |
Loch Raven - Northwood |
$39,162 |
644 |
Disclaimer: What's the 311? is based on data from the Mayor's Office of Information Technology (currently from Sept. 20, 2005, until Sept. 30, 2008). It has been folded, spindled, and mutilated along the way, and no attempt has been made to verify the accuracy of the calls. By the way, we tried it by median age, too. Also inconclusive.
