#311 assignment

[dataskills-class]

A Pivot Table on Vehicle Noise Complaints & Excel Rolling Rainbow Wheels of Death

I had many struggles getting to this small table above. Crazy, right?! Well, it made me crazy trying to cut down my data to just this. Let me start from the beginning. I had to download excel, which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. I have the free trial for the next month (28 days left). But after downloading excel, that’s when I started to pull out my hair out -- explaining my baldness. My laptop took an hour to download the CSV from NYC Open Data. Later on, Luis Miguel and Amanda Hickman pointed out we could filter the data before we export it. Dang it! But I downloaded it the hard way first and constantly dealt with the rainbow wheel of death, which is the only rainbow I hate as a gay man :(. After filtering in excel the created date and complaint type from the 311 service request data, I finally accepted the fact I couldn’t use my laptop to finish the assignment. I couldn’t open the pivot table using my excel. Recently (very recently), I re-downloaded the CSV after filtering it down in NYC Open Data and decided I wanted only the noise complaints from vehicles throughout each borough as my data. After a few more rolling wheels of deaths and three sheets of pivot tables, I finally figured out what to do. I put my descriptor (car/truck horns, car/truck music and engine idling) under column labels, and my complaint types and boroughs under row labels. Then, I filtered the values as count of descriptors. Pretty simple, right? Yeah, well, it took some work to get there. P.S. I decided to wait to class to do the fancy graphs everyone else are doing. Overachievers!

[cfurlong2006]

Community Boards and Noise Complaints.

I filtered down 311 call complaints to look specifically at which Community Boards faced the most quality of life concerns, such as complaints about the Ice Cream Truck, Loud Music, and Animals. The results were not surprising; Staten Island had very few, Community Board 12 in Manhattan, as well as CB 4. Do the biggest complainers get appeased? In Manhattan, they've silenced the Ice Cream truck. They are not allowed to play music when they are stationary. That was surely a Community Board decision. Also, I can see the use of this data, when it comes to getting permits needed for new construction. Noise complaints of loud music and talking could affect a business venture, in that all bars and permits for liquor licenses must get Community Board approval. 

[dataskills-class]

Neighborhood Noise by Where I've Lived-James Wasserman

I chose to look at three very distinct zip codes (Little Italy in the Bronx, Astoria Queens, Columbia St Waterfront District, Brooklyn) to see which was the noisiest. What I came away with was the realization that there are two types of data: reported data and actual data.  

From this chart it would appear that the CSWD (11231) is the noisiest, which I know firsthand not to be true.  What I then concluded that while CSWD may not be the loudest, its citizens are the first to speak up if there is a bothersome noise.  

It makes sense given the socioeconomic backgrounds of the three neighborhoods that, in the words of true BX poet French Montana, neither Astoria or Little Italy are "worried 'bout nothin.'"

[emilygoldblum]

A Year of Dog Complaints

Since I have a dog myself that has a small case of separation anxiety and depending on the day, barks until the dog walker comes, I wanted to see how the complaints laid out around NY. 

Brooklyn had the most dog complaints followed by Queens. My guess is that since Queens is the largest borough and Brooklyn is the most populous that this is a major factor for the results founded. 

Dog barking complaints seemed frivolous compared to some of the others like constructions after hours or alarms. I was surprised to see the amount of closed cases vs open. Based on the data, 96% more of the reports were closed than those that stayed open. 

To look a little further into the complaints, it was interesting to see if these cases were repeat offenders or if they were sporadic around the boroughs. In Brooklyn, an address on Devoe street had 55 closed cases. In the Bronx, Fish Avenue had 23 closed cases and 1 that was still open since 1/1/15. Within Manhattan, Avenue C had 39 closed cases and 5 open. When searching Staten Island I quickly searched my own address but luckily nothing came up. I'm guessing those who couldn't stand my dogs barking went straight to the super instead. 

I definitely understand that a dog's incessant barking can get to be a bit much but I never would have thought over 7k complaints in just one year.

- Emily Goldblum

[dataskills-class]

Williamsburg Is NYC's Noisiest Neighborhood

by Rachel Glickhouse

After sifting through NYC Open Data's 311 noise complaints in a pivot table, I sorted by descriptor (the type of complaint) and by zip code. From January 1, 2014 through January 1, 2015, the 11211 zip code--Williamsburg--had the largest number of 311 calls related to noise.

So then I decided to narrow it down. What types of noise are people complaining the most about?

To drill down more on loud music and party complaints specifically, I took a look at the data and found the following:

Zip code: Washington Heights (10032) has the largest number of loud music and party complaints in the city.

Borough: Manhattan has the highest number of loud music and party complaints. Brooklyn is number 2, followed by Queens.

Location Type: Streets and sidewalks were the most common location type for music and party noise complaints throughout the city, followed by clubs, bars, and restaurants. 

I thought it was funny that the second most common noise complaint in Williamsburg was "loud talking." So I searched the whole city by zip code to find out which area has the most obnoxiously loud neighbors. It's 10032, in Washington Heights.