Calls for city services reach highest level in three years

On the day before Halloween in 2023, Mayor Karen Bass issued an executive directive to improve the MyLA311 system, with the goal of speeding up delivery of services, and making it easier for Angelenos to track the status of their requests.

There have not been any major updates on the plan since, but this does not mean everything has been stable—Los Angeles just had its busiest quarter for service requests in more than three years. That includes notable upticks in complaints about homeless encampments and illegal dumping. 

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According to publicly available MyLA311 data, there were 386,000 calls in the period from July 1–Sept. 30. That’s 33,000 more than in the previous quarter, and represents the highest call volume since early 2021.

The MyLA311 system is probably the most common way residents interact with city government. By placing a phone call, or using the website or an app, Angelenos can voice complaints about illegal dumping, ask to have an old appliance carted away, or request other services. Tracking these calls offers a glimpse into what is bothering Angelenos and what kind of help they need.

The MyLA311 service is probably the most common way residents interact with city government, voicing complaints about illegal dumping or making a request to have an old appliance carted away. Tracking these calls provide a glimpse into what is bothering Angelenos and what kind of help they need. 

Reports come in from all across Los Angeles, though naturally a collection of dense, populous neighborhoods produce the most calls. From July 1–Sept. 30, there were 12,239 MyLA311 reports in Westlake. The second-highest count was the 12,192 requests in Boyle Heights.

Traditionally, there are more calls about bulky item pick-up than anything else, with Angelenos asking the city to haul away that old couch or dining room table. That was the case in the third quarter, with about 186,000 requests, or 48.2% of the total.

That represents a jump of 19,000 bulky item calls from the prior three-month period. The last time the quarterly call volume was higher was at the end of 2020.

The communities with the most bulky item calls in the third quarter were Van Nuys (5,343 requests), San Pedro (4,626) and North Hollywood (4,508).

Tent concerns

Los Angeles this year has seen a stark increase in complaints about homeless encampments. This has been the situation even though the number of unhoused people declined this year for the first time since 2018, according to the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count. 

In the third quarter, 25,133 complaints about encampments were made to MyLA311. That’s 17.2% above the previous three-month period, and is the highest quarterly level since at least 2020.

From July 1–Sept. 30, there were 2,564 complaints in Westlake, by far the most in the city. The dire situation in the neighborhood was highlighted by a series of Los Angeles Times columns by Steve Lopez about homelessness, crime and fentanyl addiction in the vicinity of MacArthur Park (the rise in calls predates the series, though the attention from the columns could have prompted even more reports).

Westlake was followed by Koreatown (1,022 calls) and North Hollywood (978).

Painting the town

Also rising in the third quarter was graffiti clean-ups. The city fielded 85,000 reports from July through September. Although that was about 8,000 more than in the previous three-month period, the figure was not out of line with numbers in recent years. 

The communities with the most spray paint and marker clean-ups in the period were Boyle Heights (6,976), Downtown (6,212) and Sylmar (5,835).

Also climbing in the third quarter was illegal dumping complaints, with Angelenos increasingly calling about work crews, businesses or individuals who tossed out everything from shipping materials to construction detritus.

According to MyLA311 data, there were 32,100 illegal dumping complaints in the period. That is 6,000 more than in the previous quarter and marks the highest level since 2021.

A pair of San Fernando Valley neighborhoods got dumped on more than anywhere else in Los Angeles: Van Nuys (1,323 reports) and Sun Valley (1,051). Valley neighborhoods have an unpleasant history of being targeted by people who exit a freeway at night, dump material on the street or a vacant lot, and then speed away.

The third-highest volume in the quarter was in the South Los Angeles neighborhood of Vermont Square (861).  

How we did it: We examined publicly available MyLA311 service data from Jan. 1, 2018–Sept. 30, 2024. For neighborhood boundaries, we rely on the borders defined by the Los Angeles Times. The city of Los Angeles may update past service requests with new information, or recategorize past reports. Those revised reports do not always automatically become part of the public database.

Have questions about our data or want to know more? Write to us at askus@xtown.la.