A Fenty official bragged recently at the Advisory Neighborhood Commission about the mayor’s new city call number, 202-727-1000. It’s unclear why this is better than DC’s standard 311 call system, but one thing is sure—calling the number is one of the best ways to help Washington short of giving up your Congressional representation.

Not to sound like a Chamber of Commerce flack, but municipal information lines are much more fun than you think they are. See a broken stoplight or a pothole? Call the number and the operator will thank you, then notify the relevant departments. It’s like making a citizen’s arrest, but without the dubious legality or creepy vigilantism. In the best call centers, you can chat with the operators about the city, and they’ll tell you the problems that have been reported that day.

Still, I do have a complaint with 202-727-1000. I called at 8 PM, and found the line only operates from 7 in the morning to 7 at night. That’s amateurish, Washington. One of most useful things about municipal information lines is impressing people with your good citizenship, and that’s an urge that knows no sleep.

Posted by Will Sommer

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 7:31 am and is filed under District News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.