Boston’s moving weekend kept 311 operators busy with street litter complaints

Thousands of people moved into new apartments in Boston over Labor Day weekend, leading to heavy traffic, crowded sidewalks littered with abandoned furniture — and a ton of 311 calls.

The city’s 311 system lets residents call an easy-to-remember number 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and connect with constituent service representatives who can help with almost any non-emergency. Since 2015, 311 has also offered a mobile phone app that allows residents to send photos and other notes and track their requests.

Common 311 requests include reporting potholes or graffiti, missed garbage or recycling pickups, or excessive construction noise. Representatives can also connect residents with city services for housing, sanitation, or landlord-related issues.

In preparation for last week’s big moving weekend, Boston officials are strongly encouraging all residents to use the 311 system to report any issues they may be having, whether it’s current residents who are concerned about their new neighbors or new tenants who are unsure whether all is well in their new home.

“We want to help everyone make sure they understand the regulations that are in place to keep our spaces safe and healthy, and that they are empowered and knowledgeable enough to comply with all of those regulations,” Inspectional Services Commissioner Tania Del Rio told a news conference at the time.

It seems people got the message.

According to publicly available data, the city received 5,144 requests through its 311 hotline and app from Friday, Aug. 30, through Monday, Sept. 2. That’s about 1,300 more than during the same period the week before.

Of those, 1,946 were requests to clean up the streets and collect abandoned items or reports of illegal dumping. That’s more than double the 962 calls made the previous weekend.

In Allston-Brighton, where Sept. 1 is known as “Allston Christmas” because of the amount of furniture, household goods, clothes and other items left behind by students moving in and out of apartments, the most requests came in with 311 — 307, nearly half of the 717 requests sent from that area.

Allston-Brighton also saw the most applications, followed by South Boston with 644 and Dorchester with 557. All three boroughs saw increases over moving weekend, with 188, 354, and 120, respectively (South Boston also saw the biggest change, with Allston-Brighton coming in second).

While the number of reports of rodent activity remained roughly the same between the two weekends — 66 reports were made from Aug. 23 to 26, and 72 from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2 — the number of reports of improperly disposed garbage nearly doubled, rising from 335 to 627 citywide.

City officials said last week they would increase enforcement patrols in Allston-Brighton, Mission Hill and the Fenway-Kenmore area, all neighborhoods with large student populations. While smaller than some other neighborhoods, which received a combined 311 applications, Mission Hill and Fenway saw significantly more than the previous weekend: The Fenway-Kenmore-Longwood area had 171 applications, up 57 from the week before, and Mission Hill had 320, up 176 from the previous weekend.

Like Allston-Brighton, both neighborhoods saw more requests for street cleaning and reports of illegal dumping than any other requests.

The 311 app introduced a completely new type of request, and 94 requests were received. This was a category labeled “student move-in issues.”

In neighborhoods with fewer students and renters, the number of 311 requests remained fairly steady or even decreased from week to week. Charlestown saw a drop from 86 requests between Aug. 23 and 26 to 81 from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, West Roxbury dropped from 100 to 96, Hyde Park dropped from 136 to 105, and Mattapan dropped 80 from 157 to 77.

While many of the requests likely came from neighbors looking to make their weekends a little easier, 311 also served an important purpose for people moving into new homes. Citywide, there were 383 calls marked “property condition” over the weekend, up from 124 the previous weekend, along with eight building inspection requests, eight home maintenance complaints, 26 reports of “unsatisfactory living conditions” and two reports marked “rental unit delivery conditions.”

Of these, the highest number was again reported in Allston-Brighton (83), followed by South Boston (65), Jamaica Plain (56) and Mission Hill (48).

More data on the 311 claims submitted over Moving Day weekend can be found in the table below.