Why Nag When You Can Drop a Dime?

SO, IT'S HOW much of a surprise, exactly, to learn that people are using the city's 311 line to anonymously harass neighbors and enemies? With all the various snitch lines the city offers, it was obvious from the beginning that this was going to happen. Now it's apparently reached such levels (one estimate guesses that 20 percent of the complaint calls to 311 are vengeful in nature) that city officials are trying to figure out what to do about it.

What surprises us is that New Yorkers (especially in Queens, it sounds like) aren't so much calling 311 to fraudulently report neighbors who are insurance cheats, software bootleggers or terrorists. They're being more subtle—reporting things like illegal renovations, which would mean the targets are going to get a visit from the city building inspector. It's not as nasty a blow as having them become the focus of a major investigation, but still, it apparently does the trick.

In response, the city is now talking about doing away with the whole "anonymous" factor, requiring that callers leave their names and addresses whenever they want to complain about something. That will allow the city to not only crack down on the fake tips—it'll also allow them to exact a little revenge of their own on those callers who make repeated complaints about a problem the city won't fix.

It was also reported this week that the 311 system will be expanded specifically for the GOP convention, offering up information on museums, restaurants and other touristy things, just to make the delegates' visit easier and more pleasant.

That gave us an idea. Operators aren't going to start collecting names and addresses for a while yet. And it strikes us that the GOP convention and everything that comes along with it honestly does represent perhaps the most flagrant, grotesque violation of our quality of life that we've run into in a very long time.

Say, what was that number again?