Justice
Yes, 311 Nuisance Calls Are Climbing in Gentrifying Neighborhoods
A new analysis by the Science vs. podcast team crunches the numbers on which New York City blocks are seeing spikes in calls complaining about other residents.
Over the last year or so, multiple videos of people calling the police on black men and women engaging in mundane activities—babysitting, eating lunch, going for a swim—have gone viral. The (usually, white) callers are often swiftly meme-ified: “Golf Cart Gail,” “Apartment Patty,” and “BBQ Becky” have become familiar characters in the Internet’s ever-expanding pageant of outrage.
But the popularity of this mini-genre raises other questions: Is there empirical data that sheds lights on whether such racially charged calls to authorities have, in fact, increased over the years? And if so, where exactly is this happening?