New York hotline hits right buttons

-- It can cope with 175 different languages, takes five seconds to reach, and now it's even distributing free anti-smoking drugs.

New York's 311 service (pronounced three, one, one) has just reached its third birthday, and it is a quiet source of civic pride.

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, this hotline that handles all non-emergency calls from the public is one of the innovations that has helped keep the city relatively calm.

Before the technocratic New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg introduced it, there were more than 40 different phone numbers for people to ring for complaints, or advice, about living in this intensely bureaucratic city.

Twenty-six million phone calls later - all dealt with individually by trained responders - New Yorkers know exactly where to go for information: dial 311. --