We wrote previously about it, but Mayor Adrian Fenty formally announced that the Mayor’s Citywide Call Center number has changed from 727-1000 to 311 today. Fenty was joined at the announcement by Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, who implemented the same change in his city.

In a statement released to the press, Fenty addressed some of the concerns voiced by D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson and DCist commenters alike that the change might lead to confusion and an overburdening of the 911 system. Under the new plan, all police, fire and EMS calls, both emergency and non-emergency, should go through 911.

Some of the reasons Fenty included in his statement about why this change makes sense include:

• Other major cities including Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco have already done the same thing. “San Francisco’s 311 Customer Service Center has been a true milestone in government efficiency,” said Mayor Newsom. “With well over one and a half million calls answered in over 75 languages, we have exceeded even our own expectations this past year. And we plan to integrate even more city services, providing residents with an easy and direct way to interact with their government.”
• Residents will no longer have to worry whether their calls constitute an emergency — they should just call 911 no matter what.
• Residents can now use 311 to request services such as trash pickup or smoke detector installation and connect directly to any city agency.
• Previous to the switch to two numbers 911 operators answered both 911 and 311 calls. There is now an increased staff dedicated to handling 911 calls exclusively, allowing them to better prioritize calls as they come in.

So what do you think? Does the Mayor have you convinced, or are you still saying this is a terrible idea?