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The Message October 2024: What’s New in NYC?

Welcome to October 2025! Spooky season is here, and NYC’s heat laws are officially in effect! For those of you celebrating a new fiscal year, HAPPY NEW YEAR! For us, there are many things to share with you.

First, we are actively planning the Open Data Week 2025 program, and our call for proposals is open! Also, we’re hosting an in-person meetup with OTI and Data Through Design on Thursday, October 10, from 6-8pm. Come network with the City’s public interest tech community and receive tips from former organizers and artists. If you can’t make it, we will host and record a virtual session on Friday, October 25, from 8:30-9:30am.

Second, your democracy is on the ballot! We fundamentally believe in equal rights for all and fought for the City’s open data law— because transparency leads to accountability. The modern Open Data movement was founded upon these principles. With the November elections fast approaching, there are three ways you can help. Register to become a poll workerreview the six ballot proposals up for vote, and do your research!

Lastly, we’re thrilled to announce that our team is growingAndrew Kittredge is our new Civic Innovation Lab Manager, Gabrielle Langston is our new Public Programs and Community Manager, Dimitri Mimy is our new Civic Innovation Fellowship Manger, Naeema Haque is our new Strategy and Production Senior Associate, Giuseppe Romano and Kate Irvin are our new Junior Associates. We’ve also inaugurated an Associates Board to help organize young professional events while ensuring NYC’s public interest tech community is intergenerational! Welcome to the family Andrew, Giuseppe, Kate, Alex, Annika, Antoinette, Carina, David, Jenn, Jimmol, Jing, Jordan, Kayla, Kelly, Lindsey, Malika, Savannah, and Shreyas!!  

— BetaNYC ❤️


Special Announcements 🫶 

Tomorrow: Discover NYC Open Data with the Office of Council Member Tiffany Cabán!
Join us for a fun data journey into NYC Open Data, including its history and how to make visualizations! Tell your friends and be sure to RSVP – everyone is welcome.

What’s New at BetaNYC? 📊

We built a dashboard with the Educational Council Consortium!

Our Lab team created a dashboard allowing school leaders to explore NYC Public School Allocations and Budget data. Shoutout to Ashley, Erik, Audrey, and Zhi, who worked on this project! You can learn more about their project process in this recap. And if you’re interested in a behind-the-scenes look, catch the Lab’s presentation from this year’s School of Data!

What Local Media Are You Consuming?

Election season is here, and news outlets are chock-full of information! How are you keeping up with the elections? What local news are you consuming? Let us know in this form, and we’ll add it to our database. Learn more about the local media we’re reading in this blog post

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Community News, Events and Announcements

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Legislative Updates 🏛️

Updates about NYC and Governance

Election Day is five weeks away! Here are the key dates to know:

The NYC Council held a hearing on the MyCity portal. If you missed it, you can catch the video and newly introduced legislation requiring DoITT to create a publicly centralized mobile application to access city agency services.   

Councilmember Jennifer Gutiérrez introduced legislation requiring the city to publish a list of approved AI tools for city agencies.

The NYC Council and the “Free to Pee” coalition advocated for two bills addressing the public restroom shortage. One bill requires the city to make select restrooms in municipal buildings more accessible; the other mandates a long-term planning process

NYC’s heating laws are now in effect! Check out this guide from Met Council on Housing on what to do if you’re not receiving enough heat or hot water.

A Manhattan judge declared traffic is “terrible” upon allowing the congestion pricing lawsuits to proceed. This comes as Governor Hochul proposed lowering the congestion pricing toll from $15, setting forth a process that could take years.


Civic Tech Updates 👀

Projects and News from Community Members

The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation released the 2024 Open Data Report! It’s chock full of information about accessibility upgrades, new datasets, an announcement on NYC Open Data Week 2025, and more. Be sure to check it out! 

The 2024 Mayor’s Management Report was released, giving an updated snapshot of how the city is doing. The New York Daily News and City & State New York have recapped the report.

The Office of the NYC Comptroller released a new dashboard that tracks key indicators of NYC agencies’ performances

The MTA Open Data Team is hosting its first-ever Open Data Challenge! They also released a new dataset on bus route segment speeds. Read more about the dataset and check it out here.

The Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity has updated their data in EquityNYC! The tool now has datasets through 2023, along with 37 indicators and 130 maps, sourced from 59 City agencies.  

The Data Visualization Society wants your input on the current state of data visualization! The State of the Industry 2024 survey is open through October 7.


Upcoming Events 📆

October 2 at 6pm Discovering NYC Open Data: Online Session Hosted by the Office of Council Member Tiffany Cabán

October 10 at 9am Transportation in New York Summit

October 18-20 2024 Open House New York Weekend

October 22 at 7pm NYC Mesh org meetup

October 26 City of Forest Day

October 26 at 9:30am TransportationCamp NYC 2024

November 19-20 Urban Tech Summit


Announcements, Job Openings and Opportunities 📢

See Slack #Jobs for more


Join our community! 🚀

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See you next month! Peace, openness, and gratitude 🗽