Happy May Day! Happy Labour Day and International Workers’ Day. As the pollen billows and spring settles in, we find ourselves on the verge of a finalized state budget. While this might seem like good news, more uncertainty abounds.
City & State NY has a good readout, and our friends at Reinvent Albany have a sharper insight. The FY2026 state budget would add hundreds of new jobs in digital services and cybersecurity. This is something we highlighted in NYC School of Data’s closing session, In Code We Trust: Volunteering and Careers in GovTech.
Let’s shift to some good news. This week, I was in front of the City Council advocating for a revived internet master plan. Please take a moment to read the opportunity that is before us. And if you’re moved, you still have a few hours to submit your testimony.
As the City Council weighs its next steps, we’re witnessing a powerful democratic moment unfold. We have a front-row seat in a historic moment with a sitting Speaker contesting a Mayor running for re-election, with two competing narratives. This is more than politics; this is a test of our civic structure.
Meanwhile, the New York City Charter Revision Commission released its initial staff report. Even though the Commission’s initial hearings were hastily prepared, the report presents guidelines for the next series of hearings to shape our City Charter. Maybe we can get a Charter Revision to use tools like Engaged California, which is based on vTaiwan’s practices?
To be fair, there are promising proposals in this report. City elections in even years would align with Federal or State elections, meaning greater turnout. Nonpartisan primaries would open up our broken and corrupt political parties. Homeowners in flood zones could benefit from streamlined buyout options. Potential changes to ULURP are also on the table.
Sadly, not all of the ideas in the public sphere inspire confidence. Last week, the President signed an executive order “Advancing Artificial Intelligence Education for American Youth.” As Audrey Watters points out, “You should approach this as a Rorschach Test, of sorts: use it to evaluate what others – particularly those who are trying to sell a vision of education’s AI future (with a little consulting hustle on the side) – see in this news, how they frame it, what, if any, context they (or the generative AI that is obviously used to churn out so many education newsletters, holy shit) provide.”
This executive order is a Black Mirror future. All of us in the responsible tech world should resist the desire to sell our souls to the devil. Fascism will only clothe itself with the veneer of legitimacy and punish all. Just look at this week’s GDP numbers, declining port imports, and pausing imports, and it becomes clear how fragile the narrative of prosperity is.
Even though we’ve made it through these 100 days and still have 1,361 to go, we have an opportunity to preserve and shape our democracy. Nothing scares me more than a totalitarian government rounding up our neighbors, friends, and family. Scraping our data and feeding it to AI with zero oversight and absolute incompetence… we will survive. Take note, we will rebuild. WE must remember to mind our labor, take care of each other, and find joy when we can.
In this atmosphere of uncertainty, I want to wish you all a joyous May Day, and close with a quote from Desmond Upton Patton, Ph.D., MSW, posted on LinkedIn.
I am choosing to embrace joy in the middle of chaos.
Because without joy, I won’t get through this.
We won’t get through this.
I’m not talking about fleeting happiness.
I’m talking about a durable, heart-filled, ten-toes-down kind of joy.
The kind that feels like faith in action.
My Joy Plan is the frame that reminds me:
We will get through.
We always have.
We always will.
Oppression, hatred, chaos — they hurt because they try to block the promise of joy:
A joyful life
Joyful work
A joyful existence
So today, I’m standing with all of you who:
Lost the grant you prayed for
Lost the job you needed
Lost the joy you had been holding onto
I see you.
I’m with you.
And we will build again.
P.S. – If you’re looking to explore five aspects of urban life, the BetaNYC Lab collaborated with the Science Museum of Minnesota, Trivium Interactive, Moey Inc., and ShowFab to build CityWorks at the New York Hall of Science. If we don’t see you at tonight’s opening party, we hope to see you there over the summer!
— Noel Hidalgo
Community Resources 📚
- Introducing our Mapping For Equity S.T.E.A.M. Challenge with John Ericsson Middle School 126! – Dimitri Mimy
- Open Data Week 2025: Where Does Open Data Go From Here? – Ian G. Williams and Nick Kaufmann
- Compare your mobility habits to cities around the world – Liuhuaying Yang and Cities Moving
- ‘An unlimited piggy bank:’ Inside a powerful union’s lavish spending – Maya Kaufman
- On “secret” radio stations nationwide, a decades-old news service has survived the move to digital – Neel Dhanesha
- Long Island City is on the Verge of Transformation, Again – Justin Martinez
- A Century of Art Deco – Village Preservation
This Week in NYC Civic Tech 🗽
- HEARING RECAP: A hearing on New York City’s broadband strategy and digital equity initiatives – citymeetings.nyc, courtesy of Vikram Oberoi
- Subway Ridership Keeps Rising Despite Sean Duffy’s Best Efforts – Dave Colon
- Council Pols Fume as NYPD Disputes Report of Racial Bias in Traffic Enforcement – Sophia Lebowitz
- Vending Enforcement Slams Poor Minorities in White Neighborhoods, New Report Finds – Haidee Chu
- MTA to begin replacing NYC’s subway turnstiles with modern fare gates – Ramsey Khalifeh
- New York City subway riders will soon be able to utilize transit cards on iPhone – Michael Burkhardt
- Arboricide! City Quietly Axes Street Tree Requests – Kevin Duggan
- Trump’s China Tariffs Hit New York’s Clean Heat Experiment – Colin Kinniburgh
- The Life of the Most-Used Citi Bike in New York City – Aaron Gordon (Thank you Brenda Pitts, for sharing!)
This Week in Data & Gov News 🏛️
- Website For MAGA-Friendly Businesses Backfires As People Use It For Boycotts – Jennifer Bendery
- Trump’s Tariffs Will Widen the Digital Divide – Boone Ashworth
- How Trump upended science – David Malakoff and Jeffrey Brainard
- Trump Has Now Deported Multiple U.S. Citizen Children With Cancer – Charisma Madarang and Lorena O’Neil (Also, check out this response from Julia Carrie Wong – @joolia.bsky.social)
- Trump Executive Order Raises Alarm Over Women’s Financial Independence – Sophie Clark (Red Lori Bright Eyes Pissed Off American’s response to this is a must-read.)
- NIH autism study will pull from private medical records – Alana Wise
- NIH under siege: After Trump’s first 100 days, agency scientists say U.S. health institutes are demoralized and have lost essential staff and funding – Jocelyn Kaiser
- NASA Is Terminating The GISS Lease In Five Weeks – Keith Cowing (Also, check out the DOGE AI response.)
- All Authors Working on Flagship U.S. Climate Report Are Dismissed – Brad Plumer and Rebecca Dzombak
- U.S. attorney for D.C. accuses Wikipedia of ‘propaganda,’ threatens nonprofit status – Will Oremus and Julian Mark
- Trump to require truck drivers to speak English, pass literacy tests as ‘communication problems’ mount – Emma Colton
Jobs Alert and Announcements 💼
- The Aspen Policy Academy’s applications for The Rising Civic AI Leaders Program are now open.
- The MTA Data and Analytics Team is hiring a Data Science, Emerging Talent Intern.
- The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is seeking a Senior Health Economics Researcher, Bureau of Equitable Health Systems.
- The NYC Office of Technology and Innovation has 18 summer internship opportunities open.
Upcoming Events 📅
Note: All times are listed in EDT
- May 2 at 5 pm Open Data Week Spring Meetup
- May 8 at 3 pm NYC Government Careers Spotlight Panel
- May 9 at 12 pm Discovering NYC Open Data: Online Session
- May 14 at 5:30 pm Data Visualization Society Coworking Session
- May 14-15: For the Public (in Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota)
- May 22 at 9 am Pilot Pitchfest
- May 29 to 30 Code for America Summit (in Washington, D.C.)
- June 19 to 21 State of the Map US, Boston
- June 17 to 18 State of GovTech 2025 (in Arlington County, VA.)
- End of Summer CityCamp.nyc
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