Hi everyone! We are pleased to present the July edition of our monthly newsletter The_Message. Read up and be sure to subscribe for future editions! Also, feel free to share your events, announcements, and anything else that’s happening. See you next month!

• Introduction
• Celebrating our Associates
• Recent News
• What’s Up?
• Upcoming Events
• Announcements and Opportunities
• Civic fact of the Month

Wednesday, July 6, 2022 

Hi everyone!

We hope you’re enjoying the summer heat as much as we are! June was a difficult month, and we’re still processing everything that happened. But as we look back, there were also some wonderful highlights. Last month, we welcomed four Civic Innovation Lab Associates as an extension to our Civic Innovation Fellowship program. The associates are tremendously talented graduate students in fields such as urban planning, policy and community work. In recent weeks they have helped us perform data analytics, run events, and research municipal technology or data systems.

The associates have also jumped into action assisting with our RADARs and improving user experience with our digital tools. We can’t believe it’s already been a month since they’ve joined us! We’ve had so much fun getting to know them, and invite you to read more about them in the next section. With more hands on deck means more availability to assist you with data analysis requests! If you need support with open data, be sure to fill out our RADAR form. We welcome most data questions and needs and are more than happy to help.

In other exciting news, we have also continued our weekly updates via Slack, where you can find recent news, highlights and events from the community. Join our Slack channel to receive these updates and interact with your fellow community members.

Wishing you a happy summer season,

— BetaNYC

Celebrating One Month with our Civic Innovation Lab Associates!

In the spirit of wishing our Civic Innovation Lab Associates a happy one-month anniversary (woo hoo!), we’ve compiled some fun background information and facts about them. Join us in welcoming Eva Decker, HaoChe Hung, and Ziqi Wang, and read more about them!  

Recent News

Time Travel to NYC Open Data Week and NYC School of Data 2022!

We teamed up with the Open Data Team at the NYC Office of Technology and Innovation and Data Through Design to produce a week-long hybrid festival of NYC Open Data events, including NYC School of Data! Thank you to all the event organizers, this festival would not be possible without you!

You can now view session recordings for NYC Open Data Week and NYC School of Data on our YouTube channel. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more event videos! 

Legislation Watch

The New York State Senate and New York State Assembly recently passed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of New York! Read more about the bill, courtesy of the New York State Senate.  

Last week, BetaNYC’s Noel Hidalgo testified at the NYC Council Committee on Technology’s hearing on 311 oversight and improvement. You can read his testimony and catch the recording of the hearing.

The NYC Districting Commission is holding a series of public hearings throughout the summer.

Have you checked out the New York City Council’s Fiscal Year 2023 Budget? Read more about discretionary funding as well as preliminary budget reports courtesy of the New York City Council.

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What’s up?

Read on for recent content picks from our team and community. Share yours in next month’s newsletter here.

👀  Check it out 

We’re looking to improve the user experience of NYC Boundaries Map! It’s our most used digital tool, and it allows you to explore the City’s political and administrative boundaries. Have any tips? DM us on Twitter or reach out to us on our Slack channel. We’d love to hear your feedback.  

Interested in analyzing the NYC primary results? The NYC Department of Planning mapped the results in an interactive dashboard.  

Open Heroines shared this awesome Data Playbook by Heather Leson! 

The Rent Guidelines Board voted to increase the rent for 2 million rent stabilized tenants by 3.25% for one-year leases and 5% for two-year leases. This marks the largest rent hikes since 2013, so what can we do? You can request your rent history with JustFix’s Rent History Tool and learn how to read it as well.

Have you read Riders Alliance’s recently published  plan for public safety? 

Surveillance Self-Defense (SSD) released a helpful guide to navigating unwanted data collection with regards to reproductive healthcare.

📰 Catch Up on Headlines

How does redistricting work in New York City? By Annie McDonough

3 ways cities can improve digital trust in public spaces by Jacqueline Lu, Adrienne Schmoeker, Anu Devi and Nicolas Jeambon

New York City quietly closed half its COVID-19 testing sites as omicron rebounded this spring by Betsy Ladyzhets  

Looking for Affordable Housing in New York? Here’s Where to Find It. By Ronda Kaysen and Tomi Um

Here’s how much housing 421-a has actually supported by Natalie Sachmechi

Eyes on the Street: Welcome to Blissville, Queens by Julianne Cuba

DOT Begins Flatbush Ave. Bus Improvement Project With Everything on the Table by Dave Colon

New York to apply tougher energy efficiency standards with new climate laws by Jon Campbell

Comptroller: Here’s How DOT’s $425M Brooklyn Bridge Project Became a $657M Brooklyn Bridge Project by Gersh Kuntzman

New Yorkers are scrambling for public restroom access with limited availability by Sahalie Donaldson

Grog, Punch and Wine: New Yorkers Celebrate Independence Day by Kenneth R. Cobb

📚 Read

Democracy’s Data: The Hidden Stories in the U.S. Census and How to Read Them by Dan Bouk

Future Philanthropy: The Tech, Trends & Talent Defining New Civic Leadership by Ryan Ginard

Battle for the American Mind: Uprooting a Century of Miseducation by Pete Hegseth and David Goodwin
 

🎧  Listen

Urban Exchange – Urban Exchange Podcast Episode 6: Daniel Quintero, Mayor of Medellin

Govlaunch Podcast – Driving transformational change in public finance 

GovLove – Podcast: Resilient Building Codes with Jennifer Carpenter, U.S. HUD

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Upcoming Events

July 12 at 5pm What is End-to-End Machine Learning and why do I need it?

July 13 at 3:30pm The What and Why of Educator Apprenticeship for Youth and Adults

July 13 at 6pm Bridging the code-click gap with low code data visualization

July 13 at 7pm Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) Summer Happy Hour

July 14 at 1pm Data talk: PostgreSQL Enterprise Features

July 20 at 12pm Webinar: “A no-nonsense guide to upgrading your data science workflow”

September 7-9 DesignOps Summit

Sep 23 – 25 Data for Black Lives III (D4BL III)

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Announcements and Opportunities

To contribute to our listings, be sure it is mission aligned and submit your announcement, job listing, opportunity or request here.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) is recruiting a Manager of Business Intelligence/Analytics.

The Urban Design Office at the Department of City Planning is hiring a Computational Urban Designer.

The CSForNY Coalition is seeking a CSForNY State Summit Project Manager. 

Redox is hiring a Data Analytics Engineer, Product Data Analyst, Cloud Engineer, Back End Engineer – API, Junior Business Process Engineer and Integration Coordinator.

Open House New York is looking for a Program Director.

New York City’s Immunization Registry is seeking an Interoperability Specialist.

Seam Social Labs is hiring a Product Marketing Manager and a Senior Engineer Lead.

The City currently has several job openings.

The call for proposals for Code for America’s Code for All Summit 2022 is due this Friday. Get your proposals in today!

Lesbians Who Tech will be hosting the San Francisco Summit in October! In-person tickets are available to purchase now, and virtual tickets are free. Be sure to grab your tickets today.

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Civic Fact of the Month

We would like to end by addressing the elephant in the room. People who can get pregnant have had their rights stripped away, and as we continue to fight for our rights, let’s not forget the trailblazing people who helped secure our rights. We can use their story as an example on how to organize during these trying times.  
 

On July 19 and 20 1848, the Seneca Falls Convention (originally known as the Women’s Rights Convention) was held at the Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls. This was the first women’s rights convention in the United States and marked the beginning of the women’s suffrage movement. Learn more about the courageous bold women who organized the convention as well as the people who inspired them.

See you next month! Peace, openness and gratitude 🗽