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Testimony to the NYC Council for 2026 Preliminary Budget Hearing – Technology
To: NYC Council – Committee on TechnologyFrom: Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director of BetaNYC Re: Testimony to the NYC Council for Preliminary Budget Hearing – Technology Wednesday, 18 March 2026 Dear Chair De La Rosa, fellow Council Members, and Staff, Thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony regarding the Preliminary Budget for the Office…
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BetaNYC presents FloodGen, an advocacy tool that uses generative AI imagery
The BetaNYC Civic Innovation Lab has recently launched FloodGen (floodgen.beta.nyc), a flood advocacy tool that uses generative AI to visualize photorealistic images of potential flood scenarios. Positioned as an advocacy tool that reaches beyond the limits of traditional aerial maps, FloodGen is designed to raise awareness, support community preparedness, and support local government’s resilience strategies.…
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Re: Oversight – Community Boards and Appointments
To: New York City Council – Committee on Government Operation From: Noel Hidalgo, BetaNYC’s Executive DirectorRe: Oversight – Community Boards and Appointments Tuesday, February 28th 2023 Good morning Chair and Committee Members, Thank you for creating an option for us to participate remotely. We believe that remote communication tools are fundamentals for the Government in the…
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Re: Oversight hearing of Internet Master Plan and Resolution T2020-6730
Important quotes to note from the NYC Internet Master Plan: “The private market has failed to deliver the internet in a way that works for all New Yorkers. Citywide, 29% of households do not have a broadband subscription at home. The same percentage of households are without a mobile broadband connection.” “…more than 1.5 million…
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Community Crowdsourcing of essential food and services data during COVID-19
Table of Contents Background Send us your data Start collecting data Help us develop tools Data format / Columns { Background } BetaNYC is working to create a citywide database of supermarkets and other food stores’ hours for seniors, people that are immunocompromised, and emergency workers. For this to happen, we want an open framework for…
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Virtual Meeting Support for NYC Community Boards
Virtual Meeting Support and Resources for Community Boards Quick links: Purchasing Zoom Zoom Settings (for community board mtg hosts) Zoom Guides (for community board mtg chairs and members) Background: This post is the second regarding our work supporting community boards through the Covid 19 crisis. On Friday, 13 March, Gov Cuomo signed EO 202.1 suspending…
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Testimony – Oversight – Committee on Governmental Operations Transparency
To: Chair of Committee on Governmental Operations, Council Member Cabrera From: Noel Hidalgo, Executive Director of BetaNYC Re: Oversight – Committee on Governmental Operations Transparency Monday, 25 February 2019 Dear Chair of Committee on Governmental Operations, Council Member Cabrera and Committee Members, It is an honor to have this opportunity to represent New York City’s…
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Community Board Technology Needs Report – 2018
Note — This report is one of two reports we are releasing this Fall, and a follow up to our 2015 report. Please read our executive summaries of both reports; you can download a PDF copy of this report here – Community Board Technology Needs Report 2018 – Final Version (pdf). You can download our…
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Executive Summary Report on Community Board Technology and Information Workflows
We have published two reports based on several years of research into the technical and information infrastructure supporting community boards. The first report, BetaNYC and Civic Innovations Fellows Community Board and Technology Needs Report, summarizes interviews with district managers about the current state of technology within district offices and their most pressing technology needs going forward.…
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A showcase of Community Planning Fellows and Civic Innovation Lab / Fellows Program
We are honored to share a project showcase of the Fund for the City of New York’s Community Planning Fellows and NYC’s Civic Innovation Fellows hosted by the Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer and BetaNYC. Both programs are using geographic information system (GIS), civic technology, and open data to improve Community Board operations. This post…
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Call for Community Board Data Success Stories and Data Needs Use Cases
We are conducting research to better understand the information infrastructure that supports community boards and are producing recommendations on how to make municipal information more useful! Can you give us five mins and tell us your successes and/or data needs? For the last three months, we have documented the existing information workflows within community…
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Scraping Data about Manhattan’s Licensed Beauty Salons and Barbershops
At BetaNYC, we have been working on a tool to map vacant storefronts in Manhattan. Since there is currently no city entity comprehensively tracking the location or status of vacant storefronts across the city, we are attempting to reverse engineer this data by mapping where there are commercial units in the city and then removing…
