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What’s New in NYC Civic Tech – May 15, 2025

Noel Hidalgo

Noel’s editorial note, as we gather relevant public interest stories, we’re adding new sections. This week, we’re continuing to have articles related to the State Budget and adding sections on AI and the 2025 elections. We’re a little more than 40 days away from the NYC Primaries. If you know someone who isn’t registered in New York City, they have until June 14, 2025, to register for the June 24, 2025, Primary Election. For more info, check out our friends at The City.

Now for FOUR quick stories for the week…

ONE — Last week, we pointed out that NYPD’s Quality of Life claims to use data. Yesterday, Streetsblog confirmed that the NYPD is policing on ‘community’ vibes NOT data. Our dear friend and lawyer, Steve Vaccaro, at Steve Vaccaro Law is posting YouTube reels on how to stay safe during this era of draconian enforcement.

TWO —  How to Better Design Cities for Families by Alexandra Lange is a Pulitzer Prize-winning series exploring how urban design and architecture affect parents and kids. As we think about shaping this city for decades to come, we must design it to be multi-generational and for climate change. As a parent, I can attest we have some of the best services for kids, yet it continues to be unequally distributed. Ms. Lange’s reporting highlights what we could and should be doing to design cities for our physical and mental health.

Speaking of a kid friendly city, CityWorks is a permanent immersive exhibit that explores how our City’s services work. Our Lab team did the data analysis needed for the exhibit’s interactive ‘city blocks’ exhibit on the second floor. Read more about our work with NYSCI and we hope you and your family visit the exhibit in Flushing Meadows Park, Queens!

THREE — Continuing on building a better city for all, it has been 14 years since New York City was ordered to clean up its Department of Corrections (DOC) and to reform Rikers Island. Yesterday, a Federal Judge Laura Taylor Swain wrote “…there is nothing in the record to suggest that increasing the financial burden on defendants [The City of New York], which would in effect be a burden on taxpayers, would secure change.” The Judge placed the DOC under a form of receivership; this means that a Federal Judge, not the Mayor, will oversee the DOC. Finally, NYC will see independent leadership of the Department of Corrections and let us hope the warehousing conditions improve.

FOUR — Last week, we highlighted Reinvent Albany’s take on the 2025 State Budget. 

This week, we learned from Senator Gonzales that chatbot operators will need to remind frequent users that they are not interacting with humans, and include self-harm detections protocols to direct users to crisis services (S5668 and S934).

Lastly, New York’s Office of Technology has posted a number of positions on the StateJobsNY website and on the linkedin. As New York’s Assistant Secretary for Technology Gabe Paley said at School of Data, you should check those sites for regular postings.

State Budget Articles

Community Resources 📚  

This Week in NYC Civic Tech 🗽

This Week in Data, Tech, & Gov News 🏛️

Artificial Intelligence 🤖

 Election 2025 🗳️

Jobs Alert and Announcements 💼 

Upcoming Events 📅

Note: All times are listed in EDT

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Take care of each other, and have a great weekend!