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This week in NYC’s #CivicTech – October 30, 2025

Noel Hidalgo

Across the walls of New York City is the phrase, “the future is unwritten.” Time and time again, the city demonstrates that we are stronger together. As the fall winds blow, we will continue to stand together. We continue to embrace hope, not fear.

In this week’s newsletter, you will find a section dedicated to providing or seeking mutual aid for our neighbors who need food support, as well as for our neighbors in Jamaica.

With the closing days of the election, we are seeing an unprecedented number of New Yorkers turn out to vote. We hope that all of you will encourage your friends and family to vote. In the last two newsletters, we have included resources to navigate the ballot issues.

With that, we hope you can join us this weekend or on Wednesday.

We invite you to continue exploring the Oculus dome with the CUNY PIT Lab. We will be there on Saturday to map out future resources for this immense transit hub and to explore what things you might find within New York City‘s open data program. We hope to see you either on Saturday or Wednesday at CUNY’s City Tech.

PS – Don’t forget to read Gabby’s great write-up of our Open Data class on Roosevelt Island and Duncan’s recap of our Open Data Week happy hour.

— Noel Hidalgo

What’s New at BetaNYC? 🚀

Flyer with a blue megaphone icon and bold headline: “Work in tech? Help shape the future of the field.” Subtext: “Your input helps shape NYC’s tech workforce!” Button reads “Take our survey” with link beta.nyc/pit-wfd on a white and blue layout.
Graphic announcement for NYC School of Data’s Call for Proposals. The phrase “CALL FOR PROPOSALS” is repeated twice in alternating blue and orange block letters. To the right, there’s an orange and blue megaphone with the words “NYC School of Data” inside. At the bottom, text reads: “Learn more at schoolofdata.nyc,” alongside the NYC School of Data 2026 and BetaNYC logos.

You can also dive into Gabby’s recap of our Open Data Ambassadors class on Roosevelt Island (in partnership with NYC Open Data and co-hosted by Cornell Tech) and Duncan’s look back at the Open Data Week Fall Happy Hour, where the 2026 energy is already palpable!

Upcoming Events with BetaNYC 🎊

Election Corner 2025 🗳️

  • Insights on reclaiming government efficiency: A Bloomberg op-ed argues NYC’s next mayor can build a people-first efficiency agenda as a counter to Washington’s DOGE ethos. (Paywall)
  • Digitize City Hall: Andrew Rasiej, WeGov and Personal Democracy Forum elder, published an opinion piece in the Daily News outlining his thoughts on what the next mayor should focus on. (Paywall)
  • Permits without pain: NYC Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani pitches streamlining permits and cutting red tape ahead of 2026’s World Cup events. (Paywall)
  • Election resources in our newsletters:

Mutual Aid 🫶

This Week’s Media Watchlist 🎥

  • From sketch to service: this FormFest session from Code for America shows how a NY team turns Figma sketches into accessible, working web forms—demo-heavy, jargon-light.
  • Daylight saving time reminder: As clocks fall back, NYC revives its “Dusk and Darkness” campaign, warning about higher crash risk with earlier sunsets.
  • Meet the people behind your 311 calls: News12 Brooklyn takes you behind the scenes with the round-the-clock team answering an average of 50,000 NYC 311 calls a day.
  • New voices in public interest technology: The MacArthur Foundation named 20 Public Voices Fellows as part of the Public Voices Fellowship on Technology in the Public Interest.

Toolkit Spotlight 🛠️

  • Hospital capacity at a glance: New York State rolled out a real-time hospital-capacity tracker to show patient flow and bed availability. (Paywall)
  • Updates on respiratory illnesses: NYC Health’s respiratory dashboard allows you to check current influenza, COVID-19, and RSV trends citywide. Stay safe!
  • Data obituary for federal datasets: Help catalog “Dearly Departed Datasets”—federal datasets removed or terminated since Jan 20, 2025.
  • A new spin on sharing is caring: A FormFest profile of CMS’s Open Source Program Office—the first at a federal agency—showing how it built templates, forms, and a full stack to help agencies meet new requirements to publish most custom code, and how cross-agency reuse speeds better services.

Artificial Intelligence Roundup 🤖

  • Spot fires fast: The FDNY is piloting solar-powered, AI-enabled cameras in city parks to detect smoke/flames in real time.
  • New York businesses generate buzz around AI: Crain’s + Tech: NYC sketch how AI is reshaping NYC sectors—from forecasting real-estate trends to streamlining patient care.

Data Privacy Watch 🔐

Jobs Alert and Announcements 💼 

Upcoming Events 📅

Note: All times are listed in EDT

Support BetaNYC Today! 💗

Each week, we curate the latest in civic tech—resources, events, and narratives that power a fairer NYC. Built for residents, advocates, and public interest technologists, our newsletter turns open data into community impact. If our work has sparked insight or connection, please consider supporting it.

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