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Three jobs AI won’t change: notes from the Council’s AI hearing, Noel’s reflections
Despite what the companies said about every job changing, three jobs in a democracy will never change. We still need dutiful elected officials, dedicated civil servants, and informed voters. On Monday, October 5, the City Council’s Committee of the Whole held a ten-hour hearing on the risks of artificial intelligence. The Speaker, Council Members, and…
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BetaNYC testimony: NYC Council hearing on artificial intelligence, October 5, 2026
BetaNYC’s written testimony, bill-by-bill suggestions, and appendix for the NYC Council Committee of the Whole hearing on artificial intelligence, October 5, 2026.
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Hearing Overview – Seven hours, 113 callers, and no public log: what the Council learned about the August 2026 911 outage
On September 9, four Council committees spent three hours on the August 18 911 outage. Here is what we learned, and the one thing we are asking the city to do: publish 911 outages as open data.
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NYC’s DOE AI Ban? Here Is What the Policy Actually Says.
On September 2, New York City paused generative AI for nearly 600,000 public school students. We read the announcement, the press conference transcript, the March guidance that preceded it, and the parent organizing that forced it — then went back through nearly 10 years of our own conversations, because we have been writing about automated…
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We are building a better tomorrow today: our impact in 2026, what we made, argued for, and won
Building civic infrastructure is never a thing you ever finish. The City we want to see will always be under construction. Bit by byte, we are at a unique moment in history with the tools, resources, and hope to address systemic issues and injustice, yet continuing to face the uncertainty of authoritarianism and climate change.…
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Decades in the making: New York City launches its PIT Crew!
New York City has launched the Public Interest Technology (PIT) Crew: five in-house teams of product managers, designers, engineers, user researchers, and data experts building digital solutions to public problems. The more than $5 million initiative includes one crew supported by The Rockefeller Foundation through the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City. BetaNYC has…
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We Turned Two Decades of Council Budget PDFs Into Open Data. Now the City Should Maintain The Data.
Intro New Yorkers have wanted to see where their tax dollars go for a very long time. In 1907, reformers founded the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, and the following year it staged a “Budget Exhibit” that laid the city’s spending out for ordinary residents to walk through and question. The idea behind it,…
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Testimony to the Commission on Government Efficiency, COGE, a Charter Revision Commission
Written testimony for Modernizing Government and Streamlining Government Technology.
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Joint Testimony to the NYC Council for Executive Budget Hearing, Public Comment on Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS)
Joint Testimony to the NYC Council for Executive Budget Hearing, Public Comment Modest $255,000 investment in OpenRecords portal will encourage better NYC FOIL performance, fully implement Local Law 199 of 2025 Thank you for the opportunity to provide written testimony on the Executive Budget as relates to the budget of the Department of Records and Information…
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BetaNYC joins 13 groups to fight for better freedom of information appeals – memo of support
MEMO OF SUPPORT S9607 (May) / A11143 (Kassay) Requires agencies to allow FOIL appeals be done electronically TITLE OF BILLAn act to amend the public officers law [POL], in relation to certain reforms for agencies subject to the freedom of information law [FOIL]. STATEMENT OF SUPPORTOur groups strongly support this bill because it is absurd…
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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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Dear Mayor-Elect Mamdani, here are 8 gov tech ideas for your first 100 days.
On Dec 19, the NYC Public Interest Tech Pop-up hosted BetaNYC and a selected group of community leaders on their visions for the next administration. Tune into the conversation via YouTube. Congratulations Mayor-Elect Mamdani, We’re here to help you build digital services with your neighbors, empower OTI, grow NYC Digital Service, modernize 311 and data…
