During the PAUSE executive order, reliable resources for hours and availability of businesses like Google Maps, Yelp, and Foursquare became inaccurate. Mutual Aid and community groups began to crowdsource to provide up-to-date information about essential businesses and services without having to leave their homes or do a deep dive online.
BetaNYC began partnering with these organizations to provide database support, training, and an interactive map and search tools for residents to access the data.
We are still activity maintaining community pages as the city slowly reopens, and have expanded features for additional filters like Outdoor Seating (Open Restaurants), businesses owned or operated by neighbors who are women, BIPOC, and/or LGBTQ, categories for other services and non-essential business, and community spotlighting.
Current Maps and Partnerships
- East Village (EVCC, EV Grieve)
- North Brooklyn (North Brooklyn Neighbors, North Brooklyn Mutual Aid)
- Sunnyside (Sunnyside Shines)
- What’s Open Queens
- Uptown Grand Central
- Manhattan Community Board 6
- NYC Food Policy Center at Hunter College
We want to thank the 100s of volunteers who continue to contribute their time, knowledge, and edits to produce hyper-local datasets documenting thousands of local businesses!