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Calls for Candidates to Address Urban Issues in Presidential Race


workers nycha scaffolding

Workers at a NYCHA building (photo: Demetrius Freeman/Mayor's Office)


For the first time in decades, New York has become a competitive battleground in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. As the race heats up in this delegate-rich state, the two Democratic candidates, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State and New York Senator Hillary Clinton, have ramped up their outreach, particularly in New York City, home to millions of Democrats.

Each side has been increasingly fervent in its vollies against the other and on Thursday, April 14, just five days before primary voters head to the polls, the two candidates will meet for what may be the last debate of the Democratic race. While the candidates have been outspoken on national issues, domestic and foreign affairs, experts agree that both campaigns have largely failed to articulate policy for American cities and ways in which the federal government can improve urban life.

“It seems the Democrats have got stuck on who hates inequality more and they’re not focused on the specific things that the government can do and needs to do right away to fix our schools, to rebuild infrastructure, to invest in creative economies that help cities thrive,” said Charles Euchner, Fisher Fellow for the Middle Class Jobs Initiative, Center for an Urban Future.

Clinton and Sanders will square off at the Brooklyn Navy Yard’s Duggal Greenhouse in a contest televised on NY1 and CNN. Both candidates have New York ties - Sanders was born and raised in Brooklyn before eventually moving to Vermont, while New York is Clinton’s adopted political home that she represented in the U.S. Senate for eight years, 2001-2008.

Germane urban issues like infrastructure, transportation, resiliency, and national security have been addressed to some extent in the campaign, but not at a great level of specificity or regarding local jurisdictions like New York City. As both primaries hit the city, the lack of attention to such an agenda underscores the long-running gripe that New York State gives more to the federal government in taxes than it receives in federal investment.

Last week, Politico reported on efforts by City Council members and advocacy groups to inject issues of housing and urban policy into the campaigns, even pushing for the two Democratic candidates to visit a public housing development in the city. Public housing is one glaring example, many say, of federal disinvestment from cities like New York. City Council Member Ritchie Torres, who grew up in public housing and chairs the Council committee on the subject, will appear on MSNBC Wednesday evening to discuss the lack of federal attention to what was once a prized investment. Torres and Council Member Brad Lander led host Lawrence O’Donnell on a tour of NYCHA buildings in the Bronx.

Housing generally is essential to the New York political conversation, perhaps as much now as ever, and NY1’s Errol Louis, who will be one of three moderators for Thursday’s debate, has indicated it might form the basis of one of his questions. As they prepare for the debate, Sanders and Clinton are likely preparing for city-centric and New York-focused questions, as well as broader material for a national audience.

“We really haven’t had an urban policy in this country for a really long time,” said Euchner of Center for an Urban Future. He insists that the country as a whole has not considered an outright policy for cities since President Jimmy Carter’s Commission for a National Agenda for the Eighties, which recommended migration of people away from poverty-stricken industrial cities in the north. The commission, chaired by former Columbia University President William McGill, “basically said cities are in trouble,” Euchner said, insisting that an urban policy had not been revisited since then.

The reasons, he said, are simple - suburban and rural interests, which have a disproportionate influence on politics, have been historically hostile to cities. Euchner believes this hostility has diminished in recent years, giving rise to an opportunity to reframe urban issues.

“It really is time for a new community compact that acknowledges the challenges of cities and towns,” he said. “All communities need some good rules of the road in pursuing common interests.”

David Birdsell, dean of the Baruch College School of Public Affairs, believes the upcoming debate may change that. “This has been a campaign that has had virtually nothing to say about the prospects of cities,” he said, also raising the point that cities receive little attention because of how electoral votes are distributed. “This debate, given the candidate’s constituencies, may change that pattern somewhat. There are a lot of spins on national issues that look different when discussing from inside of the nation’s largest city.”

He hopes to see the candidates address issues like mass transit, immigration, global warming, and infrastructure. “These are local issues and these are national issues,” Birdsell said. “They resonate differently when you talk about them in New York.”

A nuanced local debate is exactly what Nicole Gelinas, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, said is necessary for concerns about infrastructure, transit, housing and counter-terrorism, which she identified as some of the biggest issues for New York City. The position of presidential campaigns so far has been to throw money at these issues without talking about the “impediments to those investments,” Gelinas said. “The reality is, no matter what they say, these are difficult issues you can’t just solve with more money. These are problems that are really hard to solve from Washington.”

Gelinas said there needs to be a better focus on the wage structures and state labor rules that eventually end up pushing up the costs of infrastructure projects, along with a streamlining of the federal environmental review process for projects under the National Environmental Policy Act.

CUF’s Euchner echoed Gelinas. “One of the things we need desperately is an approach to making government work better,” he said, chalking up much of the dysfunction in federal investment to “logistics and bureaucracy.”

Euchner also agreed that infrastructure is probably the number one priority in the country and the candidates have to rethink their approach to it. He said the federal government needs to leverage its power and funding to nudge local jurisdictions towards the right path, whether it involves issues of poverty, transportation, education, or counter-terror.

Part of the lopsided federal investment into New York seems to stem from its relative success in comparison with other cities after the Great Recession. “The disparity among cities makes it tougher to have an urban policy today than 30 years ago,” Gelinas said, pointing to cities such as Detroit, Chicago, or Flint, Michigan that are still struggling to recover from the recession.

New York largely has the means to take care of itself. It has a large tax base, especially centralized in New York City, and is a “donor state” - an issue that former U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, of New York, highlighted in an annual report called “The Fisc” in which he analyzed the significant imbalance between federal taxes and federal aid. Moynihan died in 2003 but the issue of “The Fisc” did not die with him. An October 2015 report by State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, which mentioned Moynihan’s work, found that New York paid $214 billion in federal tax revenues in Federal Fiscal Year (FFY) 2013 and received $19.9 billion less than that in federal spending.

“It’s no surprise that a high-income state would generate more in federal taxes than many others. But other factors complicate the picture, raising questions about equity in New York’s balance of payments with Washington,” DiNapoli’s report says, citing the state’s higher poverty rates and health care costs.

“New York’s consistent pattern of underinvestment by the federal government is nothing new,” said Birdsell. “That gap has certainly widened substantially.” He said issues of grave importance to the city, including coastal infrastructure, resiliency and counter-terror, are key in this federal investment argument.  

Euchner criticized the idea that New York City was expected to take care of its own issues without federal aid, particularly since the city and the state are early adopters of many policies that set standards for others. “It’s a place where experiments take place,” Euchner said. “It’s really the country’s biggest laboratory.”

The most recent iteration of this federal trend came in President Barack Obama’s proposed cut of $90 million from New York City anti-terror funding, a move that brought heavy consternation from Mayor Bill de Blasio, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, New York Senator Charles Schumer, and others. Just this week, Hillary Clinton took the President to task on the issue and promised to fight for restoring the funds.

Gelinas, Birdsell, and Euchner all agree that, of all issues, terror is one that affects New York City more so than any other urban center. “Even in general, the foreign policy debate affects New York,” said Gelinas. “One could argue that the foreign policy decisions made at the federal level going back 15 years have made New York City more vulnerable.”

Euchner added, “It’s imperative that the federal government not pull away from New York. We need every tool that’s available - big data or boots on the ground in the city. I would be looking for very specific commitments in this debate.”

Thursday’s debate will be watched eagerly across the state, particularly since a New York primary has not been a close contest among Democrats since 1988, when former Massachusetts Governor Michael Dukakis won a heated race against prominent civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson. New York Assemblymember Michael Blake, a former White House aide to President Obama, indicated he would be looking to the candidates to discuss issues of diversity and justice. “From racial to gender, from economic to social, it is critical to hear what these candidates will do for Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises, Criminal Justice reform and Educational equity so that communities of color go from cradle to the career,” Blake said in a statement emailed to Gotham Gazette.

Mayor Bill de Blasio will also be paying close attention. He served as Clinton’s campaign manager for her first Senate run in 2000 and is a vocal supporter. “Mayor de Blasio is looking forward to hearing Secretary Clinton lay out her plans to move our country forward at Thursday’s debate,” said a spokesperson for the mayor in an email. “He believes that Hillary has the most progressive platform of any incoming President of the United States in a generation. This platform will fundamentally increase wages and benefits for working people, it will bring us things like full day Pre-K for all. It will rein in Wall Street, tax the wealthier at a higher level. The Mayor believes these are the changes we need in New York City and across the country.”

“The Mayor has also talked a lot about the need for a federal government that supports our cities by investing more in things like mass transit and public education, and he looks forward to hearing the candidates address these issues on Thursday,” the spokesperson added.

This year, the state’s large delegate count is a necessity for Sanders, who is coming off his eighth win out of the last nine primary contests with a total of 1,069 delegates, but is still far behind Clinton’s 1,758. A candidate needs 2,383 for the Democratic nomination. If Clinton should win New York with a big margin, which she is poised to do, she would have the nomination in the bag. The state has 247 delegates up for grabs: 163 are pledged and 84 are at-large delegates selected by the state Democrat Party at the May convention and allotted proportionately based on voting results. There are an additional 44 superdelegates, some of whom have already decided to back Clinton even if Sanders should somehow win the popular vote. A recent NBC News/WSJ/Marist poll (conducted between April 6-10) gives Clinton a 14-point lead over Sanders among likely Democratic voters.

blitzer bash louisCNN’s Wolf Blitzer will moderated Thursday night, joined by Dana Bash, CNN’s chief political correspondent, and Louis, NY1 political anchor and a CNN contributor. Louis told Gotham Gazette in an email that he couldn’t share any particular questions in advance of the debate. “But I'm sure that both campaigns and our national media partner all know what it means to have NY1 and the Daily News involved: a firm, fierce focus on what we need to make a great city greater,” he wrote. (pictured l-r: Blizter, Bash, Louis)

Louis also appeared on The NY Slant podcast to discuss preparations for the debate. He estimated that there would be roughly 17 to 20 questions asked of the candidates over the two hours, setting aside time for commercial breaks, introductions, questions, answers, follow-ups, and rebuttals.

“What things do you want of those twenty? Well, you want some New York questions for sure,” Louis said, stressing that he had yet to formulate specific questions. “You want some, for lack of a better word, news of the day questions,” he added, in reference to everyday happenings on the campaign trail including any latest barbs exchanged by the candidates.

Asked about how he would approach the question of urban issues and urban disinvestment at the federal level, as raised by the Politico article from last week, Louis seemed to make the same point as Baruch College’s Birdsell.

“There a lot of urban issues that are disguised as other issues,” Louis said. “If you look at say issues of policing and community relations, you tend to think of it as a criminal justice question, but then you look at where all the hot-button cases have happened -- it’s Baltimore, it’s Chicago, it’s New York -- it starts to look a little bit like an urban issue. When you talk about education, everybody has a school district, everybody has to send their kids to school. But where are the biggest problems with the achievement gap and the funding questions and the charter schools and so forth? You know, it’s New York, it's Chicago, and you‘re right back to, is this an urban question? There’s also an open question about whether there needs to be an urban policy.”

Louis went on to say that “things really happen through the state level and the relationship of cities to their state in some ways is more important than - depending on the issue or the funding stream that you’re talking about - than the issue of all of those cities to the whole United States.”

There’s been so little, Louis said, that “you almost want to have a policy discussion which is...do we need urban policy?” But, he noted, “the debate is not the place to have that.”

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Prior to the 9 p.m. debate on Thursday, April 14, Gotham Gazette and City Limits will co-host a forum in Manhattan, from 6-8 p.m., where political experts will provide their perspectives on the presidential race. There will also be multiple campaign representatives on hand. Details & RSVP.

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by Samar Khurshid, senior reporter, Gotham Gazette
     

Read more by this writer.

The Week Ahead in New York Politics, April 11


New York City Hall

New York City Hall


What to watch for this week in New York politics:

The eyes of the country are on New York - even more so than usual. The presidential primaries, both Republican and Democrat, are in full-swing and New York is home to two hot contests, with all five remaining major party candidates campaigning around the state as we approach voting on April 19, a week from Tuesday.

The Democrats are debating in Brooklyn Thursday night at 9 p.m. - the debate will air on CNN and NY1, and NY1’s Errol Louis will serve as one of three journalists asking questions of Clinton and Sanders. [Just before the debate, from 6-8 p.m. Gotham Gazette and City Limits are co-hosting a presidential primary event in Manhattan - Join us!]

As the week begins, Kasich, Trump, and Sanders will all be campaigning in and around Albany on Monday. This, after Clinton and Cruz were in the area last week. The candidates have all been campaigning in New York City, too, of course, and expect more of that as the week continues. Hillary Clinton is campaigning on Long Island Monday, while Bill Clinton will be representing her campaign in the Bronx and Brooklyn.

Meanwhile, as far as New York City politics goes, two main things to watch for as the week begins: a deal on the rezoning of East New York could be announced (and voted on) as early as Monday; and, the developing story around federal investigations into several NYPD officials, two businessmen with ties to Mayor de Blasio, and issues around the fundraising of de Blasio's nonprofit Campaign for One New York. It was reported over the weekend that a federal probe into the behaviors of the businessmen and NYPD officials has led to questions around fundraising by the Campaign for One New York and related official city action. Stay tuned. De Blasio starts his week promoting Hillary Clinton and holding a press conference on homelessness policy in the Bronx - details below.

As always, there's a great deal happening at the City Council and all over the city, with many events to be aware of.

***Do you have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics?
E-mail Gotham Gazette editor Ben Max: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.***

The run of the week in detail:

Monday
Both houses of the New York State Legislature are in session on Monday in Albany and Gov. Andrew Cuomo is in Albany with no public events, according to his schedule released Sunday evening.

At 10 a.m., the Assembly Standing Committee on Banks, the Assembly Standing Committee on Small Business, and the Assembly Standing Committee on Consumer Affairs and Protection will jointly hold a public hearing to examine the online lending marketplace in relation to small business access to capital.

On Monday at 10 a.m., City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito will hold a press conference with Council Member Daniel Dromm to remind New Yorkers to file their taxes - Food Bank of New York on 82nd Street in Queens. At 11:30 Monday morning, Mark-Viverito will participate in Passover food distribution at Union Plaza Care Center in Queens. And, at 6:30 p.m., Mark-Viverito will host "Speaker's Cultural Arts Series" at LaGuardia Center for the Performing Arts.

At 10:30 a.m. Monday, “Public Advocate James will release a study conducted by her office detailing the gender wage gap in New York City. She will be joined by advocates and community leaders.”

On Monday at 11:30 a.m., "Mayor de Blasio will appear on Yahoo News Live with Katie Couric to discuss the upcoming New York primary." At 1:15 at BronxWorks, "the Mayor will host a press conference to announce the results of a 90-day review of homeless programs."

At the City Council on Monday: at 1 p.m., the Committee on Civil Service and Labor will meet jointly with the Committee on Aging on a bill requiring the Department for the Aging to develop a comprehensive plan to address the needs of informal caregivers, and a bill to establish a Division of Paid Care within the Office of Labor Standards, which will address issues related to home care workers and child care workers.

Tuesday
Both houses of the New York State Legislature are in session on Tuesday in Albany.

At the City Council on Tuesday:

  • 10 a.m., the Committee on Housing and Building will meet on ten bills relating to gas infrastructure in the city, including the creation of a journeyman plumber gas qualification system, the prohibition of “self-certification” for plumbers who have worked on gas piping without a permit within the previous five years, and the requirement for the periodic inspection of gas piping systems.
  • 1 p.m., the Committee on Consumer Affairs will meet on a bill requiring a seller license for any individual selling tickets for a place of entertainment, mode of transportation, or sight-seeing tour in a public space.
  • 1 p.m., the Committee on Women’s Issues will meet for an oversight hearing on the Commission on Gender Equality, and on a bill establishing a gender equity advisory board.

At 8 a.m. Tuesday, the Borough Planning Committee of the Queens Chamber of Commerce will be hosting a city-planning seminar, on the “Impact of New Zoning Development,” featuring keynote speaker John Young, director of the Department of City Planning—Queens Borough Office.

At 10 a.m. Tuesday, the Manhattan Republican Party and the Women’s National Republican Club will be hosting a meet and greet with Republican presidential candidate, Governor John Kasich, which will include “a major policy announcement.”

At noon Tuesday, the Association for a Better New York will be holding a luncheon meeting featuring Governor Andrew Cuomo, who will discuss the recently-passed New York State Budget, infrastructure priorities, and his initiatives for the coming year.

Wednesday
Both houses of the New York State Legislature are in session on Wednesday in Albany.

Wednesday morning, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLC will be hosting a government leadership forum, “Will NYC Ever See Affordable Housing?” Speaking at this event include Vicki L. Been, Commissioner of the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development; Ruben Diaz Jr., Bronx Borough President; Ron Moelis, CEO and Chairman of L+M Development Partners Inc; and Erica F. Buckley, Special Counsel at Stroock.

At the City Council on Wednesday: at 10 a.m., the Committee on Public Safety jointly with the Committee on General Welfare will hold an oversight hearing on the Department of Homeless Services shelter system, and a bill requiring DHS to produce an annual report detailing critical incidents occurring in homeless shelters and safety measures taken to address these issues.

At 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, the National Action Network will launch its annual three-day convention, which brings together activists, government leaders, cultural influencers to address key issues important to a modern civil rights agenda. This year’s speakers include First Lady of New York City Chirlane McCray, and many others. As always, it is led by Rev. Al Sharpton.

At noon Wednesday, City Council Member Ben Kallos will speak at “Taking on the ‘Superscrapers,’” during which Kallos will speak about his move with the East River Fifties Alliance to restrict supertowers and over-development between 52nd Street and 59th Street east of First Avenue in Manhattan.

At 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at Civic Hall, David Moore will be presenting the NYC Councilmatic engagement app, which will allow citizens to easily navigate information about City Hall, including legislation, committee meetings, and council members.

At 4 p.m. Wednesday, the Senate Joint Task Force on Heroin and Opioid Addiction will hold a public hearing in Binghamton to examine issues facing communities in the wake of increased heroin abuse.

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr. will host an informational panel on “Successfully Applying for Affordable Housing,” featuring speakers from a variety of city agencies and real estate firms and will provide information about eviction prevention, rent freezing, apartment sharing, legal services, and more.

Thursday
The annual National Action Network conference will continue Thursday.

At the City Council on Thursday: at 1 p.m., the Committee on Juvenile Justice will meet on a bill requiring the Administration for Children’s Services to report on programs and services provided to youth in placement and detention facilities.

At 9 a.m. Thursday, the Manhattan Institute will host a symposium on “U.S. Welfare Policy: Past, Present, and Future,” during which senior MI fellow Jason Riley and experts such as Ron Haskins of the Brookings Institute, Reverend Eugene Rivers III, president of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies, and others will share their insights on welfare policy.

The next public meeting of the New York City Campaign Finance Board will be Thursday at 10 a.m.

At 6 p.m. Thursday, join Gotham Gazette, City Limits, campaign representatives, and a panel of political experts who will discuss the impending New York presidential primaries. New Yorkers get to vote on Tuesday, April 19. On Thursday, we will discuss the state of the Republican and Democratic primary races, how the votes in New York will shake out, what they will mean, and more. Representavies from multuple campaigns are expected (all have been invited to send someone), and panelists include former Rep. Anthony Weiner, David Birdsell, dean of the Baruch College School of Public Affairs; Christina Greer, professor of political science at Fordham University; and Steven Romalewski, director of the CUNY Graduate Center's Mapping Service. Details and RSVP.

At 6:30 p.m. Thursday, City & State NY will launch its latest magazine, the 2016 Borough Series: Brooklyn.

At 6:30 p.m., the NYGOP will host its 2016 New York State Republican Gala, which will feature Governor Susana Martinez, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, as well as Donald Trump, John Kasich, and Ted Cruz, the Republican presidential candidates.

At 9 p.m. Thursday, NY1 and CNN will co-host a Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn and broadcast over those networks. Errol Louis of NY1 will be on of three moderators, with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash, who question Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. 

Friday and the weekend
The annual National Action Network conference will continue Friday.

At the City Council on Friday: at 10 a.m., the Committee on Public Housing will hold an oversight meeting examining elevator safety in NYCHA housing following the death of Olegario Pabon at Boston Road Plaza. 

***
Have events or topics for us to include in an upcoming Week Ahead in New York Politics? E-mail Gotham Gazette executive editor Ben Max any time: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (please use "For Week Ahead" as email subject).

***
by Kelly Fan and Ben Max
@GothamGazette

New York City’s Evolving Approach to Open Data


crowd phones

(photo: Rob Bennett/Mayoral Photography Office)


During the first weekend of March, the New York City School of Data - a network of advocates, activists, and professionals for an open data ecosystem - hosted a day of panels and workshop sessions in recognition of the international day celebrating open data and the fourth anniversary of the city passing its first open data law. City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer, who have each promoted open data initiatives, delivered keynote remarks at the event.

“As someone who represents some of the most vulnerable, yet resilient New Yorkers in this city, I want to make data a priority,” Mark-Viverito said at the gathering of tech advocates, civic hackers, and public officials. “I want our work to tell a story, one that has rarely been told rightly before. I want our data to move people, organizations, and of course, governments to act differently.”

What Mark-Viverito was getting at - something discussed in several forms over the course of the event and on an ongoing basis - is the idea of using data about civic life, people’s needs, and government services to make things work better while ensuring equity.

Late last year, the City Council approved the final bills of a package amending and adding to the 2012 Open Data law, which created the Open Data Portal, but the legislative action has been met with mixed reviews and questions about the portal’s effectiveness remain.

The portal is intended to increase information available to the public about city services and government operations. According to the de Blasio administration, “New Yorkers can use this data to make informed decisions, become more engaged in their communities, solve tough problems, or turn their dreams into a reality.”

Data available includes the extent to which city school buildings are being used, taxi trip pickups and dropoffs, tree censuses, requests made to the city’s 311 help line, general city budget spending, and much more.

The two newest laws seek to ensure city agency compliance with the Open Data Law,  particularly regarding timely release of data, and updates to the Open Data Portal with information released through Freedom of Information Law requests (often known as FOILs). Both are part of ongoing efforts to make the portal more useful. The more quickly data is released, the more useful it is.

On Nov. 30 of last year, Mayor Bill de Blasio signed into law the five prior bills from the open data package.

“In 2012 we set a new bar for transparency and civic engagement with passage of the most comprehensive open data law in the country,” said Anne Roest, Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DoITT) Commissioner. “To be as effective as it can for all New Yorkers, open data needs to be usable data – and these bills will help us achieve that goal.”

While “open” is important, “usable” is really the key word, according to data experts.

The open data law and portal are part of efforts to make government transparent and accountable. In theory, data is to be made easily available - and in a useful format - for interested parties, who can use it to help solve city problems. The portal currently offers 1400 data sets through dozens of city agencies and other entities.

As stated by the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, “The Open Data Law mandates full coverage of all City public data by 2018. The value is clear – every time a new data set is published on the NYC Open Data Portal, there are new opportunities for users to find insight.”

While there is a wealth of information available, and hundreds of data sets still to come online, it is not always clear who uses the open data portal and to what end. How many New Yorkers even know about the availability of so much data?

And, getting back to usability, there are also significant questions about the format in which data sets are often published.

Still, open government advocates continue to say that it is an essential feature and push to see it improved. Public, usable data, they say, is key to holding government accountable and opening up policy-making to a broader audience, including people outside of government able to help solve a wide variety of problems.

BetaNYC, a nonpartisan group comprised of civic hackers and technologists that has worked with government actors to improve the city’s embrace of civic tech and open data, features a digital project list currently being developed by the NYC tech community. HeatSeekNYC, “a web-enabled hardware platform to detect heating violations in NYC”, and NYC Bus Adherence, “tools for analyzing and visualizing MTA Bus performance data,” are two examples of data-based projects moving civic discourse.

Since the passage of the 2012 open data law, there have been other modifications. In 2014, de Blasio signed into law two transparency bills which require the City Record, a daily publication of city business, to be published on the open data portal in a machine-readable format; the City Charter, the Administrative Code, and the Rules of the City of New York to be published online; and the compilation of laws updated within 30 days of any change.

In July 2015 the de Blasio administration released a new plan for the portal, Open Data for All, which emphasizes community partnership and focuses on making data sets accessible and user-friendly for all New Yorkers.

“[Open Data for All] means it will be easier for people, even those with no programming experience – like myself – to find the information they want, and better ways to utilize that information,” said de Blasio.

De Blasio’s rhetoric shows a typical shift from remarks by his predecessor, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who remarked that sharing data with the public “[catalyzes] the creativity, intellect, and enterprising spirit of computer programmers to build tools that help us all improve our lives.” The evolution of the portal is aimed at ensuring that every New Yorker, not only computer programmers, will be able to utilize and benefit from the information being made available.

The Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) and DoITT led a citywide engagement tour, assessing the needs and priorities of New Yorkers, across user types and domain areas. Throughout the fall, Dr. Amen Ra Mashariki, Chief Operations Officer at MODA, met with CUNY students, community groups, civic leaders, and others. MODA intends for the engagement tour to culminate in a Open Data Summit.

“[The summit] will bring people together who we’ve engaged over the citywide tour and let them know what we’ve heard from them and then we will identify strategies,” Dr. Mashariki told Gotham Gazette in an interview late last year.

In October, Dr. Mashariki testified before the City Council Committee on Technology, reporting on the progress of the tour at that point and the portal in general. He announced that the Open Data Portal contained 1,386 data sets -- up from 1,268 in 2014. Still, City Limits reported late last year that datasets due to be published are missing deadlines and that there has been little enforcement of the law. Mashariki said it will not be the number of published data sets that will determine the success of the portal: “The ultimate success [will be] in the number of New Yorkers who use open data in their daily lives. And that’s not just the tech-savvy New Yorkers – it’s all New Yorkers, in all five boroughs.”

At the “summit,” MODA and DoITT will identify strategies seeking to build an open data ecosystem prioritizing expanded access to data sets, high data quality, and enhanced portal usability. “Increased access to data is critical for open government and transparency in the digital age,” said Minerva Tantoco, the city’s Chief Technology Officer.

Technical and community engagement challenges remain as the open data portal continues to be refined and expanded. It is one often lower-profile way in which the de Blasio administration’s reputation for government transparency and effectiveness will be formed.

Technical challenges for the open data portal
“There are currently many challenges,” said Ben Wellington, visiting assistant professor in the City & Regional Planning program at The Pratt Institute and creator of the increasingly popular data science and policy blog I Quant NY. “One of them is the wide use of PDF documents. PDF is inherently difficult to analyze, so when an agency is forced to release data but doesn’t necessarily want to have it widely used, PDF is an opportune way to do that. “

PDF documents, unlike an Excel spreadsheet, are not in machine-readable format, which Wellington and others argue creates a long-term problem for civic technologists who end up spending a large amount of their time extracting data rather than analyzing it.

“It’s just not a good use of advocates’ time,” Wellington told Gotham Gazette. Wellington has become known for using government data to show trends, point out problems, and identify potential solutions. He delivered a popular TED talk in 2014 using big data to give insight for the “worst” places to park in New York City. Wellington’s blog features many articles crunching numbers to illuminate topics from “Trump’s Unpaid Bills” to pay raises for City Council members.

City Council Member and Chair of the Committee on Technology James Vacca has concerns regarding another aspect of city data - like with quality, the timely release of data from city agencies leaves much to be desired. Vacca sponsored a bill passed by the City Council and signed into law by Mayor de Blasio, which mandates a city office or agency examine the compliance of mayoral agencies posting public data sets under the open data law.

“Some agencies are not as diligent as they should be when it comes to posting information, there has to be good coordination among the city agencies,” Vacca explained. “Right now, there really is no enforcement mechanism if agencies don’t comply. We are dependent upon cooperation, which is great, but we need an enforcement mechanism.“

Wellington suggests that a position should be created in every city agency - an “open data liaison” - to act as a point of contact for the public and be responsible for any inquiries about information released by the agency. “Today, there’s no way for the public to understand who’s responsible for any dataset,” Wellington noted, which can only further obfuscate any process of data clarification, sourcing or transparency.

The New York City Transparency Working Group (NYCTWG), a collection of civic technologists, data advocates, and good government groups, has argued that FOIL (Freedom of Information Law) requests should be published online through a centralized tracking system akin to the open data portal. Earlier this month, the de Blasio administration launched “the OpenRECORDS portal.” It is “designed to streamline the process of submitting, tracking, and responding to Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) records requests as we work toward becoming a more transparent and effective government,” the mayor’s press office said in an announcement.

Along with Vacca’s bill, another also approved by the City Council and signed by the mayor requires agencies to individually review all data released through FOIL requests and determine if the information should be posted on the open data portal. The thinking goes that if one person or group is interested in a certain data set, others probably are, and that if the information is being released publicly in one sense, why not make it generally available.

In 2013, then-Public Advocate Bill de Blasio released a transparency report card in which he called for a mandate to publish online the most commonly-sought information through FOIL requests, asserting “proactive disclosure will save time and resources by posting minutes, public schedules and license data online for easy access.”

As mayor, it took de Blasio some time, testing the patience of open data advocates, but he has now launched a systemized and centralized portal for FOIL requests.

Community engagement and outreach
Noel Hidalgo, co-founder and executive director of BetaNYC, believes that Open Data for All is helping to facilitate more public involvement in the open data portal and wants open data to be used regularly to solve civic problems.

“We’re at the point [with open data] where it’s not just about making an app but about making a culture, an understanding of how to use data for improving New York,” Hidalgo told Gotham Gazette.

Last year, Mayor de Blasio announced a public-private partnership to launch Computer Science for All, a computer science education program for every city public school student. As a new generation of students learn web design and coding technologies, Hidalgo hopes it will translate to increased interest and participation in civic hacking.

“We fundamentally believe that there is an opportunity to enhance digital literacy through civic education and we would love to see that embedded within the computer science program,” Hidalgo said on behalf of BetaNYC.

One essential question for open data is whether it is being used beyond the Ben Wellingtons and Noel Hidalgos of the world. In other words, are community activists and those without advanced data science training using the city data?

Juan Camilo Osorio, Director of Research at the NYC Environmental Justice Alliance (NYC-EJA), says, like Hidalgo, that a cultural shift is necessary to understand the capacity for individuals to be involved in an open data ecosystem. Osorio wants to challenge the model that community organizations function only for public outreach. “These organizations are part of community-based planning and can do research provided with the right technical and financial resources,” he said.

Osorio thinks the open data portal has great potential to be used by community organizers - not just computer programmers or data analysts.

Moreover, he believes the city has a bigger responsibility beyond publishing information on the portal: “It’s not just about opening access, [in order to use it] you still have to know what is the right agency that would have the data you need and then you will also need to have the basic capacity to process that data. The city should going a few steps further providing the tools and training to learn how to work with that information.”

City Council Member Ben Kallos, a software developer and long-time advocate for government transparency who now chairs the Council’s governmental operations committee, agrees that free trainings should be offered for New Yorkers interested in learning how to use the open data portal. He suggests partnering with the city’s three public library systems (New York Public Library, Brooklyn Public Library and Queens Public Library) to train librarians who can teach patrons to use the open data portal as a research resource. Featuring the open data portal on library websites and other logical online research centers would be helpful in expanding usership and public awareness.

Kallos acknowledged that New Yorkers must have basic access in order to use the open data portal.

“I want to make sure that every low-income New Yorker has access to free and affordable broadband and low-cost computers. That would mean everyone in NYCHA should have free broadband and that anyone who is low-income should have an affordable internet plan,” Kallos told Gotham Gazette. “In order to have a modern government, we need to make sure that everyone can connect.”

Dr. Mashariki, of the Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics, certainly sees the portal as a long-term work in progress. “There’s no day I foresee where we stop and say you know, the portal is perfect and it’s at its most usable and we’ve expanded to it the point where we can’t expand it anymore,” he said. “This is always going to be a strategy that we’re going to have to adapt and adopt as needed to ensure new uses and new capabilities.”

***
by Kaela Sanborn-Hum for Gotham Gazette
@GothamGazette



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