An encyclopedia for NYC's data landscape

Get up to speed on NYC civic data in hours, not weeks.

NYC government is 50+ agencies, overlapping jurisdictions, and knowledge that often lives in people's heads. This is a curated map of its data landscape — what exists, whether it's usable, how to access it, and how the decisions get made.

Pick a civic problem ↓ Browse the Directory

Annotated, not just linkedWhat it is · best for · watch out for · what the data looks like.

Data-landscape firstEvery source flags API / bulk / web-only and official vs. independent.

Shows sources in usePlaybooks walk you from a real question through the sources, step by step.

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What do you want to do?

Pick a civic problem and get a shortlist of 3–5 annotated sources — enough to know where to look, even on your first day. Each shortlist is copyable straight into a hackathon README.

This problem picker needs JavaScript. You can still browse every source on the Directory and the concepts in The Lay of the Land.

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How this guide is built

A directory that teaches

The Lay of the Land →Plain-language entries that teach who owns what and how a decision actually moves. The Directory →The curated source catalog — annotated and filterable by category, official vs. independent, and data access. Playbooks →Four worked scenarios that show the sources used together, step by step.

Every source here is hand-checked: descriptions were researched and accurate as of June 2026, and each link was verified to load before the guide went live. Fast-changing details — officeholders, dollar figures, bill numbers — are deliberately left out so the guide stays accurate over time. Anything we couldn't confirm is clearly flagged, not guessed.