Experts, Agencies Suggest NYC Open Data Law Lacks Resources

Six years ago, the City Council passed the Open Data Law. The groundbreaking legislation was meant to give the public access to an unprecedented amount of information — everything from taxi trip data to construction permits — by forcing city agencies to publish it on the web. 

Since then, the city has released regular updates on the progress of the law's implementation. While the most recent report, released last week, touted innovations in things like using data to improve street closures and geospatial data in emergency services, it also showed the city has a ways to go before making all of its data easily accessible to the public.

A WNYC analysis determined agencies have missed the deadline for 67 data sets, some of which won't be published until next year. They range from the comptroller's office record of how much cash New York City has on hand to Human Resources Administration stats on participation in the federal supplemental nutrition assistance program.

Those delays are problematic, according to Noel Hidalgo, the executive director of Beta NYC, a nonprofit devoted to promoting civic applications of technology, especially in a society that is always online.

"In New York, over 95 percent of adult New Yorkers are connected to the Internet at all times," he said.

The reasons some of the agencies gave for the delays suggest they don't have enough employees devoted to the initiative. The city's Law Department said "the staff that handles this system is thin and already over committed." The health department blamed a "lack of resources and being understaffed."

What the annual report doesn't say is that the Mayor's Office of Data Analytics, which is tasked with overseeing the Open Data project, has been without a leader since the city’s chief analytics officer departed for the private sector in May of 2017.

Experts say that has added to the city's challenge of posting data online.

"Of course, it has to," said Reinvent Albany Executive Director John Kaehny, who helped draft the Open Data Law. "If they don't fill that position and start accelerating, the de Blasio Administration risks squandering a fabulous legacy here."

A spokesperson for the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications declined to comment on staffing issues, but noted the city is "proud of our open data team's progress."