About This Site

What Is This?

OpenBorough is a free, community-built resource for residents across all 51 NYC Council districts. It brings together public information — legislation, construction activity, new businesses, transit alerts, local services, and representative contacts — into one accessible place.

This is not an official NYC government website. This is an independent project intended to make civic information easier to find and understand for all NYC residents, including those who speak Spanish, Haitian Creole, or Bengali.

What It Does

• Tracks legislation introduced or voted on by Council Member Rita Joseph and the full NYC Council, sourced directly from the city's Legistar system
• Generates plain-language AI summaries of legislation so residents can understand what bills actually do without reading dense legal text
• Translates content into Spanish, Haitian Creole, and Bengali to reach more of the community
• Shows active construction permits and new business licenses in the neighborhood, pulled from NYC Open Data, so residents can see what's changing on their block
• Surfaces land use and zoning applications that could affect the neighborhood
• Surfaces real-time MTA transit alerts for subway and bus lines serving District 40
• Provides a directory of local representatives, city services, and community resources

AI-Generated Content

Legislation summaries and translations are generated using Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic. These are provided as a convenience to help residents understand complex legislation — they are not official interpretations and may contain inaccuracies. Always verify important information through the NYC Council Legistar system or by contacting your council member's office directly.

A Note on Translations

Page translations (Spanish, Haitian Creole, Bengali) are AI-generated and have not been fully reviewed by native speakers. They are intended to provide general accessibility, not as certified translations. For matters involving legal rights, benefits eligibility, or health decisions, please seek assistance from a qualified interpreter or the organizations listed on the Resources page. Resources.

Who Built This

Devonte is a software engineer from Brooklyn, and a graduate of The Marcy Lab School. He built OpenBorough as a civic resource for all New Yorkers — with the belief that civic information should be accessible to everyone, regardless of language or technical background.

Privacy

This site does not collect personal information, require account creation, or track individual users. Language preference is stored locally in your browser and never sent to any server.

Contact & Feedback

To report an error, suggest a resource, or get in touch, please reach out through the GitHub issue tracker .