NYC PIT Pop Up: CUNY Open Data Takeover Day Four

As part of NYC Open Data Week 2026, the CUNY Public Interest Technology (PIT) Lab will host a week-long Open Data Takeover of the NYC PIT Pop-Up at the Oculus / World Trade Center. The activation advances Open Data Week’s goals of accessibility, civic learning, and practical use of open data by bringing open data projects into a highly visible, public-facing space. Attendees can drop in at any time during the hours below for a demonstration of the tool and to speak with the presenter. Most of the demos will also be streamed live from the Pop-Up on its Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/cunypitlab). Inside the Oculus, the Pop-Up is located on the Main Floor C2, in the South Concourse, at Shop #53 (next to M.A.C. Cosmetics). View the full PIT Lab schedule. No RSVP needed, just stop by!

[2pm-6pm]
Masaru Kakutani – From Data to Action: Addressing NYC Winter Heating Complaints with Data Visualization
I want to show how anyone interested in actionable policy can, with the help of generative AI, quickly create convincing stories. This demonstration is designed to help anyone who is interested in generating clear policy suggestions using NYC Data. A standard generative AI will assist in developing policy suggestions, but the template ensures that the AI provides only support, not direction or guidance, for those interested in creating policies.

Lisa Mae Fielder – MTA Performance Metrics
The MTA’s dashboard, metrics.mta.info, which is built entirely off of open data, is going through a major redesign in 2026. We’d like to collect user feedback to better understand features and visuals that the civic tech community would want.

Michael Freedman – crashcount.nyc: an open data tool for safe-streets advocacy
Crashcount.nyc is a public, open-data–driven tool that uses NYC Open Data and AI to document and contextualize traffic crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists, with the goal of supporting safer-streets advocacy at the neighborhood and district level. This session will demonstrate how publicly available NYC datasets—particularly traffic crash data—can be transformed into clear, actionable narratives that help communities understand where traffic violence is increasing and how it relates to policy decisions, street design, and enforcement. The presentation will walk through the structure of Crashcount.nyc, the datasets it relies on, and the design decisions behind presenting complex data in a way that is usable by advocates, journalists, and community members without technical backgrounds.