Tokyo's public toilet system is clean, modern, and accessible. @joemcreynolds.bsky.social breaks down how the Japanese city maintains high standards and what New York can learn from their approach. www.vitalcitynyc.org/how-tokyo-bu...
Vital City just launched Data Explorer — 30 years of New York City crime data in one place. Compare neighborhoods. Track trends. See what's actually happening where you live.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/explorer/
How can police departments showcase their work to build trust?
A perspective in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social from @brandondelpozo.bsky.social, CCJ member and former Burlington police chief, on the legitimacy of police in the context of recent ICE-related incidents: www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/min...
Sign up to receive regular updates from us: vitalcitynyc.org#/portal
And don't miss out on our new crime data explorer, where you can waste hours parsing New York City public safety trends every which way.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/explorer/
Vital City's spiffy new website is live. It's much easier to search and navigate than our old one, and hopefully still pretty and pleasant to read.
Everything on it is free, but you can/should still become a member to get our free weekly updates. www.vitalcitynyc.org
With a multibillion-dollar budget gap, what should Mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social prioritize? This essay argues for an “abundance agenda” to make it faster and cheaper for the city to build housing and deliver services.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/what-can-mam...
A new analysis of 311 data shows Staten Island filed more snow complaints than any other borough — while the Bronx led the city in reports of buildings without heat.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/snow-complai...
Excited to announce a new report, by the Center for Building in North America and @cmiflin.bsky.social's Center for Zero Waste Design – on the high cost of waste handling in New York City! Article in Vital City below on it, full report here: centerforzerowastedesign.org/all/advocacy...
Trash removal costs New York apartment buildings about $75 per unit per month. How should the city rethink how it handles waste? @stephenjacobsmith.com has some ideas 💡⬇️
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/nyc...
Back on the blizzard beat in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social this week, talking about what operational lessons this harsh and historic winter can teach @mayor.nyc.gov that will prove incredibly useful down the road.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mam...
New York’s brutal winter storms gave Mayor @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social an early test in office. How do you think he performed?
@johnsurico.bsky.social has thoughts. Drop yours in the comments ⬇️
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mam...
What if cities measured safety not just by crime stats, but by whether people actually feel safe? Gloria Gong urges @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social to move beyond CompStat and test a new “Felt Safety Index.”
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/com...
The public safety picture in NYC isn’t uniformly rosy — shootings are down, but assaults remain stubborn. We asked
@nypd.bsky.social's Michael LiPetri what the data show, what they don’t and where strategy may shift under Commissioner Tisch and Mayor
@zohrankmamdani.bsky.social bit.ly/3MOrav5
"Successes from prevention are statistical rather than personal." Nice article from @johnkroman.bsky.social on violence prevention and its challenges in the US
What drove the nationwide crime decline of 2025? @johnkroman.bsky.social argues that large-scale prevention investments — funded through pandemic recovery dollars — helped drive the drop and that future gains require thinking beyond policing alone.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how...
Greg Berman: "Still, for all its limitations, I would much prefer to live in the world that @jenniferdoleac.bsky.social imagines, where evidence-based policymaking is the norm, rather than the alternative. In general, anecdotes and ideology are good for storytelling but bad for policy."
A 911 call dispatcher working in front of five open screens. CC By 2.0. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143513894@N04/27188584211
Police departments nationwide are racing to adopt AI.
Yet the NYPD hasn't permanently adopted a new AI tool since 2016.*
That stagnation is a choice. And it's NYC's most vulnerable residents who pay the price.
In @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social this week, I lay out a better path forward. (Link below)
Pretty amazing map of New York City. Click on just about any location for a street level view from the 1940s. 1940s.nyc/map#14.16/40...
New York City’s gun violence and homicides are way down. But overall major crime remains high. Marcos Soler examines why the city’s crime trends diverge from national declines and what it will take to return to pre-pandemic lows. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/new...
New York City made progress on public safety in 2025. Shootings and murders fell to historic lows, and most major crime categories declined compared to the year prior. These improvements reflect gains in the city’s most serious forms of violence. Via @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social
Fascinating visualization of #NYC #crime data which I think demonstrates/reaffirms 3 ideas: progress—whether in policy reform or policy implementation—isn't linear; societal/environmental factors (e.g. the pandemic) really matter; & there's steady forward momentum in strengthening community #safety.
Liz Glazer: "Now comes the hard reality of governance. How does Mamdani turn these vague inclinations into a concrete plan? What role will the police play in all of this? And perhaps most important, who in the administration is responsible for public safety?" www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/mam...
More charts and analysis in our annual crime report: www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/cri...
Watch this horserace-style animation tracking more than 30 years of New York City crime data. See the blue bar for auto thefts shrink and shrink over time, and follow the yellow bar for felony assaults as it grows in recent years.
New York City made progress on public safety in 2025. Shootings and murders fell to historic lows. But it is not good news across the board. Our latest annual crime report finds a complex public safety picture in New York City.
Read: www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/cri...
My piece in @vitalcitynyc.bsky.social offers solutions for impunity in both contexts.
For street crime, we must boost clearance rates, and Utah & PA are considering grant programs for this purpose. This does more to reduce crime than longer sentences.
1/2
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/ice...
Building upon the end-of-year crime report, @johnjayrec.bsky.social's Marcos Soler emphasizes that while New York City has since reached historic lows in gun violence and homicide, it has failed to reduce overall crime. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/new...
.@norc.org's John Roman asks why 2025 was, in fact, such a banner year. He argues that the nationwide crime decline was not driven by changes in policing or incarceration but by large-scale federal investments in prevention. www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/how...
What happened to crime in 2025? @abgelb.bsky.social and @dralexpiquero.bsky.social of @counciloncj.org set the stage by identifying what they see as the five most important crime and justice developments of the year.
www.vitalcitynyc.org/articles/big...
