Assigned Agency
Department of Buildings (DOB)
Request
DOB ECB Violations Data. The data is currently already available, however the violation descriptions are capped at 500 characters. I am requesting a data set with the full description. Specifically, I am interested in following Section_Law_Descriptions_1: 28-210, as well as 28-218, and 28-205, however I can filter it myself if I am able to receive a complete dataset..
I'm a student at Cornell, trying to study illegal over-occupancy in NYC. I am interested in text-mining the description data to understand how buildings are being altered.
Response
Hi ,
Your request to increase the character limit on the Violation Description in our DOB ECB Violations dataset has been noted. We will review the request and add it to our queue, but please note that if the request is approved, it will not happen very soon.
Instead, I suggest two options:
Look at our DOB Complaints Received instead. We use complaints to track our enforcement inspections, so anything that resulted in an ECB Violation should be in that dataset as well. I think you are interested in what we call "Illegal Conversion" so you should filter the dataset for Complaint Categories 45 and 71.
If you would still rather use ECB data, you can submit a FOIL request for the open data dataset with full Violation Descriptions. You will likely get the data faster that way.
Thank you,
- NYC Department of Buildings (DOB)
Request Status
Closed: On Time
Submission Date
2018-10-01T00:00:00.000
Legislated Due Date
2018-11-30T00:00:00.000
Date Request Closed
2018-10-02T00:00:00.000
Data As Of Date
2026-10-02T00:00:00.000