Birthdays & Weddings
NYC's Open Data meets Human Information Interaction
2023
Independent Project
How people chose to interact after the start of the pandemic, their relationship with socialization, and non-work-related mobility, combined with NYC’s Open Data dataset on birthdays and weddings made for an interesting and compelling investigation.
Through this study, themes of an impending economic downturn, serious privacy concerns for children, and public health emerged.
Once upon a time, in the summer of '23...
I attended a class on Human Information Interaction led by Dr Irene Lopatovska. For this course, we were required to write a paper that helped us understand people's relationship with information. Due to the course's short duration, and ethical considerations around the collection of primary data, I felt it was best to rely on secondary data that was publicly available. I came across NYC's Open Data Initiative and its data on permitted events in public spaces. These events included, amongst other things, birthdays & weddings. The data set is from all five boroughs (Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx & Staten Island). To limit the scope of analysis, I chose to focus on weddings and birthdays, from January 2021 - June 12, 2023, to examine the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
But wait, why birthdays & weddings?
Well put simply, birthdays and weddings tend to be celebratory and I thought against the backdrop of the pandemic, it would be interesting to take a look at these events while people dealt with the collective trauma of the event.
What is a permitted event anyway?
In New York City, any event that has more than 20 people gathering in a space requires a special event permit. This permit is granted after an online application is submitted along with a $25 fee. The civic authorities take a minimum of 21 days to approve the permit. If you're trying to have a gathering at the Central Park Lawn, the authorities take a minimum of 60 days to approve the permit. Given the processing timelines, it was interesting to see how people prioritized celebrations in the face of uncertainty — especially since COVID-19 infection rates kept fluctuating.
The Relevance of NYC Open Data
The data made available through NYC Open Data contains brackets of geographic information (addresses of parks etc.) and social data (statistics on economics, employment, health, population, and public administration). This project, a study of this data and its analysis has been made possible only because of this initiative. Open data can be used to make people understand what the government does, its performance, efficacy and can work as a measure of accountability. In addition to this, it brings in transparency, public participation, collaboration and increases the awareness of government initiatives.
The Big Assumption
Before delving into the actual data, my big assumption was that the civic authorities approved more events over time because people got more comfortable with the pandemic. This would then automatically lead to more events but Open Data had another story to tell...
What Open Data has to say
Contrary to what I had assumed, the data shows that from January 01, 2021, to June 12, 2023, the number of events (weddings and birthdays) dipped. This is despite the fact that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recommended, in 2021, that for those who are eligible to get vaccinated, gatherings held outside are safer. Despite high vaccination numbers in 2021, the data shows that people were reluctant to celebrate weddings and birthdays over time. Even at the half-year mark for each of the years, the number of permitted events in 2023 is much lower than those that had taken place by mid-2021 and mid-2022, respectively. Unsurprisingly, the warmer months of June, July and August show an increased number of events. In terms of boroughs, Brooklyn leads the pack with the most number of events, followed by Staten Island, Manhattan, The Bronx & Queens respectively.
Larger Themes Emerging
Impending Economic Downturn
An analysis of this data reflects a downward trend in birthdays and weddings which may be affected due to an economic recession predicted for the latter half of 2023 or May 2024.
Previously, a study has shown that fewer people tend to get married as an “adaptive response” to an economic downturn. Even if the correlation between marriages and the economy seems incredulous, the dip in the number of weddings may be due to an increase in cohabitation rates. In the case of birthdays, people are presumably preparing for a recession and spending less, in the short term, on account of pessimism about the economy.
While an impending economic downturn might be the more obvious reason behind people's limited participation in birthdays and weddings, other aspects of people's behaviour had to be examined. For instance, reduced events meant reduced social interactions. This can affect the well-being of people residing in an area (more on this later). In the absence of or lower incidences of celebrations, urban green spaces can reinforce positive social interactions through multiple interventions: an open park design to encourage active recreational activities, sidewalks, better access to parks through quality transportation facilities, shaded areas for relaxing environments, functional playgrounds, and the number of organized activities.
Interestingly, a study on parks and people in Ottawa, Ontario revealed that its participants placed more emphasis on inclusive (free of charge) social events and the ability to interact with people at the park than on its aesthetic value. This finding confirms that beautification does have its value but resources to support free community events in public spaces are equally important for feeling included, especially among marginalized populations. Similarly, for NYC parks — organizing free events or removing the permit application fee could help increase social interactions among communities.
Privacy Concerns
Despite the application form not requiring the name of the parties (people getting married or having birthdays), several entries contain identifiers such as first names, last names, full names, or ages. This could be on account of people choosing to mention these details despite no clear compulsion to do so or because of event organizers who are filling out the application. Sometimes, even personally identifiable information such as names and ages of minors are made available. For example, in the image below, one can see details of “Jacobs first birthday party” that took place on May 21, 2023 or "Aiden's 3rd Birthday".
Right after, you can see an event that at the time of writing this paper was yet to happen on July 29, 2023 — “Julieta’s One year old Birthday party” at Fort Tryon Park: Abbys Lawn in Manhattan OR "Damian 2nd Birthday Party" at Juniper Valley Park, Picnic Area No. 03 in Queens.
A look through the application process below shows that there is no explicit statement that conveys that the data in the application will be collected and displayed publicly. There are no terms and conditions to sign up to. This is despite the fact that filling up the application generates data – whether given by parents on behalf of their children, observable from digital datasets such as these, or inferred by others, whether human or algorithmic.
The Terms of Use on the NYC Parks website state that to understand how the city uses the information, one would have to take a look at the Privacy Policy (hyperlinked) and the Terms of Use for the NYC.ID application (not hyperlinked). The Privacy Policy states that any information submitted can be used by the city for governmental purposes. This list of governmental purposes is not exhaustive. This is evident through the phrasing “may include, but are not limited to”. This means data can be collected to fulfill the mandate of the Open Data initiative but it’s not expressly communicated to users via the Privacy Policy. It also mentions that users of NYC.gov and the Parks website should be made aware that personally identifiable information submitted by a minor will be treated as if an adult has given it.
However, there is no mention of what the consequences are when:
-
adults key in personally identifiable information about children; and
-
how the city might publish this information through their Open Data initiative.
Data controllers must be able to show that their processing of personal data accounts for the data’s subjects themselves giving consent for the data to be processed for a specified purpose such as NYC Open Data. Since minors lack the capacity to give consent, data controllers should consider some of the larger directives under the federal law, Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). While COPPA works to let parents control what information is collected from their children online, some of these guideposts can help with making Open Data and their disclosures less of a privacy concern, for instance:
-
Giving parents the choice of consenting to NYC Open Data's / NYC Parks collection and internal use of a child’s information. If they need to disclose these details due to the Open Data charter, then they need to let the parents know beforehand;
-
Providing parents access to their child's personal information to review and/or have the information deleted;
-
Giving parents the opportunity to prevent further use or online collection of a child's personal information; AND
-
Retaining personal information collected online from a child or parent for only as long as is necessary (like getting a permit for an event) and deleting the information to prevent its unauthorized access or use.
Public Health
As I mentioned before, these numbers about a dip in the number of events bring up questions about social interaction and the pandemic. For humans, social interaction is a critically important contributor to good health and longevity. Of course, the downward trend doesn’t necessarily indicate that people were socially isolated all the time but only that milestone events such as weddings and birthdays in open spaces had reduced. But does this decrease in birthdays and weddings in public spaces indicative of increased social isolation on the whole? I couldn't find a direct correlation confirming this hunch but there is merit in looking into studies on whether decreased socialization can impact people’s health.
Decreased socialization has been proven to have an impact on long-term health. Low quantity or quality of social ties has been linked to the “development and worsening of cardiovascular disease, repeat heart attacks, autoimmune disorders, high blood pressure, cancer and slowed wound healing”. The study also confirmed that adults who are more socially connected are healthier and live longer than their more isolated peers. Another study has found that the adverse effects of physical distancing and social deprivation might be particularly profound for adolescents (aged 10–24 years).
There is a study to suggest that in neighbourhoods where periodic markets are held in venues with green spaces, socialization was significantly greater than in neighborhoods with no green spaces. This socialization took the form of neighbours getting acquainted with each other, cooperating and developing a sense of belonging. While New York has been fortunate enough to have periodic food stalls and farmer’s markets around green spaces, the distribution of green spaces and access to them is not equitable across neighbourhoods and demographics.
The Trust for Public Land found that the average park size was 7.9 acres in predominantly Black neighborhoods, leaving residents with less space compared with largely white areas, where the average was 29.8 acres. Another metric to consider is park access. Park access is the amount of functional park acreage available to a resident within a 10-minute walk. While each borough has at least one zip code that has made it to the lower rungs of park accessibility, the neighbourhoods of Elmhurst and Jackson Heights in Queens appear to be adversely affected.
Speaking of neighbourhoods, it’s also imperative to take into consideration the distribution of events across boroughs and venues. Per the Open Data released, Brooklyn and Prospect Park emerged as the busiest boroughs and venues for weddings and birthdays over the years, followed by Staten Island and Pelham Bay Park, respectively. This of course, puts a disproportionate amount of pressure on park authorities and resources operating in these neighbourhoods and venues.
NYC might consider:
-
A city-wide policy that focuses on socialization as a cost-effective strategy for improving health and well-being at the population level. This could be through more inclusive organized activities in neighbourhoods. An argument is to be made for these policies as they can strengthen and support individuals’ social ties and enhance the health of others connected to those individuals. For example, better health of a married person may benefit the health of their partner and their children.
-
In the context of Prospect Park, the city built two new entrances to connect directly with lower-income communities along its eastern edge, including Flatbush and Crown Heights. This was done to reassure neighbourhoods about their accessibility to the park despite a significant increase in gentrification. Similar endeavours under the Parks Without Borders initiative might increase social interaction within other venues and help improve the overall health of the people residing in those neighbourhoods.
The Final Word
NYC Open Data provides open access to geographic and social data, to further governmental transparency, public participation, and collaboration. These datasets can be studied further to help understand — amongst other things, the implications of socialization, access to green spaces on health and well-being. However, mentions of personally identifiable information and lack of data protection, specifically in the case of children, can jeopardize their safety and the well-intentioned objectives of the open data movement. Balancing these interests is crucial for sustaining access to data about public services and in turn, bringing transparency to government functioning.