About

DOB NOW publishes a current_status_date field on each sidewalk shed permit, which updates whenever DOB processes a renewal, owner change, or status reclassification. we use the days since that date as a proxy for permit-renewal activity:

• Compliant. Status updated within the last 90 days (within the LL48 permit term).
• Active repair. Updated within the last 30 days.
• Overdue. No status update in 90 to 180 days. The 90-day permit term has elapsed without a recorded renewal.
• Lapsed. No status update in 180+ days. Two missed renewal cycles. This is about the permit, not the physical shed; the shed may very well still be up.

owner names come from MapPLUTO, the city tax-roll dataset, joined to each shed by its BBL (borough, block, lot). DOB’s own “owner business name” field is filled in by the permit filer and is often the scaffolding contractor rather than the property owner, so we do not use it. where PLUTO has no record we fall back to whatever DOB stored, but those entries are excluded from the Top Owners ranking.

DOB does not track physical presence directly. a permit can stay open in DOB long after the shed comes down if no Letter of Completion is filed. each shed page shows a five-bucket physical-status estimate that combines public signals with what neighbors report.

Public-data heuristic. the strongest signal is a NYC 311 shed/scaffold complaint at the address. that is direct evidence the shed was observed by a real person. a 311 complaint within 90 days pushes a shed into confirmed standing. within 180 days it stays likely standing. DOB inspections at the building are surfaced as informational context only; inspections are not necessarily about the shed (could be boiler, plumbing, structural), so they do not feed the score. when a newer shed permit exists at the same building (BIN), the older permit is treated as superseded: abandoned paperwork rather than physical removal, since the shed is almost always still up under the newer permit number. a permit only falls to long inactive if it has very stale paperwork (5+ years untouched) AND zero positive signals AND is not superseded. sheds without strong signals in either direction default to status uncertain.

Crowdsourced confirmation. every shed page has “I see it now” and “It is gone” buttons. votes from a phone within 200 meters of the shed (with location permission granted) carry full weight. votes without coordinates count for less so a remote actor cannot brigade a single record. each IP can vote on a given shed once per hour. these reports stack on top of the public-data heuristic and are summarized on the shed page so anyone reading can see how recent and how local the confirmations are.