NYC Film Permits API

A Flask API for querying NYC film permit data from NYC Open Data.

Setup

pip install -r requirements.txt
python app.py

The server runs at http://127.0.0.1:5000.

Endpoints

List permits

GET /permits

Returns all film permits. Supports filtering, pagination, and output format selection.

Parameters:

Parameter	Type	Description
format	string	Output format: json (default) or csv
limit	int	Maximum number of records to return
offset	int	Number of records to skip (default: 0)
Borough	string	Filter by borough (e.g., Manhattan, Brooklyn)
Category	string	Filter by category (e.g., Television, Theater, Film)
EventType	string	Filter by event type (e.g., Shooting Permit, Theater Load in and Load Outs)
Country	string	Filter by country
Any other column	string	Filter by any column in the dataset

Example requests:

GET /permits?limit=3
GET /permits?Borough=Manhattan&limit=5
GET /permits?Category=Television&format=csv
GET /permits?limit=10&offset=20
GET /permits?Borough=Brooklyn&Category=Film&limit=3

Sample JSON output:

[
  {
    "EventID": 740992,
    "EventType": "Theater Load in and Load Outs",
    "StartDateTime": "09/21/2023 12:01:00 PM",
    "EndDateTime": "09/23/2023 06:00:00 AM",
    "EnteredOn": "09/15/2023 03:47:05 PM",
    "EventAgency": "Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment",
    "ParkingHeld": "FROST STREET between DEBEVOISE AVENUE and MORGAN AVENUE",
    "Borough": "Brooklyn",
    "CommunityBoard(s)": "1,",
    "PolicePrecinct(s)": "94,",
    "Category": "Theater",
    "SubCategoryName": "Theater",
    "Country": "United States of America",
    "ZipCode(s)": "11222,"
  }
]

Sample CSV output (?format=csv&limit=2):

EventID,EventType,StartDateTime,EndDateTime,EnteredOn,EventAgency,ParkingHeld,Borough,CommunityBoard(s),PolicePrecinct(s),Category,SubCategoryName,Country,ZipCode(s)
740992,Theater Load in and Load Outs,09/21/2023 12:01:00 PM,09/23/2023 06:00:00 AM,...,Brooklyn,1,,94,,Theater,Theater,...
850643,Theater Load in and Load Outs,04/24/2025 12:01:00 PM,04/25/2025 06:00:00 AM,...,Manhattan,3,,9,,Theater,Theater,...

Get a single permit

GET /permits/<EventID>

Returns a single permit by its unique EventID.

Example:

GET /permits/740992

Sample output:

[
  {
    "EventID": 740992,
    "EventType": "Theater Load in and Load Outs",
    "StartDateTime": "09/21/2023 12:01:00 PM",
    "Borough": "Brooklyn",
    "Category": "Theater",
    "SubCategoryName": "Theater"
  }
]

Returns a 404 error if the permit is not found:

{ "error": "Permit not found" }

List columns

GET /columns

Returns all available column names that can be used for filtering.

Sample output:

{
  "columns": [
    "EventID",
    "EventType",
    "StartDateTime",
    "EndDateTime",
    "EnteredOn",
    "EventAgency",
    "ParkingHeld",
    "Borough",
    "CommunityBoard(s)",
    "PolicePrecinct(s)",
    "Category",
    "SubCategoryName",
    "Country",
    "ZipCode(s)"
  ]
}

Dataset statistics

GET /stats

Returns basic statistics about the dataset.

Sample output:

{
  "total_records": 16290,
  "columns": ["EventID", "EventType", "..."],
  "boroughs": ["Brooklyn", "Manhattan", "Queens", "Bronx", "Staten Island"],
  "categories": ["Theater", "Television", "Film", "Documentary", "..."]
}

Data Source

Film Permits dataset from NYC Open Data, provided by the Mayor's Office of Media & Entertainment.

Acknowledgments

We used AI (Claude by Anthropic) to assist with the development of this API and documentation.