What a POPS is

Since 1961, New York's zoning has let developers build bigger in exchange for providing outdoor or indoor space for public enjoyment. There are 392 such spaces in the city dataset this map is built from — plazas, arcades, atriums, through-block connections, sidewalk widenings. Each one carries specific legal requirements: how big it must be, what hours it must be open, and what amenities must be there.

Those requirements are written into the building's approvals. They are public record. Every space on this map links straight to its profile, site plan and recitation of legal obligations.

What you're entitled to

• Access during the required hours. Most spaces are required to stay open 24 hours. Others have restricted hours, which must be posted.
• A plaque or sign. A POPS is required to be identified as public space, with its hours and required amenities stated. A missing sign is itself a violation — and it's the most common way spaces stay quietly unused.
• The amenities on the list. Seating, tables, lighting, planting, litter receptacles, drinking fountains, bicycle parking, restrooms — whatever that particular space was required to provide. Removed seating is a violation, not a redesign.
• To be there without explaining yourself. You do not need to be a customer, a tenant, or a guest. You do not need a reason.

If you're told to leave

1. Stay calm and don't escalate. The guard is usually working from instructions, not from the zoning resolution.
2. Open the space's legal profile from its page on this map. It states the required hours and amenities in plain language, with the site plan. Showing a document changes the conversation.
3. Photograph what you can. The plaque (or the place the plaque should be), any posted hours, locked gates, roped-off seating. Note the exact time.
4. Leave if you're made to. Your safety is worth more than the point. Then file — that's what actually changes the space.

Filing a complaint

POPS complaints go to the Department of Buildings, through NYC311. DOB will act on a narrow list:

• The space is poorly maintained
• It isn't open to the public during its posted hours
• Required amenities are missing or damaged

DOB is not able to take complaints about other conditions at a POPS. Being asked to leave by staff, on its own, is not one of the categories they act on — so report it here as well, where it counts toward the public record even when the city won't take it.

Include, if you can

• The times posted at the space
• Whether it was locked during those posted times
• Whether there's a fence or gate around it
• Which features are missing or damaged
• The address and POPS number — both are on every space's page

File with 311

Each space's page has a Copy complaint details button that puts the address, POPS number, required hours and required amenities on your clipboard, ready to paste into the 311 form.

Documenting well

• Timestamp everything. A photo of a locked gate only proves a violation if you can show it was taken during required hours. Leave the camera's date on.
• Photograph the plaque and the obstruction in one frame where you can. It ties the posted hours to the condition.
• Go back. One locked afternoon is an anecdote. The same gate locked three times is a pattern, and a pattern is what moves an inspection.
• Write down what was said, as close to verbatim as you can manage, and when.

How this map marks contested spaces

A space is flagged contested once it has 3 or more confirmed reports in the last 24 months. Every report is reviewed before it publishes, and the full incident log is shown on the space's page — the badge is never a black box.

On the map, contested spaces carry a second ring around the pin.

Where this data comes from

The official record — locations, required hours, required amenities, size, accessibility — is the New York City Department of City Planning's POPS dataset, published as open data. It describes what owners are obligated to provide. It does not describe what is actually there on any given day.

Everything under Reported by visitors comes from people standing in the space, and is reviewed before publishing. Wi-Fi, outlets, restroom access and real opening hours exist nowhere in the city's data — that gap is the reason this tool exists.

NYC Open Data — POPS dataset Department of City Planning — POPS APOPS|MAS — profiles and site plans