iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 30/04/2025

Today's newsletter is a special edition organizing themes, arguments, and proposals from the commission's hearings with links to testimony. You can read it here: buttondown.com/citymeetings...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 30/03/2025

Brooklyn Botanic Gardens is starting to enter its prime!

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 24/03/2025

citymeetings #32 is out! I trawled ~50 hours of meetings to find discussions regarding changes to federal funding and policy across every prelim budget hearing last week. You can read it here: buttondown.com/citymeetings...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 24/03/2025

A special issue of citymeetings #32 goes out at 11 AM Eastern. I trawled ~50 hours of budget hearings last week and compiled a survey of discussions where changes to federal funding or policy came up at every budget hearing last week. You can subscribe on citymeetings DOT nyc.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 18/03/2025

Unlimited pastries for DEP's commissioner.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 15/03/2025

Been reworking my speaker identification tooling and sometimes language models will assign incredible roles to people.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 14/03/2025

Education hearing from yesterday is up now -- the video was made available late last night.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 10/03/2025

citymeeting #31 went out a few minutes ago! Notably -- - I'm talking at School of Data on March 29th. - I used tools to find federal funding cut discussions from 30 hours of budget hearings. - Highlights on the Queens Future casino proposal. Read the issue here: buttondown.com/citymeetings...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 04/03/2025

FYI: Hyacinths are starting to bloom, which means the best-smelling flower in existence will be carpeting the fragrance garden at Brooklyn Botanic soon.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 03/03/2025

citymeetings #30 is out! Notably: - I'm hiring a part-time intern to help me publish meetings using my tools. - If you're at Stanford or Columbia and interested in applying for the Magic Grant -- I'd love to chat. Read it here: buttondown.com/citymeetings...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 26/02/2025

Happy birthday citymeetings.nyc!

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 25/02/2025

Also notably: 1. citymeetings turns 1 year old this week! 2. My mug appeared in Who's Who in Emerging Tech in City & State yesterday. (Yes, the photo was taken in front of the wall of the McGolrick park bathroom.)

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 21/02/2025

I think Today in Gay wins the award for first citymeetings.nyc mention in a podcast, mentioning the committee vote to designate January 31 as Cecilia Gentili Day. I love to see it. One of the underrated things about actually-transparent meetings is that they amplify real, on-the-ground advocacy.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 19/02/2025

In case you need convincing to read this.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 17/02/2025

citymeetings #28 went out this morning! Read the issue here: buttondown.com/citymeetings... Subscribe on citymeetings.nyc.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 03/02/2025

citymeetings issue #27 is hot off the presses! The NYC council budget hearings begin in March. If you want to follow them, citymeetings will publish breakdowns same-day. I'm also building a professional offering if you need advanced research/alerts. buttondown.com/citymeetings...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 31/01/2025

A fun little aside from Jumaane Williams at the DOE hearing today.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 27/01/2025

Just for fun, here are two recent updates to NYC Council's A/V work: - Last year one of the chambers introduced a new camera angle (screenshot shown). - All the video this year has more saturated color. I like it. Apparently they replaced all the cameras.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 22/01/2025

The Mayor’s Community Affairs Unit really milking this event that happened on the 18th for this week’s newsletter.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 19/12/2024

Paperboy Love Prince, former mayoral candidate, gave testimony at a Committee on Finance vote this morning. Face painted, he began his testimony with a big cackle.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 17/12/2024

I do enjoy it when my tools extract idiosyncratic moments in council meetings. It's my preference, but it's hard to instruct AI to do it because it'll over-index on it.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 17/12/2024

citymeetings #23 has arrived! It's a ~weekly newsletter with bullet-point context, claims, and stories from NYC Council meetings. A fun little way to hear about what the city is up to and stay tuned to what I'm building for citymeetings.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 13/12/2024

One person's DOH violation is another's secret sauce.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 13/12/2024

That's why the bagels were so good: the New York City water mixed with whatever happened to be on an exposed surface.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 11/12/2024

Been hoping and waiting for a citymeetings citation by @hellgatenyc.com, a publication I subscribe to and enjoy.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 25/11/2024

The newsletter covers highlights via bullet points, like this. It's a fun read for casual observers and a resource for professionals whose job it is to to stay tuned. You can subscribe citymeetings.nyc.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 17/11/2024

I've started extracting citable numerical claims, stories/anecdotes, and background context from every chapter on citymeetings.nyc to help me write the newsletter. Excited for these to end up on-site eventually in a useful way.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 11/11/2024

We're still on drought watch here in NYC. Here's a bit about where our water comes from and something we have called a "Filtration Avoidance Determination" (FAD) we have with the EPA. (The photo is of the New Croton Reservoir. It is pretty and you can go there.) A 🧵 --

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 12/10/2024

If you’re able to watch NY1 Spectrum News this morning, you just might catch me talking citymeetings.nyc! I’ll post the interview when it’s up. Thanks to Rocco and the producers there for the opportunity!

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 24/04/2024

Testimony from affected workers + questions for their particular circumstances starts here: citymeetings.nyc/city-council...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 24/04/2024

New hearing up on the enforcement of NYC's Fair Workweek Law: citymeetings.nyc/city-council... - The most common violation? Failing to post schedules in advance. - DCWP recovered $12MM in worker relief in 2023. - DCWP is currently investigating 76 complaints across 56 Starbucks stores.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 24/04/2024

New meeting up: citymeetings.nyc/city-council.... (This is the new UI!) A hearing on regulating helicopter noise. EDC came unprepared. Lots of resident and advocate testimony (in particular from Stop the Chop).

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 19/04/2024

New UX is out today for citymeetings dot nyc. It's optimized so long, dense hearings are easy to skim, it works on mobile, and it's now the default meeting view. A fantastic way to see it in action is to skim through the 7-hour hearing on City of Yes for Economic Opportunity.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 05/04/2024

Got a mention in NYC Data this morning and it combines my love for the botanic gardens with getting LLMs to watch city meetings.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 29/03/2024

In this talk, I share: - A tour of the tools I’ve built - A crash course on how to write an effective prompt. - How I create video chapters for citymeetings.nyc, including my prompts. - Tips on how to approach more ambitious projects that rely on LLMs.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 11/03/2024

citymeetings.nyc #2 is out! Highlights from NYC city council meetings, every 1-2 weeks, with links to specific points in hearings on citymeetings.nyc. Link: buttondown.email/citymeetings...

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 15/02/2024

Up now on citymeetings.nyc -- The city council meeting where the council overrode the mayor's vetoes of the How Many Stops Act and the bill banning solitary confinement. I should have 2024's meetings up in the next few days.

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Vikram Oberoi @vikramoberoi.com · 15/02/2024

I launched citymeetings.nyc recently. It's an easier way to navigate NYC city council meetings. I'll be bringing it up-to-date with all city council meetings in 2024, and plan to add community board and planning meetings in the future.

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