15 TOOLS.
14 SCHEMAS.
ONE URL.
Everything the MCP server can do.
mcp.common-ground.nyc/mcp→ setup instructions
Showing 15 tools
Your Building
Address Report
Complete 360-degree report for any NYC address. Returns building profile, violations with percentile rankings, neighborhood demographics, crime stats, school quality, health indicators, environmental data, civic representation, nearby services, and fun facts. Every metric ranked against the city.
address: string
→ address_report("305 Linden Blvd, Brooklyn")
Building
Look up any NYC building by address or BBL. Returns violations, enforcement actions, landlord info, and property history. Views: full, story (narrative history), block (all buildings on block), similar (vector-matched twins), enforcement (multi-agency timeline), history (ACRIS transactions since 1966), flippers (buy-and-flip detection).
identifier: stringview?: string
→ building("350 5th Ave, Manhattan")
Your Landlord
Network
Traverse ownership, corporate, and political networks from any person, company, or BBL. Views: all, ownership (property/landlord edges), corporate (LLC/shared-officer edges), political (donations/lobbying/contracts), property (ACRIS co-parties), contractor (DOB permit networks), tradewaste (BIC hauler connections), officer (shared-command misconduct), clusters (entity resolution groups), cliques (co-owner communities), worst (ranked worst landlords).
name: stringtype?: string
→ network("Steven Croman", type="ownership")
Your Neighborhood
Neighborhood
Neighborhood profile by ZIP code or coordinates. Returns demographics, environment, complaints, and 311 patterns. Views: full, compare (multi-ZIP side-by-side), gentrification (quarterly displacement signals), environment (pollution/air quality), hotspot (H3 hex heatmap), area (everything within radius), restaurants (search by name).
location: stringview?: stringname?: stringradius_m?: number
→ neighborhood("10003")
Health
Public health data for any NYC location. Returns disease rates, hospital discharge data, facility locations, and environmental health indicators. Views: full (community health profile with CDC PLACES), covid (cases/outcomes/wastewater), facilities (hospitals/clinics/medicaid), inspections (cooling tower/drinking water/rodent), environmental (lead/asthma/air quality).
location: stringview?: string
→ health("10456")
Transit
Transportation data: parking violations, MTA ridership, traffic volumes, and infrastructure condition. Views: full (overview), parking (violations by plate/location), ridership (subway/bus/ferry trends), traffic (volume/speed data), infrastructure (potholes/pavement/ramps).
location: stringview?: string
→ transit("Times Square")
Safety & Crime
Safety
Crime and safety data by precinct, ZIP, or coordinates. Returns arrests, complaints, and trends. Views: full (precinct crime report), crashes (motor vehicle collisions), shootings (incidents by location/time), force (use of force), hate (hate crimes by bias type), summons (criminal court summons).
location: stringview?: string
→ safety("75")
Schools
School
Look up NYC public schools by name, DBN, ZIP code, or district number. Returns test scores, chronic absenteeism, class size, and survey results. Auto-detects input type: DBN gives a full report, ZIP searches nearby schools, district number gives an aggregate, multiple DBNs compare side-by-side.
query: string
→ school("Stuyvesant")
Follow the Money
Legal
Search legal proceedings by person name, agency, or keyword. Views: full (all proceedings), litigation (civil lawsuits), settlements (city payments), hearings (OATH administrative), inmates (daily population), claims (claims against NYC).
query: stringview?: string
→ legal("NYPD")
Civic
City government operations: contracts, permits, employment, budget, and events. Views: contracts (city/federal with vendors/amounts), permits (film/liquor/events), jobs (payroll/civil service), budget (revenue/IDA/procurement), events (permitted events/city record).
query: stringview?: string
→ civic("AECOM", view="contracts")
People & Entities
Entity
Look up any person or company across all NYC datasets. Lance vector index resolves identity across 44 tables. Returns every dataset hit, corporate ties, property records, and donations. Views: auto (full X-ray), background (professional/financial), cop (CCRB complaints/penalties/federal lawsuits), judge (career/financial disclosures), vitals (death/marriage/birth records 1855-2017), top (most cross-referenced people).
name: stringrole?: string
→ entity("Steven Croman")
Services & Resources
Services
Find social services near any NYC location: childcare, food assistance, shelters, benefits, legal aid, and community resources. Views: full, childcare (licensed programs/inspections), food (pantries/farmers markets/SNAP), shelter (DHS shelters/population), benefits (centers/Access NYC), legal_aid (legal aid/family justice), community (gardens/organizations/literacy).
location: stringview?: stringneed?: string
→ services("10456")
Raw Data Access
Semantic Search
Search across all NYC data using natural language, powered by Lance vector index and DuckDB hybrid search. Finds similar content even when exact keywords don't match. Domains: auto, complaints (311/CFPB), violations (HPD/restaurant/OATH), entities (fuzzy name matching), explore (pre-computed findings).
query: stringdomain?: stringlimit?: number
→ semantic_search("apartments with mold problems")
Query
Direct SQL access to the 294-table NYC data lake. Modes: sql (execute read-only SQL), nl (natural language to SQL), catalog (search tables by keyword), schemas (list all schemas), tables (list tables in schema), describe (show columns), health (lake freshness), admin (CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW only).
input: stringmode?: stringformat?: string
→ query("SELECT borough, COUNT(*) FROM lake.housing.hpd_violations GROUP BY borough")
Suggest
Discover what the NYC data lake can answer and get guided to the right tool. Returns curated findings, tool recommendations, and ready-to-use example calls. Use when unsure which tool fits or when exploring a new topic.
topic?: string
→ suggest("environmental justice")
THE DATA LAKE
12 schemas · 296 tables · 435M+ rows
housing40 tables · 30M+ rows
HPD complaints/violations, DOB permits, evictions, NYCHA, HMDA mortgages, ACRIS transactions since 1966
hpd_violationsacris_real_property_legalsdob_permitsevictions
social_services8 tables · 30M+ rows
311 service requests, food assistance, childcare
311_service_requestssnap_retailerschildcare_centers
transportation15 tables · 40M+ rows
MTA ridership, parking tickets, traffic speeds, street conditions
parking_violationsmta_ridershiptraffic_speeds
public_safety12 tables · 10M+ rows
NYPD crimes, arrests, shootings, motor vehicle collisions, hate crimes
nypd_complaintnypd_arrestsmotor_vehicle_collisionsnypd_shooting_incidents
city_government25 tables · 3M+ rows
PLUTO lot data, city payroll, OATH hearings, zoning, facilities
plutocitywide_payrolloath_hearingszoning_districts
education20 tables · 500K+ rows
DOE school surveys, test scores, enrollment, NYSED data
doe_school_qualitynysed_test_resultsdoe_enrollment
health10 tables · 500K+ rows
Restaurant inspections, rat inspections, community health indicators
restaurant_inspectionsrat_inspectionscommunity_health
environment18 tables · 1M+ rows
Air quality, tree census, energy benchmarking, FEMA flood zones, EPA enforcement
tree_censusenergy_benchmarkingair_quality_pm25
business15 tables · 200K+ rows
BLS employment stats, ACS census demographics, business licenses, M/WBE certs
business_licensesmwbe_certifiedacs_demographics
financial1 tables · 1.2M rows
CFPB consumer complaints with full narratives
cfpb_complaints
recreation8 tables · 50K+ rows
Parks, pools, permits, events
parks_propertiespublic_poolspark_events
economics5 tables · 10K+ rows
FRED metro economic indicators, IRS income by ZIP
fred_metro_datairs_income_by_zip
448 tables · 850M+ rows · Updated daily
What is MCP? Model Context Protocol — an open standard that lets AI apps connect to external data sources. Built by Anthropic, adopted by OpenAI and others.
Is this safe? Common Ground is read-only. It cannot access your conversations, files, or any private data. It only serves public NYC datasets.
What does it cost? Nothing. No account. No API key. No rate limits. Free forever.
Ready to connect? →--------------------
COMMON—GROUND NYC
448 datasets · 850M+ records
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