Activity over time
A city at block level: associations per year, 2008–2025
Number of associations that filed at least one block party permit in a given year. The 2020 collapse was near-total; recovery has been steady but uneven.
2020: Only 36 block parties were permitted citywide — a 93% drop from 2019. By 2025, activity had recovered to ~85% of pre-pandemic levels, but the associations that returned skew toward those with longer histories.
Geography
Brooklyn accounts for more than half of all identified associations
Count of block associations by borough.
Status
Nearly half have gone dormant since 2020
Active = filed a permit in 2023–2025 Recent = 2020–2022 Dormant = last active before 2020
Active (645)
Recent (183)
Dormant (728)
Community boards
Bed-Stuy's CB3 leads all 59 community boards citywide
Associations per community board. Select a borough to zoom in.
Longevity
One-third of associations appear only a single year
Distribution of years active per association location, 2008–2025.
528 associations (34%) appear in the data for just one year. But 126 associations have been continuously active for 15 or more years.
COVID impact
Brooklyn recovered; the Bronx and Staten Island have not
Associations active in 2019 vs. 2021 vs. 2024, by borough.
2019
2020
2021
2024
New entries
The first permit tells the story: when did associations first appear in city records?
Count of associations whose earliest block party permit is from each year. The 2008 spike reflects the start of the dataset — many associations were already active before records began.