Glossary

The words SLAM uses, how each number on an address page is counted, and where the data comes from.

Places and district lines

Community board / community district: New York City has 59 community districts. Each has a community board of up to 50 unpaid members appointed by the Borough President, at least half of them nominated by the district's Council members. Those Council members also sit on the board without a vote. Boards give advice on liquor licenses, land use and City services in their district. SLAM shows one district at a time.
District number: SLAM numbers districts the way the Department of City Planning does. The first digit is the borough (1 Manhattan, 2 Bronx, 3 Brooklyn, 4 Queens, 5 Staten Island) and the last two are the district. So 101 is Manhattan Community District 1 and 304 is Brooklyn Community District 4. A number above the borough's highest district is a Joint Interest Area.
Placed in a district: SLAM takes each record's map point and checks which community district line it falls inside. This is called a point-in-polygon check: "which shape is this dot inside?" The lines come from City Planning's Community Districts dataset. An address right on a line can be in two districts (see On a district line).
On a district line (listed in both districts): District lines mostly run down the middle of a street, so the buildings on each side are in different districts. When the City's address point for a building is within 100 feet of another district's line, SLAM lists the address in both districts, and its page says so, for example "On the line between Brooklyn CD 3 and CD 4". Its records, its dots on the map and the district counts include it in each of those districts. The distance is 100 feet, not just half a street, because the City's point sits inside the lot, not at the curb: 906 Broadway in Brooklyn, on the line between CD 3 and CD 4, is 92 feet from the CD 4 line. This prototype covers only some districts, so a page can name a district on the line that SLAM does not show yet.
Joint Interest Area: City Planning's Community Districts dataset has 59 community districts and 12 Joint Interest Areas: large parks, airports and similar places that are not part of any community district and have no community board of their own. They are numbered like districts, with a number above the borough's highest district (for example 164 in Manhattan and 355 in Brooklyn). SLAM lists each one as its own district, the way BetaNYC's BoardStat does. Airport bars and park concessions can hold liquor licenses.
Address page: One page for each address that has a record in SLAM. Records for the same building share a page when the City's address file matches them to the same BIN. Otherwise a page is keyed on the street address and ZIP code.
The City's address file (PAD): The City Planning Department's Property Address Directory: every address in the city with its building (BIN), tax lot (BBL) and map point. SLAM matches addresses against the copy NYC Planning Labs prepares for its GeoSearch service. A match needs the same house number, street and borough. SLAM also tries common ways addresses are written, such as a Queens number without its hyphen ("104 30" for "104-30") or a range ("237-243"); readings that could land on the wrong building must be close to the record's own map point.
GeoSearch: The City's address search service, built from the same address file. SLAM asks it only about addresses the file cannot match, and the address box at the top of the site uses it. A match counts only when the house number, street and borough are the same, and GeoSearch's confidence is 0.8 or higher.
Low-confidence match: GeoSearch answered, but no result had the same house number, street and borough with a confidence of 0.8 or higher. The address page stays keyed on the street address and ZIP code.
BIN (Building Identification Number): A number the City gives each building. SLAM uses it to put records for the same building on one address page.
BBL (borough, block and lot): The City's number for a tax lot, the piece of land a building stands on. One lot can hold several buildings.

Licenses and permits

SLA (State Liquor Authority): The New York State agency that issues and enforces liquor licenses. Its Board holds Full Board meetings about every three weeks to decide licensing and disciplinary matters.
LAMP: SLA's public map of licenses and applications (lamp.sla.ny.gov). SLAM links to it so you can see SLA's own record for a place.
Pending application: A liquor license application SLA has received and not yet decided.
Active / inactive license: An active license is in effect now. An inactive license is no longer in effect. SLA's inactive list gives the status for each one.
On-premises / off-premises: An on-premises license is for drinks served and drunk where they are sold, like a bar or restaurant. An off-premises license is for sealed bottles to take away, like a liquor or grocery store. The 200- and 500-foot rules in ABC Law §64 are about on-premises liquor licenses.
License type and class: SLA's codes for each kind of license. SLAM shows the code and SLA's own description. SLA publishes the full list as an Excel file (linked on the About page).
License dates and IDs: An address page shows every date and ID SLA publishes for a license. First issued is when the license was first issued. Last issued (renewal) is SLA's "Last Issue Date", which SLA describes as the renewal date. Effective and Expires are SLA's effective and expiration dates. The legacy serial number is SLA's previous serial number for the license. Parent license is SLA's "Parent License ID"; in SLA's active list on 2026-11-07 it was filled in only for additional bar permits, and names another license. An AKA address is another address SLA lists for the place. Pending applications have no issue dates; SLAM shows the date SLA received them.
Hours and method of operation: SLA does not publish a license's hours or method of operation as open data, and its LAMP map did not show them when we checked. Conditions SLA's Board sets on a contested application, such as closing hours, appear in the minutes of its Full Board meetings. Each address page links SLA's event calendar, which links the minutes once they are posted. SLAM does not copy them.
OCM (Office of Cannabis Management): The New York State agency that licenses cannabis businesses, including adult-use retail dispensaries.
In process (cannabis): SLAM shows "In process (not yet issued)" when OCM's license status for a row is "In-Process". The rows come from OCM's Current OCM Licenses dataset on data.ny.gov (jskf-tt3q). OCM says that dataset lists licensees and "applicants who have obtained proximity protection for their proposed adult-use retail and medical dispensaries." So an In-Process row is an applicant with proximity protection for a proposed location. It is not a license yet. SLAM repeats OCM's status; it does not say whether a license will be issued. Cannabis applications without proximity protection are not in any open dataset. A community board hears about those through the applicant's own notice, under Cannabis Law §76 (see Community board notice).
Dining Out NYC: The City's outdoor dining program, run by the Department of Transportation (DOT). It licenses sidewalk seating and roadway seating, year-round or seasonal. It took the place of the temporary, pandemic-era Open Restaurants program.
Permitted street event: A street fair, block party or similar event with a City permit. The source has no map points, so these appear in the list only.

311 complaints

311 service request (complaint): A report someone made to 311. It is not a finding that anything happened. One problem can lead to several reports if several people report it.
Complaint type and descriptor: The category 311 gives a report, with a more specific descriptor. For example, complaint type "Noise - Commercial" with descriptor "Loud Music/Party," or "Drinking" with the descriptor "Underage - Licensed Est" (underage drinking at a licensed place).
Location type: Where 311 says the problem is, chosen when the report is made. SLAM keeps reports with location type "Club/Bar/Restaurant" or "Restaurant/Bar/Deli/Bakery", plus every "Outdoor Dining" complaint, whose location type is the sidewalk or street. The first SLAM used the same location filter.
Noise - Commercial: The 311 complaint type for noise from a business, such as loud music or a crowd. NYPD handles it.
Drinking: The 311 complaint type for drinking in public, or a licensed place serving after hours or to people under 21. NYPD handles it.
Outdoor Dining (311): The 311 complaint type about outdoor dining setups, such as a blocked sidewalk or a seating area set up without approval. DOT handles it.
Map colors for 311: The map colors 311 dots in four groups, based on the first SLAM's layers: Noise - Commercial, Drinking, Outdoor Dining (a separate layer in the first SLAM), and Other (every other complaint type).

Restaurants and buildings

Health inspection

The Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) inspects restaurants. It gives each problem it finds a number of points. Fewer points is better.

Letter grade

A: 0 to 13 points.
B: 14 to 27 points.
C: 28 or more points.
Grade pending: the restaurant may contest the result, so no letter is final yet.
Grade pending (re-opening): a grade pending after the restaurant re-opened.
Not yet graded: the restaurant has not been graded yet.

Certificate of occupancy (CO)

A Department of Buildings (DOB) document that records a building's use and how many people may occupy it. Newer COs are in DOB NOW. Older ones are in DOB's Buildings Information System (BIS).

PLUTO and building class

PLUTO is the City Planning dataset of every tax lot. Its building class codes M1 to M9 mark religious property.

Facilities Database (FacDB)

City Planning's list of public and private facilities. SLAM takes its K-12 schools.

Schools, houses of worship and distance rules

School

A K-12 school in the Facilities Database: public, charter, non-public and special education schools. Day care, pre-K, college and after-school programs are not included.

House of worship

A tax lot in PLUTO building class M1 (church, synagogue, chapel).

Other religious property

A tax lot in PLUTO building class M2, M3, M4 or M9 (mission house, parsonage or rectory, convent, miscellaneous). PLUTO does not say it is a place of worship.

200-foot rule

State law (ABC Law §64(7)(a)) about on-premises liquor licenses on the same street or avenue as, and within 200 feet of, a building used only as a school or place of worship. See the rules page.

500-foot rule

State law (ABC Law §64(7)(b)) about on-premises liquor licenses within 500 feet of three or more existing on-premises licensed premises. SLA may still grant one after a hearing if, after consulting the community board, it finds the license is in the public interest (§64(7)(f)). See the rules page.

Cannabis: 500-foot school rule

State law (Cannabis Law §72(6)(a)) about adult-use cannabis dispensaries on the same street as, and within 500 feet of, a building containing a school. It is a different law from the liquor rules: 500 feet for schools, not 200, and the building only has to contain a school. Read §72.

Cannabis: 200-foot house of worship rule

State law (Cannabis Law §72(6)(b)) about adult-use cannabis dispensaries on the same street as, and within 200 feet of, a building used only as a house of worship. Like the liquor rules, it is measured from entrance to entrance (§72(6)(c)). A renewal is not denied because of these two rules (§72(6)(f)). Address pages with a cannabis record list schools within about 500 ft and houses of worship within about 200 ft, building point to building point.

Community board notice (cannabis and liquor)

In New York City, an applicant must notify the community board before applying: for a liquor license, under ABC Law §110-b; for a cannabis dispensary or on-site consumption license, 30 to 270 days ahead, under Cannabis Law §76. The board may send its opinion for or against, and the opinion becomes part of the record. For cannabis, the Cannabis Control Board must answer the community board in writing, explaining how its opinion was considered.

Who decides

For liquor, the State Liquor Authority decides each application, including how these rules apply to it. For cannabis, the Office of Cannabis Management makes a recommendation and the Cannabis Control Board decides. In both cases the community board's opinion becomes part of the record (see Community board notice). SLAM lists what is nearby and how far away it is. It does not make that decision.

Distance rings (approximate)

A map layer that draws a circle around each school and house of worship point. The map's Layers box is grouped by license type, and each group has its own Distance rings (approximate) toggle, that draws only that law's rings. The liquor rings are on when the map first opens; the cannabis rings start off. A ring's color and line say which law: liquor rings are solid navy lines, cannabis rings are dashed green lines.

Liquor (SLA):
- School, about 200 ft: ABC Law §64(7)(a) (solid line)
- House of worship, about 200 ft: ABC Law §64(7)(a) (solid line)
The liquor 500-foot rule (ABC Law §64(7)(b)) is about three or more licensed premises, not schools, so it has no ring. Address pages count those licenses instead.
Cannabis (OCM):
- School, about 500 ft: Cannabis Law §72(6)(a) (dashed line)
- House of worship, about 200 ft: Cannabis Law §72(6)(b) (dashed line)

With both on, a ring the two laws share is drawn once, as the solid liquor line with the cannabis dashes over it, and its label names both laws. Other religious property has no ring. The laws measure from entrance to entrance, on the same street. SLAM has neither entrance locations nor street logic: each ring is a straight-line circle around a school or house of worship point. A ring is a guide, not a ruling. Rings are not the only way to see a distance: every address page lists the schools and houses of worship near it, with distances.

How the numbers are counted

Building point

SLAM puts each address page at one map point. When the City's address file matches the address, it is the City's point for that address. Otherwise it is the average of the records' own points.

Approximate distance

SLAM cannot measure door to door, because no dataset it uses has entrance locations. It measures straight lines from building point to building point. The liquor and cannabis laws measure from the center of the nearest entrance to the center of the nearest entrance, so every distance in SLAM is approximate. Building points can sit away from the door, so a SLAM distance can differ by tens of feet or more, especially for large or corner buildings. A distance near a limit is close, not over or under it.

311 at this address

A complaint counts at an address when its incident address and ZIP code, cleaned up the same way as the page's address, match the page. A complaint with only an intersection is never counted at an address.

311 nearby

Complaints whose map point is within 150 meters (about 490 feet) of the address page's point, not counting the ones at the address. They are shown as counts by complaint type.

Nearby addresses

Other address pages within 150 meters of this one, in the same district's data.

Within about 200 feet

The schools, houses of worship and other religious property whose point is within about 200 feet of the address page's point.

Same street

SLAM compares the street name in the school's or lot's address with the street names in the address page's records, after removing house numbers and floor or suite text. It shows one of three answers:

Same street name: the names match.
Different street name in the records: the names differ. A corner building fronts two streets, but the records list one address each, so this is not a "no."
Not known: one side has no usable street name.

Spelling differences, like "Saint Nicolas" and "St Nicholas," can still be missed.

On-premises licenses within about 500 feet

The number of other addresses with an active on-premises liquor license (SLA type 1, classes 0340 to 0421) within about 500 feet of the address page's point. Licenses at the address itself, pending applications and inactive licenses are not counted. Licenses in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens are counted, because the Brooklyn pilot district borders Queens.

Premises (for counting)

One address page, or one street address and ZIP code for a license with no page. Several licenses at one address count as one premises.

Dates and how fresh the data is

Data updated: When SLAM last downloaded the data: Nov 8, 2026, 5:22 AM. It is shown at the top of every page.
Rows updated: When each dataset was last changed at its source, as the portal reports it. It is listed for every dataset on the About page.
311 date range: SLAM keeps 311 complaints created on or after 2022-01-01. The latest in this build is from 2026-11-06. Complaints from 2010 to 2019 are in a separate City dataset that SLAM does not read.
Today's district lines: Every record is placed using today's community district lines, including old records.

Datasets

Every dataset SLAM reads, with a link, its ID, what SLAM uses it for and when it was last updated, is in the table on the About page.