LOCAL LAW 11 · DATA
The NYC Façade Report: how each borough did in FISP Cycle 9
The short answer
In FISP Cycle 9, which ran from 2020 to 2025, about 16,500 New York City buildings had façade inspection records, and more than half of them were in Manhattan. Citywide, about one in four initial reports was filed Unsafe. Among the four largest boroughs, Brooklyn had the highest share (about 3 in 10) and Queens the lowest (about 1 in 5). In the Bronx, about one in four FISP buildings finished the cycle with no report on file.
What stands out
- Manhattan is more than half the program. 9,151 of the 16,538 Cycle 9 buildings, or 55%, are in Manhattan.
- Brooklyn and the Bronx file Unsafe most often. In Brooklyn 29.5% of initial reports were Unsafe and in the Bronx 27.5%, against 24.0% in Manhattan and 21.1% in Queens. Most of those buildings were repaired later. By the end of the cycle, about 6% to 12% of each borough's buildings still showed Unsafe as their latest status.
- The Bronx has the widest filing gap of the four largest boroughs. 25% of Bronx FISP buildings had "No Report Filed" as their latest Cycle 9 status. In Manhattan the figure was 9%.
- Terra cotta is a Manhattan problem. 33% of Manhattan buildings that reported their materials listed terra cotta. In the Bronx it was 11%, in Brooklyn 6% and in Queens 1%.
- Manhattan carries the shed load. On October 1, 2026, 3,041 Manhattan buildings had an active sidewalk shed permit: 45% of the 6,766 buildings with one citywide.
Cycle 9 results by borough
We count buildings by distinct DOB control number. Each building's status is its latest Cycle 9 status in DOB's data.
| Borough | Buildings | Safe | SWARMP | Unsafe | No Report Filed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | 9,151 | 4,060 | 3,517 | 764 | 800 |
| Brooklyn | 2,578 | 944 | 836 | 319 | 476 |
| Bronx | 2,483 | 907 | 676 | 271 | 628 |
| Queens | 2,188 | 876 | 840 | 125 | 346 |
| Staten Island | 138 | 40 | 49 | 12 | 37 |
| Total | 16,538 | 6,827 | 5,918 | 1,491 | 2,287 |
15 buildings had a blank status and are left out of the status columns.
Initial reports filed Unsafe
| Borough | Share of initial Cycle 9 reports filed Unsafe |
|---|---|
| Brooklyn | 29.5% |
| Bronx | 27.5% |
| Manhattan | 24.0% |
| Queens | 21.1% |
| Staten Island | Sample too small to compare |
What the walls are made of
Each figure is the share of Cycle 9 buildings that reported their exterior materials and listed that material. A building can list more than one.
| Borough | Terra cotta | Natural stone | Concrete | Stucco / EIFS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manhattan | 33.0% | 34.2% | 12.1% | 12.5% |
| Brooklyn | 6.2% | 10.2% | 19.3% | 20.4% |
| Bronx | 10.6% | 7.0% | 10.7% | 15.9% |
| Queens | 1.3% | 5.9% | 14.9% | 11.2% |
Sidewalk sheds
| Borough | Buildings with an active sidewalk shed permit (Oct 1, 2026) |
|---|---|
| Manhattan | 3,041 |
| Brooklyn | 1,703 |
| Bronx | 1,184 |
| Queens | 780 |
| Staten Island | 58 |
These counts include sheds put up for construction and demolition as well as for façade work. The city reported about 7,400 permitted sheds as of August 2026.
Cycle 10 so far
By the end of September 2026, 2,774 buildings had Cycle 10 filing records: 1,733 in sub-cycle 10A, 615 in 10B and 431 early filers in 10C. (A few buildings show up under two sub-cycles, so the parts add up to slightly more than the total.) Early filers aren't representative of the full cycle, so their Unsafe rates stay out of the comparison for now.
Method
- Source: NYC Open Data, "DOB NOW: Safety - Facades Compliance Filings" (dataset xubg-57si), queried through the public Socrata API. Shed permits come from "DOB NOW: Build - Approved Permits" (rbx6-tga4).
- Buildings: Counted by distinct control number, which DOB assigns to each building for each cycle. Initial Unsafe rates use the status on each building's initial Cycle 9 filing (the filing_status field), counted by distinct BIN.
- Status: The latest status recorded for the cycle. A building that filed Unsafe and later filed an amended report may now show Safe or SWARMP.
- No Report Filed: Some of these buildings may have filed later through a make-up or early-filing path.
- Materials: As reported in filings. Not every filing lists materials, so the shares are of the buildings that did.
- Queries: Published in full in the README that comes with the CSV download, and updated each quarter.
Banu Construction is not affiliated with the NYC Department of Buildings. The data comes from DOB; the analysis is ours.
Updates
- October 2, 2026: First edition.
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