Motley — NYC Neighborhoods, Schools & Admissions
Find, compare, and rank NYC neighborhoods and schools, plus how NYC school admissions works.
Community: Submitted by a user or imported; check the owner before granting accessOnlineNo sign-inGlobalFreeRead-only
What it can do
- Search Neighborhoods: Search and filter NYC neighborhoods by borough or name. Returns NTA codes, names, boroughs, and centroid coordinates.
- Get Neighborhood: Get full details for a single NYC neighborhood including demographics, raw 0-100 scores, location, and a family-readable interpretation (labeled score bands + cached editorial blurbs
- Get Neighborhood Summary: Get a decision-ready, family-readable summary of one NYC neighborhood: a one-paragraph fit verdict, labeled score bands (e.g. 'Peace of Mind: strong (78/100)'), and cached ed
What data it sees
Do you need an account
No: the server works without sign-in
Find, compare, and rank NYC neighborhoods and schools, plus how NYC school admissions works.
Server tool list (15)
Raw names from tools/list. Only developers need these.
| search-neighborhoods | Search and filter NYC neighborhoods by borough or name. Returns NTA codes, names, boroughs, and centroid coordinates. |
| get-neighborhood | Get full details for a single NYC neighborhood including demographics, raw 0-100 scores, location, and a family-readable interpretation (labeled score bands + cached editorial blurbs). Use the nta_code from search-neighborhoods. |
| get-neighborhood-summary | Get a decision-ready, family-readable summary of one NYC neighborhood: a one-paragraph fit verdict, labeled score bands (e.g. 'Peace of Mind: strong (78/100)'), and cached editorial blurbs — with raw scores still available. The interpretation-first front door; start here when a family wants an answer, not a data dump. |
| get-schools | Get schools within a neighborhood — public, charter, and private. Includes quality ratings, grade levels, contact info. Use count_only for a quick summary, or limit/offset to page the full list (the response reports total/returned). |
| browse-schools | Find NYC schools citywide by what a family wants — borough, community school district (1-32), grade band (pre-K/elementary/middle/high), school type (public/charter/private), admissions method (zoned, screened, unscreened, limited unscreened, ed-opt, audition, SHSAT, charter lottery, private, universal pre-K), and program focus (arts, sports, STEM, language, academic, clubs). Use this when the family describes the KIND of school they want; use get-schools when you already have an nta_code and want everything in that neighborhood. Pass only the filters actually stated — at least one is required, and an invented one returns nothing. Program focus is tagged on public and charter schools only. |
| get-resources | Get family resource counts for a neighborhood: recreation centers, playgrounds, libraries, hospitals, farmers markets, ADA subway stations. |
| get-activities | Get kids' activities and businesses in a neighborhood — classes, sports, arts, tutoring, etc. from Foursquare data. Use count_only for category breakdown, or limit/offset to page the full list (reports total/returned). Each place's last_refreshed is when we last verified it with Foursquare. |
| get-safety | Get safety and health environment indicators for a neighborhood: crime complaints, collisions, HPD violations, air quality, lead levels, asthma rates — plus a family-readable interpretation of the Peace of Mind and Air & Water Quality scores. |
| get-comparable | Find neighborhoods most similar to a given one based on a 9-dimension score vector (family density, wealth, education, safety, transit, etc.). Returns similarity scores. |
| find-neighborhood | Find which NYC neighborhood (NTA) an address or coordinate is in. Pass a NYC address (geocoded via OpenStreetMap) OR lat+lng. Returns the NTA code, name, borough, and a decision-ready family-fit summary. Use this to turn a real-world location into a neighborhood you can pass to the other tools. |
| rank-neighborhoods | Rank NYC neighborhoods by what a family cares about. Pass per-metric weights (family density, schools, affordability, neighborhood character, transit, safety, air & water quality) and/or ranked priority keywords; optionally scope to one borough. Returns the top neighborhoods with a fit score and the metric breakdown — a deterministic weighted sort (the per-child Smart Match stays in the Motley app). |
| compare-neighborhoods | Compare 2–6 NYC neighborhoods side by side across the 9 family-fit metrics (Family Fit, Families, Affordability, Schools, Neighborhood Character, Transit, Safety, Health, Activities). Pass an array of NTA codes; returns a per-metric matrix with each neighborhood's band and the per-metric leader. |
| get-admissions-methods | Get the full NYC school-admissions reference: every entry point from 3-K and Pre-K through Kindergarten, Gifted & Talented, and the 8 middle/high admission methods (SHSAT, audition, screened, Ed-Opt, limited unscreened, unscreened, zoned, charter lottery) — each with its typical application window. The methods carry a live program count plus a special_badge naming any extra ask beyond the standard application (an audition, a test, an open-house sign-in), null when there is none; optional band/governance filters narrow the count. Knowledge only. |
| explain-admissions-method | Explain one NYC admission entry point or method in full — the plain-English explainer, its typical deadline window, and, when the method asks a family for more than a ranked application, exactly what it requires (audition or portfolio, SHSAT registration, a demonstrated-interest sign-in, a private school's own test/interview track) plus the extra paperwork that comes with it. Pass a method key (shsat, audition, screened, ed_opt, limited_unscreened, unscreened, zoned, charter_lottery, private_admissions, prek_universal) or an early entry point (three-k, pre-k, kindergarten, gifted-talented). |
| get-admissions-demand | Get how competitive admission to one specific school is, program by program: seats vs. applicants, applicants-per-seat, offer/fill rate, and a family-readable competitiveness tier (Accessible / Competitive / Highly Competitive). Pass a school DBN (from get-schools). Sourced from MySchools — present mostly for screened/choice high-school programs; zoned, charter-lottery, and private schools usually have none. |