Source: City of Chicago, all ZIP codes, counted by the pestcite engine from city records, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: Food Inspections. How we count
Chicago business licenses
City of Chicago, Business Affairs and Consumer Protection · Dataset r5kz-chrr
· Updated: Daily
Shows
A Retail Food Establishment or Children's Services Facility license was issued to this company on this date.
Does not show
A new business. A new owner at an old restaurant gets a new license too. We flag a possible change of owner when the records point to one.
Chicago Public Schools or the state daycare license. Neither is in this file.
All of Chicago, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026: 104 new food or child-care licenses issued.
Source: City of Chicago, all ZIP codes, counted by the pestcite engine from city records, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026; data as of Nov 8, 2026. Records: Business Licenses. How we count
NYC restaurant inspections
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene · Dataset 43nn-pn8j
· Updated: Daily
Shows
A restaurant was cited on this date under code 04K (rats), 04L (mice), 04M (roaches) or 04N (filth flies). The record includes its phone.
Each NYC restaurant line in the lookup above and in the app also links the restaurant's own page on NYC Health's website, so you can point an owner to the city's page instead of a list.
Does not show
A final ruling. Citations can be dismissed later, and restaurants that close drop out of the file.
Groceries, daycares or schools. This file is restaurants only.
A pass or fail. NYC restaurant inspections don't have one.
New York City, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026: 751 restaurants cited under codes 04K–04N.
By code: 04K (rats) 63, 04L (mice) 321, 04M (roaches) 157, 04N (filth flies) 422. A restaurant cited under two codes counts under each.
Left out, because the record has no ZIP to place it by: 12 restaurants.
NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene · Dataset p937-wjvj
· Updated: Daily, in batches, with gaps
Shows
A property failed a rat inspection for rat activity on this date, with what the inspector saw: burrows, droppings, runways.
Does not show
Rats today. A later inspection may pass.
That a building with no record is clean. It may never have been inspected.
Even coverage. Inspections follow complaints and the city's Rat Mitigation Zones, so some areas are thin.
New York City, Oct 5 – Nov 1, 2026: 3,273 tax lots failed a rat inspection for rat activity. We left
out 1,103 of them (reasons below). 2,170 buildings are in our lists: 2,077 privately owned commercial or 4+-unit apartment buildings and 93 institutional buildings (churches, schools,
hospitals or similar). 1,487 show a company owner. The rest show only the address.
What we left out, and why
One- and two-family homes: 661
Records with no reliable tax lot number, so a home can't be told from a business: 123
Parks and open space: 77
Publicly owned property: 65
Vacant land: 50
Buildings with fewer than 4 apartments: 44
Parking lots: 25
Utility and transport property: 23
Lots that passed a later inspection in the same case: 15
Lots whose newest inspection since then passed: 8
Government property: 6
Lots missing from the tax lot file: 5
Lots of unknown type: 1
Not counted at all, because the record has no ZIP: 35.
How much of each ZIP's land lies inside Chicago or New York City. 95% or more: a city ZIP. 10% to 95%: labeled “(City of Chicago part only)” or “(New York City part only)”. Under 10%: not covered, such as Cicero, 60804.
Does not show
Where people or businesses sit inside a ZIP. The share is land area.
Coverage
The City of Chicago, every ZIP in the city.
New York City, all five boroughs.
Not yet: Chicago suburbs, New Jersey, Long Island. Type a ZIP from there and you can leave your email to hear when it's in.
A ZIP that crosses the city line is labeled “(City of Chicago part only)” or “(New York City part only)”.
A record with no map location can't be placed in a radius, so radius areas leave it out.
How many records a week
A record is one line in a list: a place with violation 38, a new license, a restaurant citation or a building that failed
a rat inspection. In our test areas, Sep 28 – Nov 1, 2026:
All Chicago test areas together: the median week had 7.5 records (fewest 1,
most 22). New York City test areas: 90.5 (fewest 1, most 152), mostly rat inspections. A week with fewer than 3 records gets no email that Monday; the web list still shows them. Type your ZIP in the
box at the top to see your own area.
The list for Monday, Nov 9, 2026 covers Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2026. That morning its
inspections are 8 to 14 days old.
Why wait a week? Records post late. Most Chicago violation 38 write-ups post within a week of the inspection, a few take up
to three weeks, and NYC rat inspections arrive in batches. A shorter wait would miss them.
Before you call, check the line: a Chicago line shows a later inspection without violation 38 when the city has posted one,
and an NYC building that passed a later rat inspection is left out.
How we count
A place (Chicago)
One license. Two licenses at the same name and address count as one place. A place with several write-ups in the window counts once.
Fail
A place counts toward Fail when any of its violation 38 inspections in the window had the result Fail.
Pests noted
The inspector's words name live or dead insects or rodents, or droppings. Door gaps, proofing and log books are labeled apart.
A restaurant (NYC)
One restaurant ID in NYC Health's file, counted once however many days or codes it was cited.
A building (NYC)
One tax lot, counted once however many times it failed in the window.
A record
One line in a list: a place, a new license, a restaurant or a building.
Weeks
Monday to Sunday. A list covers one complete week. The city-wide counts on this site cover the newest 4 complete weeks.
Left out
Each count under Sources lists what we left out and why, with a link to the city's own rows for the same dates.
How we check
Fixed rules, no AI
Pests noted, door gaps and missing log books are labeled by fixed keyword rules on the inspector's own words. Each rule has a test. No AI model picks, labels or counts findings.
Checked against the record
Before a list goes out, each finding is compared with the government record we saved: name, address, date, result and the inspector's exact words. If any finding doesn't match, the run isn't published.
Test cases
Each run must also pass our test cases: findings that a separate check re-derived from the city's records, plus every wrong record reported to us. If one fails, the run stops and the last good list stays up.
Outside check
A separate check, with code that shares nothing with our engine, re-derived 37 findings
from the live city data: a random draw from 3 test areas plus every NYC restaurant finding in them,
week of Oct 19–25, 2026. 37 of 37 matched the city's record, 0 were false, and 60 of 60 record links worked.
“Pests noted”, only when the inspector's words name pests or droppings.
failed unless the result was Fail
The result the inspector gave.
has no pest control provider
“The inspector noted no pest-control log book on site”, when the record says so.
new business opened
“A new license was issued” on that date.
this week
“The newest complete week”.
final for NYC citations
“Cited by NYC Health under code 04L (mice)” on that date.
A person's or homeowner's name
Company names only.
Wrong record?
Every record in the app and in the Monday email has a “Wrong record?” link. Pick what's off (wrong business, wrong address, not pests, already fixed, or something else) and we re-check it against the city's record.
If our code got it wrong, we fix the code and add your case to the tests, so the same mistake can't ship again. If we have your email, we tell you the day it's fixed.
If the city's own record is wrong, we can't edit it. The line keeps showing what the record says.
Terms
These are public records. Chicago and New York City publish them as is, with no ban on commercial use. We credit each
agency and link the record. Read the Chicago data terms and
the NYC terms of use, and Is it legal?
for selling from them.
The notice the City of Chicago asks for, and our “not affiliated” line, are at the foot of every page.