I live in NYC and have been following the city's technology initiatives closely. The silver lining here is that the city has come to terms with the fact that they are le suck at making awesomely designed consumer apps, and releasing the data to the public will be beneficial for all. My favorite part of this post is the "Commitment to Open Data".

Someone out there will make something amazing with this data, it's practically inevitable.

Speaking of, if you live in NYC you should come to this Reinvent Payphones Hackathon - same sentiment (full disclosure, my startup is helping to organize): http://reinventpayphones.prototypehackday.com/