Restaurant Health Inspection In NYC, contributed by Ho Fai Wong

Contributed by Ho Fai Wong. He is currently in the NYC Data Science Academy 12 week full time Data Science Bootcamp program taking place between April 11th to July 1st, 2016. This post is based on his first class project - R visualization (due on the 2nd week of the program). I. Introduction NYC's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) conducts unannounced inspections of restaurants at least once a year to check food handling, food temperature, personal hygiene and vermin control. Since 2010, NYC restaurants have to prominently post their Grade (e.g. A/B/C) which empowers diners with decision-making information and incentivizes establishments to improve their hygiene. I was interested in how a restaurant's location and type of cuisine could affect its inspection results, in order to be a better-informed diner in New York City. For example, some of my initial questions were: V. Conclusion Findings Displaying scores in addition to grades could further improve hygiene (most have A already) My specific initial questions were addressed... Scores differentiate neighborhoods but not boroughs; closure ratios provide additional comparisons Chinatown is on par with UES but Flushing is not Chinese restaurants have higher closure ratios than French and American restaurants ... but more observations can be made based on your culinary and geographic selections, e.g: Brooklyn and the Bronx have the worst rates of inspection and repeat closures respectively Asian restaurants in the Bronx and Staten Island have a much higher inspection closure ratio, etc Further analysis Investigate violation types: do certain neighborhoods or type of restaurants have recurring types of violations? Compare with NYC demographic data by neighborhood Analyze trends over time by neighborhood and cuisine Correlate with popularity of restaurants - See more at: http://blog.nycdatascience.com/student-works/nyc-restaurant-health-inspection-results-vary-location-cuisine/#sthash.6IoAgw0a.dpuf