The five, and what each is worth watching for
- HVAC — 48,794 permits. The largest single permit type this city files. A replacement season, one address at a time.
- Plumbing — 44,471. Re-pipes, water heaters, sewer lines, gas.
- Fire protection — 11,163. Sprinklers, standpipes and alarm systems: the work the fire code demands before a building opens.
- Excavation and fill — 9,163. Ground being opened. The machine arrives before the building does.
- Elevator — 2,673. A small list and a specific trade, which is the point of it.
Two more that tell you a block is about to change
Wrecking permits, 5,730 of them, are demolition made public: on a block about to change, the wrecking permit is usually filed first. Sign permits, 4,700, are the cheapest early signal that a storefront has changed hands — a sign permit is a tenant.
Issued is not filed
These lists are dated by the day the permit was issued, not the day it was applied for. A permit with no issue date has been applied for and not granted, which is a different fact from work that may legally start, and the report counts the two apart rather than adding them.
The declared cost is a floor
Most rows in this feed carry no cost at all, and where one exists it is what the filer told the city the work was worth, which sets fees. Treat it as a floor rather than as an estimate of the job, and note that a total across a parcel is a total over the permits that carry a figure, not over all of them.
Counts run 7 September 2026.