About Boston Council tl;dr
How it started
One day I realized I was completely out of touch with my local government. I couldn't tell you what my city council had voted on that week, what my councilor was working on, or how decisions were being made that directly affected my neighborhood.
So I started small: a simple email newsletter just for myself. I used Google Gemini to turn City Council YouTube videos into transcripts and readable reports — a way to stay informed without watching hours of video or reading dense government documents.
Along the way, something unexpected happened. I realized I was generating lots of really interesting and valuable data points — who spoke on which issues, how councilors voted on contested matters, where representatives agreed and where they split, which neighborhoods got attention and which didn't. The AI wasn't just summarizing meetings; it was uncovering patterns I hadn't expected to find.
That led to a question I couldn't shake: how far could AI go in making sense of countless hours of meetings — turning them into digestible information and insights that could help me, and hopefully others, better understand how our local representatives work, what they think about a wide array of issues, and what they choose to prioritize?
Boston Council tl;dr is the answer to that question. It's an ongoing experiment at the intersection of civic engagement and artificial intelligence.
How it works
The project uses Google Gemini to turn City Council meeting videos from the Boston City Council YouTube channel into transcripts and readable reports — then maps councilor positions, voting patterns, issue areas, and neighborhood-level impacts across hundreds of council interventions. Every piece of content on this site is AI-generated and should be verified against official city records.
Legislative data, including dockets, agendas, and committee assignments, is drawn from the Boston Legistar portal, the official record-keeping system for the City Council.
Important caveats
- All summaries, analyses, and narratives on this site are AI-generated and may contain errors, omissions, or misinterpretations.
- This is not an official government website. For authoritative records, visit Boston.gov/City-Council.
- Councilor positions and stances are inferred from public statements and voting records. They may not capture the full context of a councilor's views.
- Meeting attendance data is derived from video analysis and may not reflect excused absences or late arrivals.
Feedback
This project is actively evolving. If you spot an error, have a suggestion, or want to share how you're using the site, I'd love to hear from you.