City Scrapers CLE

Scraping local govt websites of upcoming board and committee meetings

City Scrapers is a Python-based webkit that scrapes government websites to find out when and where public board meetings are held.

City Scrapers complements theDocumenters.org, an initiative by City Bureau that pays local residents to attend and report on what happens at local government meetings.

City Scrapers’ data will be used to create a centralized calendar of upcoming government meetings.

The Cleveland Foundation funded an initial launch of City Scrapers in Cleveland which created over 80 scrapers (https://github.com/City-Bureau/city-scrapers-cle) for Cuyahoga County and the City of Cleveland.

In May 2020, the Cleveland Foundation provided funding for a one-year launch of the Cleveland Documenters, which will be housed with Neighbor Up at the community-building program Neighborhood Connections.

Near and Long Term Goals:

Where we are now:

The great folks at City Bureau have written scrapers for over 80 governmental organizations and bodies in Cleveland and Cuyahoga County.

A calendar displaying the upcoming meetings has also been made by City Bureau.

If and the code and structure of a city government changes, our scraper will need to be updated.

Neighbor Up has hired a Cleveland Documenter Field Coordinator, and officially begun the Cleveland Documenters pilot year. Lawrence Daniel Caswell is the new Cleveland Documenter Field Coordinator. He can be reached at lcaswell@neighborhoodgrants.org or (216) 361-9149‬ (call or text).

The Documenters started to send ‘reporters’ to meeting at the end of October.

Read their reporting of local government meetings.

How you can help:

  • Python developers: Check out the library that describes how the the technical aspects behind City SCrapers as well as how to add other government entities or agencies (for example, a suburb’s council meetings) to City Scrapers.

  • Update one of the the scrapers listed on our github.

  • Journalists, community organizers, community activists:
  • share with us how the calendar of government meetings is useful for you. What other information would you like to see in a calendar like this?

How to contact us:

  • email opencleveland at gmail dot com
  • twitter

Updates