About

About this site

This website was created by Alaina Pitt, a Beverly homeowner and parent. As debates swirled around Beverly's budget, the City Hall renovation, trash fees, and the structural deficit, I wanted to find the data behind the claims being made. I built it for myself and for fellow Beverly residents who want to dig into the numbers. The analysis aims to be factual and nonpartisan, though it does reflect a particular framework: one focused on long-term fiscal sustainability and what the numbers reveal about how a city grows.

Open Beverly is an independent civic project. I am not on any city boards or commissions and am not affiliated with any advocacy group related to Beverly.

How I use AI

This site was built with help from Claude, an AI assistant made by Anthropic. I use it for drafting content, data processing, and building the site itself. Claude has processed a substantial volume of primary source documentation, including nine years of Financial Forecasting Committee meeting minutes, annual financial reports, budget documents, and property parcel data covering the entire city.

I review and edit AI-generated content before it goes up. The exception is the meeting summaries, which are generated automatically from BevCam recordings and published without manual review. Those summaries can contain errors: mishearing names, misattributing statements, or missing context. Treat them as a starting point, not a record.

If something looks wrong anywhere on the site, I want to know.

Sources & methodology

All data sources and citations are documented on the Sources page, including primary city documents, state law, and external references. That page also explains which figures are drawn directly from official documents and which are calculated by Open Beverly.