Civic News

It just got a lot easier to see what the city is spending money on

A new Twitter bot from Dave Troy — @baltcontracts — makes it fun to follow Baltimore purchasing data. $11,376.04 for carpet cleaning, anyone?

Baltimore City Hall. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

One way to spread civic data is to take it straight to social media — and a new Twitter account is doing just that.
Dave Troy launched @baltcontracts after seeking an easier way to search the city’s purchasing website. Now you can see what the city is budgeting for catering, software and even carpet cleaning.


On Facebook, Troy wrote that he made a script to extract the purchasing data to a Google spreadsheet earlier this week.
By the end of the week, the Twitter account appeared. Troy is maintaining the account, and he credited Gus Sentementes with the idea for it.

Companies: City of Baltimore / X (formerly Twitter)

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