You study cities. Now follow one in real time.

Planning school teaches you the frameworks — land use, equity, sustainability, community engagement. But the decisions that actually shape cities happen in public meetings that are dense, long, and hard to follow.

Hamlet changes that. It lets you search, understand, and track what's being said at real planning commissions, city councils, and public agencies.

Pick a topic you care about:

🏠 Housing affordability & supply
🏗️ Zoning & land use
🚆 Transit & mobility
🌱 Climate & sustainability
🏙️ Downtown redevelopment
👥 Equity & community displacement
🛠️ Infrastructure & public space

Then ask the questions a planner asks:

1) Who shaped this decision — and who didn't have a seat at the table?
2) What tradeoffs were made between cost, equity, and feasibility?
3) Does the outcome move the community toward something more livable, or away from it?
4) What would you have recommended differently?

Open Claude at claude.ai and paste the following prompt exactly as written:

I want to use Hamlet at myhamlet.com/search to find a real planning issue in a real public meeting and think through it the way a planner would. Help me by asking one question at a time. Start with: what city, county, or public agency do I want to explore — my hometown, a city I have studied, or a place with a planning issue I already know about? Then ask: what planning topic matters most to me right now — housing, zoning, transit, equity, climate, infrastructure, or redevelopment? Then ask: what is my angle — am I more interested in the policy, the community impact, the design implications, or the political tradeoffs? After those three questions, give me specific search terms to use in Hamlet at myhamlet.com/search, specific questions to look for in the meeting transcripts, and planning frameworks to apply to what I find. Then help me think through: who had a voice in this decision and who did not, what tradeoffs were made between cost, equity, and feasibility, and what I would recommend differently and why. End by helping me summarize my finding in one clear insight — what happened, who it affects, and why it matters — something I could present to a community group, drop into a policy brief, or use as the basis for a public comment.

We created Hamlet TV to make local government more visible, memorable, and shareable.

From city councils and school boards to planning commissions and public agencies, we surface unforgettable clips from America’s local government, including surprising debates, public comments, funny moments, and decisions that shape everyday life.

Follow Hamlet TV to see your city in action, laugh a little, and stay connected to the local decisions people are actually talking about.

🔗https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6OdfDFY578UcEzOf_jv37Q

We help you search real public meetings and local government discussions. Use Hamlet to track how leaders talk about housing, zoning, transit, development, infrastructure, public safety, sustainability, and community needs.

Hamlet

Find What Your Community Is Deciding