How 411 Works

Discover broadly. Verify narrowly. Preserve the evidence. Explain simply.

York + Lake Wylie 411 exists to answer one question: what’s actually happening around here? Development. New businesses. Schools. Roads. Events. Local government. The information is public — but it’s scattered across agendas, packets, minutes and announcements that almost nobody has time to read. We read them.

Where our information comes from

We use technology to continuously monitor official local sources, including:

• government records and meeting minutes
• planning and zoning documents
• school announcements
• transportation and road information
• other official local sources

When a source publishes something, we archive an exact copy of the original document before we do anything else. Every fact we publish stays connected to the official record it came from — that’s why our stories carry source links and “last verified” dates.

Where AI fits — and where it doesn’t

AI helps us discover, organize, extract, compare and summarize information from those records. It lets a small local operation read every agenda packet, every time.

But AI does not get the final word. Extracted information must quote the underlying document or it is rejected. Nothing becomes public without human editorial approval at this stage of the business. If our system can’t support a claim with evidence, we’d rather publish nothing than publish a guess.

Our principles

• Primary sources first. Official records over rumor, always.
• AI-assisted, human-reviewed. Technology reads; people decide.
• Proposal does not mean approval. A rezoning request is not a done deal, a recommendation is not a decision, and we label every stage precisely.
• Corrections are transparent. When we get something wrong, we say so — see our corrections page.
• No engagement-bait crime reporting. We don’t chase clicks with fear.

Historical vs. current

Government packets often republish years-old material. Our system dates every action and clearly labels older items as historical or background so the public record stays useful without old news masquerading as new.

York + Lake Wylie 411 is a 411 Network publication. Questions? Get in touch.