Tuesday, September 17, 2013

FINDING WAYS TO SPEND ANOTHER MILLION DOLLARS IN YEAR THREE OF PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

Neighborhood Assembly for Participatory Budgeting
Monday, October 7th, 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Year three of participatory budgeting is going to get underway in just three weeks. In its first two years, fifteen capital projects were funded in neighborhoods within City Council District 39, Brad Lander's district.

The highest voter turnout in District 39 in 2012 was where Windsor Terrace and Kensington voted. In 2013, it was where Kensington voted. About half of the winning projects over the two years were for Kensington, Windsor Terrace, or both. Turning out for the vote in big numbers helped the two neighborhoods win.

The projects that got the most votes in 2012 are posted here. The 2013 winners are posted here. Among the winners were pedestrian safety, schools, libraries, and the environment.

When you go to the neighborhood assembly, bring suggestions with you about physical improvements or equipment that the neighborhood needs. You might want to suggest projects that were voted on last year or this year but didn't get enough votes. They might win this year. If you don't have any suggestions, go anyway and express your opinions about the ideas that other people have.

Other ways of suggesting ideas besides at neighborhood assemblies:
  • Attend meetings for
    • seniors,
    • teenagers,
    • speakers of languages other than English, or
    • community groups, civic organizations, block associations, tenant groups, houses of worship, or other kinds of groups. To arrange that, send an e-mail to Mr. Lander's office at lander [at] council.nyc [dot] gov.
  • E-mail them.
  • Phone them in.
  • Send them in the mail.
  • Submit them on a website that will be set up.
The October 7th neighborhood assembly will be held at the P.S. 230 Upper School, 1 Albemarle Road, between McDonald Avenue and Dahill Road. Click here to RSVP.

Click here to see the other KARMABrooklyn blog posts about participatory budgeting.