Residents of four City Council districts will soon vote on how to spend municipal funds that will pay for expenditures in their communities, like planting trees and installing security lights. City councilmembers in these districts pledged at least $1 million each to the projects their constituents select during a pilot program called participatory budgeting. Our reporters, in stories published by City Limits, offered an overview of the process and looked at how it’s progressing in the four districts. Here’s what they found:
•In Kensington, Brooklyn, citizen budget delegates learned quickly how expensive seemingly simple projects – like building a dog park or refurbishing a handball court – can be.
•In East Harlem, volunteers have whittled down 500 suggested projects to a more modest number – all while expanding the scope of the surviving proposals.
•In the Rockaways, delegates are debating proposals ranging from neighborhood beautification efforts to creating free parking at Rockaway Park.
•In Flatbush, Brooklyn, some of the district’s youngest constituents – cheerleaders, football players and track runners at Tilden High School – are pushing for lights on their football field.
