Lucas A. --
When we launched participatory budgeting in NYC six years ago, many people were skeptical. Some people still are. They see it as a gimmick, even a sham.
But at this moment -- more than ever -- I’m convinced it is a powerful tool. We’ve done a lousy job as stewards of our democracy, and we seeing the corrosive results. We urgently need to restore some faith in democracy as a vehicle for us to come together, across lines of differences, to solve problems and make decisions about how to improve our common life.
This year, more of you agreed than ever before. In the 39th Council District, we had a record PBNYC turnout of 7,145 voters.
And what you voted for makes a pretty strong case.
The top vote-getting project this year -- with the most votes any project in our district has ever received -- is a two-stall mobile shower trailer, proposed by the CHiPS soup kitchen, to allow their homeless guests a little dignity. Think about the difference it makes that the people of our district voted overwhelmingly to welcome this project. With a vote, we helped to combat NIMBYism, and to embrace compassion as a core value of our local democracy.
It turns out that working with neighbors to improve our public schools, parks, transit, and libraries brings out our best democratic impulses. We vote for projects that make our own lives better, but we also act generously. We create imaginative new public spaces, and we also solve some basic problems.
Two more examples help make the point.
We announced the 2017 PBNYC winning projects yesterday at the ribbon cutting for the brand new “Reading Circle and Storytelling Garden” at the Park Slope branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The garden features a storytelling amphitheater, paths, and planters. It remarkably converts an unused bit of grass into a joyful new public space to read, dream, play, learn, create, perform, plant, tend, and share stories.
The garden would not have happened with participatory budgeting, and the spirit it invokes. It was proposed by the Friends of Park Slope Library, supported by volunteer budget delegates, and selected by PBNYC voters as a winning project in 2015 (pretty impressive that it got done in just two years, too!).
PBNYC also helps us solve citywide problems. For the past several cycles, students and parents have proposed air-conditioning for schools where it is simply too hot to learn. We’ve voted for a couple of them. But our “District Committee” came to realize that it was not fair or practical to try to solve this problem one school at a time.
So we launched a citywide campaign, to win A/C for all of the 11,000 classrooms (about 26% of the total) that don’t have them. We did not care that these classrooms are concentrated in the Bronx and Queens. We knew that a citywide win would help all our kids.
And last week, we won! Mayor de Blasio adopted our plan to install A/C in all public school classrooms over the next five years.
Together, these three projects -- mobile showers for homeless neighbors, a library reading garden, and A/C for all -- show the power of PBNYC to help revitalize our democracy. When we work together to solve problems and improve our public institutions, we elevate our lives together.
Here’s the full list of the 2017 winning projects for PBNYC in the
39th Council District:
Winning Capital Projects (up to $1.5 million):
- CHiPS Mobile Showers for Homeless Neighbors
- Bring Water to Thomas Cuite Park (“Froggy Park”)
- More Street Trees Throughout the District
- Realtime Bus Arrival Info Near Subway Stops
- FabLab for MS 442 Project-Based STEM Learning
- A/C for Sweltering PS 230 Cafeteria
- Repavement of PS 130 Schoolyard
Winning “Expense” Projects (up to $50K):
- Tech for Immigrant Families & After-School Programs
- Creative Engagement for Alzheimer’s Patients & Training for Caregivers
- Empower Immigrant Workers by Supporting Local Cooperative
- Talking about Race & Equity in District 15 Schools
- #GOBK Bystander Intervention Training
See more information about all the winning projects here.
You can also keep up with past funded PB projects here.
Participatory budgeting -- no surprise -- takes a lot of hands. Enormous thanks to our District Committee, budget delegates, and delegate committee facilitators, who put in countless hours of their time. To everyone who volunteered to get out the vote. To my extraordinary staff, and the central City Council staff who helped us out. To our partner organizations, like the Participatory Budgeting Project, Community Voices Heard, D-21, Fifth Avenue Committee, and DRUM NYC. And to everyone who voted.
PBNYC is grassroots democracy at its very best. And at this moment, with so many threats to our democracy, it’s important to be reminded about the good we can do as a community, when we come together.
Thankful,
Brad