National League of Cities Congress in Denver
The Participatory Budgeting Project will be co-hosting a workshop in Denver this week at the 2010 Congress of the National League of Cities, the annual gathering of municipal government officials. If your local elected officials might be attending, please let them know about our session with Cities for Progress on Thursday, December 2nd: Participatory Budgeting: […]
Could Participatory Budgeting Work in New York?
In this guest post, Pratt Institute‘s Laura Stinger recaps a panel discussion held in Brooklyn on October 29th, to discuss Chicago’s recent experience with participatory budgeting, and the possibilities for similar initiatives in New York:
During an evening event held at Pratt Institute to discuss the future of participatory budgeting in New York City, Chicago Alderman Joe Moore was joined by New York City Council Member Brad Lander, Bronx Community Board 7 District Manager Fernando Tirado, and Community Voices Heard representative Anne Washington. This post recaps the presentations and discussions from the event.
After introductions by Eve Baron of the Pratt Center, the Alderman screened a short film to illustrate the participatory budgeting (PB) process in his ward, from formation of the steering committee, to brainstorming sessions, to presenting ideas, and finally voting. After the film, the Alderman explained why he felt compelled to use participatory budgeting as a way to tackle the lack of citizen influence in city government.
In Chicago, most city-wide decisions are made by…
Video: Participatory Budgeting in New York
On October 29, the Participatory Budgeting Project co-sponsored a panel discussion on participatory budgeting at Pratt Institute in New York. Chicago Alderman Joe Moore shared his experience with participatory budgeting, in which he invited residents of his ward to directly decide how to spend his $1.3 million discretionary budget. New York City Council Members, Community Board representatives, and community activists then responded to Moore’s presentation, discussing if and how community members could be more involved in budget decisions in New York.
Below are two videos of the event, first of the Alderman’s presentation, then of the responses from other panelists.
From Budget Cuts to a People’s Budget? Connecting Participatory Planning and Public Budgets in New York from Prattplanning on Vimeo.
Participatory Budgeting Panel Discussion from Jesse G on Vimeo.
Participatory Budgeting Events in New York
At the end of October The Participatory Budgeting Project is sponsoring two public talks in New York City, featuring Chicago Alderman Joe Moore, who launched the first US participatory budgeting process this past year. See below for info. If you are interested in setting up similar events in your city, send us an email.
3 Participatory Budgets Honored for "Vitalizing Democracy"
From Tiago Peixoto: The Bertelsmann Foundation has announced the 7 finalists of the Reinhard-Mohn Prize 2011 “Vitalizing Democracy”. To this competition, 158 cases of democratic innovations from all over the world have been submitted. Amongst the 7 finalists chosen by the jury, 3 cases are related to innovations in the field of Participatory Budgeting (2 […]
Year Two of Participatory Budgeting in Chicago
Participatory Budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward is starting its second year, looking to build on the success of last year. Over the summer, a group of organization representatives and community representatives from the first year of PB formed a PB Leadership Committee, to help coordinate the process. The Leadership Committee finalized dates for the first […]
Project Censored highlights participatory budgeting in Chicago
Good news and bad news: Project Censored, the media democracy organization, has named participatory budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward as one of the top underreported stories of hope and creative change of the past year.
New Website Up
We recently redesigned the Participatory Budgeting Project website. In particular, we streamlined the Resources section. Rather than trying to provide exhaustive (and exhausting) lists of everything PB, we’re now highlighting a limited number of PB experiences, publications, and organizations that we think are most relevant for North America. We will continue to add more resources […]
San Francisco Community Congress
On August 14th and 15th, the San Francisco Community Congress will be discussing a range of policy initiatives and directions for the city, and participatory budgeting is on the short list:
Participatory Budgeting at the US Social Forum
The Participatory Budgeting Project is excited to announce a special workshop at the US Social Forum in Detroit, featuring organizers of the first participatory budgeting process in the US (Chicago’s 49th Ward) and the largest process in North America (Toronto Community Housing). Participatory Budgeting in the US: Public Control Over Public Money June 25, 2010 […]
