Video: Democracy in Action
Check out the new video on participatory budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward: If you like the video, register on the website and vote for it in the contest!
Chicago's $1.3 Million Experiment in Democracy
The first year of participatory budgeting in Chicago’s 49th Ward concluded last week, with huge turnout for a final voting day. Residents selected 14 community projects for funding, and thanks to strong support from community members and the Alderman, preparations for next year’s process have already begun. Megan Wade Antieau and I have a new […]
Chicago Tribune: Spending out in the open for 49th Ward
Alderman Joe Moore of Chicago’s 49th Ward has an op-ed in the Chicago Tribune on his ward’s participatory budgeting process: Spending out in the open for 49th Ward From Chicago’s City Hall to the halls of Congress, important policy and spending decisions have been made for far too long by a handful of politicians behind […]
PBP at Affordable Housing Conference
I’ll be speaking about participatory budgeting as a tool for affordable housing at this conference on Saturday: No MAHS: No More “Affordable” Housing Scams Saturday, March 27 9:30 – 5 @ Hunter College West, 8th Floor 6 to 68th Street – Hunter College Affordable housing programs were designed to fail. They do not serve low-income […]
Video: Participatory Budgeting in Chicago
There’s a new video short on the 49th Ward Participatory Budgeting Process in Chicago:
Participatory Budgeting and Community Organizing: Update from Chicago
Participatory Budgeting continues to move forward in Chicago’s 49th Ward, thanks in large part to community organizing. Since November, dozens of community representatives have been meeting regularly in six committees: Parks & Environment, Public Safety, Traffic Safety, Streets, Transportation, and Art & Other Projects. Starting with ideas proposed at neighborhood assemblies, they have been developing […]
PB in the Pacific
Some news from the Pacific: The organization Foundation of the Peoples of the South Pacific International (FSPI) has implemented 2 PB projects recently. One is called ‘Making Resource Allocation Pro Poor and Participatory in the Pacific (funded by the ADB) and the other is a current project called ‘People, Participatory Democracy and Policy: A PB […]
Reportback: International PB Conference in Berlin
On January 21st and 22nd, Berlin hosted a coming-out party for participatory budgeting in Germany. After years of smaller seminars and local experiments in PB, around 200 politicians, public employees, practitioners, and scholars gathered for an International Conference on Participatory Budgeting Models. They discussed experiences from diverse cities in Europe, Africa, Latin America, and North […]
New Google Group
To replace the defunct participatory budgeting email list at topica.com, The Participatory Budgeting Project and the PB Facebook group are launching a new PB google group. The purpose of the group is to facilitate information exchange, discussion, and collaboration between people working with PB. We invite you to join the group at http://groups.google.com/group/participatorybudgeting/
Democracy for Christmas: Voting on Gifts for Baby Jesus
In the UK city of Newcastle, children are using participatory budgeting to celebrate Christmas. To connect with the city’s UDecide initiative, the Scotswood Play Centre added audience voting into this year’s nativity play. As the play centre’s manager described: “We felt that to include the U-decide concept in the play would introduce children to the […]
