Residents of City Council District 19 will be once again vote on how to spend $1 million in the second year of participatory budgeting with Councilman Paul Vallone.
“Participatory budgeting is a great way to get the pulse of the community and see what everyone believes city dollars and resources should be spent on,” Vallone said. “Last year’s successful cycle, which garnered thousands of votes, shows the power and importance of this grassroots fueled process and I look forward to another great year.”
Participatory budgeting is a democratic process in which community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Residents make proposals according to what they believe the community needs, and vote on all of the proposals received to make a final decision on which will be funded.
As the first step in the process, Vallone is having brainstorming sessions at neighborhood assemblies where ideas will be proposed. “Budget delegates” will then be designated to help develop the ideas and to raise awareness of the proposals and the general process of participatory budgeting.
The scheduled neighborhood assemblies are as follows:
- Thursday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m. at the Poppenhusen Institute (114-04 14th Rd., College Point, NY 11356)
- Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. at St. Luke’s Pastoral Center basement (16-34 Clintonville St., Whitestone NY 11357)
- Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. at the board room of the Bay Terrace Coop Section 1 (Rear of 13-65 212th St., Bayside, NY 11360)
- Thursday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. at the Community Church of Little Neck (46-16 Little Neck Pkwy., Little Neck, NY 11363).
Anyone unable to attend the meetings can still submit an idea online by going to the District 19 participatory budget page.
Last year’s winning proposals in District 19 saw the funds being split between a state-of-the-art music studio for Bayside High School, an auditorium upgrade for P.S. 169 in Bay Terrace, technology upgrades for Bayside’s P.S. 159 and the installation of three NYPD security cameras throughout the district.
