Melissa Mark-Viverito, Speaker of New York City Council
New York has been pioneering a massive PB initiative over the last few years and this continues to grow.
New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito recently announced in her State of the City address that the Council will appropriate new funding in the FY 2016 budget to expand the Participatory Budgeting (PB) process to public housing. In her address she states:
“Together we’re going to empower, we’re going to uplift and we’re going to make sure all New Yorkers are heard.”
This would be the first PB process in the U.S. that allows residents of public housing to vote directly on how to appropriate public money in their housing developments.
In a recent press release the Community Development Project at the New York based Urban Justice Center reports it has conducted research and evaluation of the process since PB’s inception in NYC in 2011. In the third year the process expanded to ten districts and saw nearly 17,000 people turn out to vote. Alexa Kasdan, Director of Research and Policy at CDP said:
“Our research has found that Participatory Budgeting in New York City expands civic engagement for those that are traditionally disenfranchised and provides new opportunities for people to advocate for concrete improvements in their communities. By expanding PB into the New York City Housing Authority, the City Council is taking an important step in ensuring that more New Yorkers can be directly involved in making important decisions about their homes and communities,”
- Read the City Council press release,
- Read about PB in New York
