Five winning projects from Boston’s first city-wide Participatory Budgeting vote to be announced tomorrow.
Contact: Helen "Homefries" Matthews, Better Budget Alliance, 617-784-1731, homefries@economicdemocracy.us
BOSTON, MA — Over the past 8 months, Bostonians have been flexing a new, direct form of democracy: participatory budgeting. Residents established the practice via a 2021 ballot question, then they began proposing ideas for how to spend $2M of the City's budget last summer. They whittled down the list from 1200+ ideas to only 14, and voted on their top five. Among the ideas were year-round jobs for youth, support for residents struggling with substance abuse, rental assistance, benches at bus stops, and other community investments.
The Better Budget Alliance, a city-wide coalition of grassroots organizations, mobilized over 1000 of the roughly 4500 votes. The coalition has been working with the City of Boston to ensure the process benefits communities enduring systemic disinvestment and neglect while calling for an increase from $2M to $40M for the next participatory budgeting cycle.
When: Tuesday, February 25th, 6pm-8pm
Where: Virtual meeting on Zoom (info and link to join are here).
What: Meeting of the City of Boston’s Participatory Budgeting Oversight Board, including major announcement of 5 winning projects that residents proposed and voted to implement from taxpayer dollars in the City’s coffers.
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The Better Budget Alliance, a city-wide coalition of grassroots organizations, mobilized over 1000 of the roughly 4500 votes. The coalition has been working with the City of Boston to ensure the process benefits communities enduring systemic disinvestment and neglect while calling for an increase from $2M to $40M for the next participatory budgeting cycle.
When: Tuesday, February 25th, 6pm-8pm
Where: Virtual meeting on Zoom (info and link to join are here).
What: Meeting of the City of Boston’s Participatory Budgeting Oversight Board, including major announcement of 5 winning projects that residents proposed and voted to implement from taxpayer dollars in the City’s coffers.
###
The Better Budget Alliance is a grassroots coalition of community-based organizations in Boston working to increase democratic control over Boston’s public budget.
