Every year, aldermen in Chicago receive $1 million (labeled “menu money”) with a designated use for various ward infrastructure projects, such as revamping playgrounds, mending roads and sidewalks, putting in new streetlights, etc. Typically, city leaders make the decisions about allocating the money behind closed doors without much public input. However, a new experiment in Chicago is handing over authority to city residents and letting them decide how to spend the menu money. And the aldermen aren’t just asking for residents’ opinions on the matter; they want residents to make real decisions about how to spend their tax dollars.
In a process known as participatory budgeting, ward residents will have the opportunity to prioritize and decide how to spend the allotted $1 million budget. By means of a vote, residents choose infrastructure projects that they would like to see implemented to improve their communities. Per the PB Chicago website:
Participatory budgeting is grassroots democracy at its best. The process will make the aldermanic menu program more transparent and accessible, it will open up participation to people who have never before been involved and it will make government spending more effective. Who knows better what is needed in our communities than the people who live there?
Indeed, the people living within the ward boundaries have the best perspective on what’s needed in their communities and thus are a valuable resource to be used in the decision-making process. By creating a more inclusive process that draws on the entire community to distribute public dollars more equitably, participatory budgeting becomes a community building effort that inspires collaboration to solve neighborhood challenges.3 budget cycle. Aldermen Leslie Hairston (5th), John Arena (45th), James Cappleman (46th), and Joe Moore (49th) will be piloting the project. In 2009, Joe Moore launched the first PB process in the U.S., modeling it after efforts in Brazil.
Currently, neighborhood assemblies have been taking place in each of the four wards, with residents participating and generating spending ideas. Below are fliers with information for upcoming meetings.
49th Ward Assemblies (Spanish)
