City of Cambridge Participatory Budgeting

4,184 Cambridge residents age 12 and older voted in the City's second Participatory Budgeting process - a 53% increase over the first process! 

This time, 7 projects won funding:

1. Cambridge Prepared Food Rescue Freezer Van ($48,000)
2. Separate Bike Lanes from Traffic ($50,000)
3. 5 Water Bottle Refill Stations ($40,000)
4. Make Massachusetts Avenue Safer for Bikers ($70,000)
5. Shape Up Our Squares! ($40,000)
6. Faster, Better #1 Bus for Cambridge ($250,000)
7. New Chairs for Cambridge Public Schools! ($102,000)

 The breakdown of votes was as follows:

Over 4,000 Cambridge residents voted in the City's second Participatory Budgeting vote December 5-12, 2015! 

Want to find out which projects won?  Once we finish tallying all of the ballots, we'll announce the results at a party at the Citywide Senior Center on Thursday, December 17 from 7-8pm.  Please join us! 

Above: Steering Committee members fold ballots to prepare for vote week 

It's finally here!  Cambridge's second Participatory Budgeting vote kicks off on Saturday, December 5, 2015.  

Please join us tomorrow at the CambridgeSide Galleria near the food court between 12-4pm to talk with Budget Delegates, check out the poster displays they made for each project on the ballot, and vote for your favorite PB initiatives!

To watch this video with English subtitles, please click here.  Se puede ver el vídeo con subtítulos en español aquí.

From December 5-12, 2015, Cambridge residents who are 12 and older will be able to vote for up to 6 of the 23 creative and interesting projects on this year's Participatory Budgeting ballot. 

Since ballot space is limited, the ballot will only contain the title, cost, location, and short description for each of the 23 projects. 

To read the full project proposals (which include longer descriptions and images), please click here to download the PDF. 

Which projects will you choose? How would you spend $600,000 to improve Cambridge?

Last week, 21 laptops purchased with Participatory Budgeting funds arrived at the Community Learning Center (CLC).  This is the first project from the City's pilot PB process to be completed. 

The CLC helps adults improve their lives and increase their community participation through free educational programs and services, which include English language classes; reading, writing, and math classes; preparation for High School Equivalency examinations, college or training programs, and the U.S. citizenship test; career counseling; tutoring; and basic computer instruction. 

CLC students and teachers will be able to use these laptops as part of classroom activities, to research local resources and job opportunities, to learn about the projects on the ballot in the upcoming PB vote, and of course to vote for their favorite PB projects between December 5-12!

After consulting with community outreach workers and families, the Public Health Department's Agenda for Children Literacy Initiative ordered 231 bilingual books in 11 languages with half of the Participatory Budgeting allocation for this winning project.

This batch of books includes stories in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Hindi, Nepali, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Urdu (all bilingual with English).

Interview by Steering Committee member Leonardi Aray

Q: How did you hear about Participatory Budgeting? 

I received flyers in the mail and heard about it from you, my neighbor.

Q: Why are you involved with PB?

Community is really important to me. I was looking for ways to actively engage with the Cambridge community, putting down roots here and creating a stronger sense of connection to place. I also wanted to better understand Cambridge city government and politics. I have always been an environmental advocate and politically engaged.

Q: Tell us about the process you are currently involved with and some of the challenges.

I am on the PB Health, Safety, and Environment Committee. We just submitted 10 proposals for City review and feedback. When the PB process began I was hesitant about how it would unfold. It was challenging to see how it would all come together. However, after excellent discussion and deliberation as a committee, I am really proud of the proposals we submitted. The committee worked really hard and we took our roles as budget delegates seriously.

Above: Youth Delegates on the Parks, Recreation & Education committee use maps and other tools to help assess proposals

Last week, Budget Delegates submitted 36 proposals for final vetting and cost estimates by City staff.  The following list shows the proposals organized by Budget Delegate Committee.  

By PB Steering Committee member Karen Cuenca

The eight Budget Delegates on the Environment, Health & Safety Committee and their facilitator, Steve, have been meeting once a week at the Eastern Bank community room since September. They started the second cycle of Cambridge’s Participatory Budgeting (PB) project with 142 projects to research.

At their most recent committee meeting on October 6, the Delegates updated each other on their research progress and discussed which projects should move forward. Michelle Monsegur, Budget Analyst for the City of Cambridge, and Mary Regan, Community Organizer for the Participatory Budgeting Project, were also present at the meeting.

Over the course of the meeting, committee members talked about their efforts to follow up with the people who proposed the projects, conversations they had with community members, and what they found through their own research. Committee members who were unsure about next steps to take in their research were able to bounce ideas off of each other. Monsegur answered specific questions about project eligibility and directed committee members to specific City departments and contacts.