Over the past eight months, the residents of Eastern Queens have embarked on a new and unusual way to decide how $1 million of government funds would get spent. The results exceeded my expectations and once again proved the value of public participation in government.
Our million-dollar decision, through a process called participatory budgeting (PB), turned out 1,116 residents of Council District 23 to vote, and they were part of more than 10,000 PB voters across New York City. The wave of positive responses that I received from constituents attests to how PB empowers communities, cultivates civic engagement, and encourages young people to get involved in the democratic process.
