Local News
The city is giving residents an extra week to pitch projects for the latest round of participatory budgeting.
Bostonians have an extra week to weigh in on how the city should spend $2 million of its public budget.
The city announced Friday that it’s extending the deadline for submissions in its third round of participatory budgeting from July 31 to Aug. 7, giving residents more time to suggest projects that could ultimately receive city funding.
“Deadline extended — now through August 7, Boston residents have the power to decide how to spend $2 million of the City’s budget. Visit boston.gov/participate to submit your ideas,” the City of Boston wrote on its official Instagram account Friday.
Participatory budgeting allows Boston residents to directly shape how a portion of the city’s budget is spent by submitting ideas, helping refine proposals, and later voting on finalists, according to officials.
“We’re giving residents another week,” Renato Castelo, director of Boston’s Participatory Budget Office, told WBUR. “You don’t have to be a budget expert” to submit an idea, he said. Instead, residents only need to provide “two to three sentences explaining what it is that they want to see.”
Ideas must involve a one-time investment rather than an ongoing expense, be something the city can complete using existing staff and resources, and fall under Boston’s authority, according to Castelo.
“For example, something related to the MBTA is something that we cannot do, because that’s the state,” Castelo told WBUR.
The city also evaluates proposals through what Castelo described as a “lens of equity.”
“We want to make sure that the projects that come out of the Participatory Budgeting process impact residents who need it most,” he told the outlet.
People interested in submitting an idea can do so through Boston’s participatory budgeting website at participate.boston.gov, or by calling 617-635-3059.
The online form asks people to describe their idea: “Tell us about the issue you want to address. Why is this idea a priority and beneficial to the community?” It also asks them to explain how the idea would advance racial and social equality, and guides participants in organizing ideas into categories such as arts and culture, public safety, and streets and sidewalks.
Past winning projects have included a $400,000 immigrant legal defense fund, a farmers market coupon program, new bus stop benches, and rat-resistant dumpsters, according to WBUR.
Once submissions close on Aug. 7, city staff will review proposals throughout August to decide whether they meet eligibility requirements. Community forums and workshops are planned for the fall to develop ideas before finalists are chosen.
Residents will then have the opportunity to vote on the final proposals during a citywide voting period scheduled for Jan. 15 through Feb. 15.
Morgan Rousseau is a freelance writer for Boston.com, where she reports on a variety of local and regional news.
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