Talking Transition: Participatory Budgeting

By Hollie Russon Gilman, Ph.D.
Talking Transition is hosting an open conversation about the future of New York City.  Inside a glittering white tent local civic organizations are collaborating to offer an interactive opportunity for New Yorkers to voice their governance opinions.  The tent contains interactive keypads, bulletin boards to post ideas, and survey opportunities throughout to share concerns and ideas for the new Mayor.
Different civic and community organizations are hosting discussions in the tent.  Opening weekend kicked off with Community Voices Heard and the Participatory Budgeting Project discussing an expanded Participatory Budgeting (PB) effort in New York City. The events are aimed to open up a traditionally closed electoral transition process.To a large extent, the event was aimed to educate residents about Participatory Budgeting (PB): what it is, how it works, and opportunities for scaling it across New York City.  People were invited to envision where and how they would spend $100 Million public dollars. Beyond donating money or voting, visioning expands the typical tenets of civic activity.
As explained in an earlier blog, NYC is currently well poised to consider an expansion of the use of PB across the city. There are however many questions we need to start answering. For example, how do we design a process that enables adequate room for visioning while also accommodating critical infrastructure needs? Further questions exist as to what funds will be allocated by residents and how the process itself will be funded.  A scaled up PB could benefit from shared process resources, but that will require new forms of cooperation between elected officials as well as amongst governments, foundations, and civil society. There is an opportunity to transition to a more engaged and open budget process, but there are lots of unknowns to address.
More events and activities of Talking Transition can be found here.