Ald. Chris Taliaferro and the 29th Ward office has finalized the ballot for this year’s participatory budget vote.
Voting will be available to any resident of the 29th Ward 14 or older from Wednesday, Nov. 6 through Wednesday, Nov. 20.
Ballots will be available online on the alderman’s website and in person at his office, 6272 W. North Ave.; at the Austin Chicago Public Library, 5615 W. Race Ave.; and at the North Austin Chicago Public Library, 5724 W. North Ave.
Voters will be deciding on these projects:
- Street resurfacing, which could tap from 60 to 100 percent of the roughly $1.3 million “menu” money available:
60% = $600,000 (10 streets)
70% = $700,000 (11 streets)
80% = $800,000 (13 streets)
90% = $900,000 (14 streets)
100% = $1,000,000 (16 streets) - Two new floodlights for Columbus Park tennis courts: $1,800
- A pedestrian crosswalk and safety island on North Avenue (between Mason and Mayfield venues): $160,000
- Community garden improvements:
- Rutherford Sayre Park: $5,000
- Harambe Community Garden: $5,000
- Austin Green Team Community Garden: $5,000
- Sixteen light pole identifiers (along Chicago Avenue between Central Avenue and Austin Boulevard): $160,000
- Twenty-five garbage cans (along Chicago Avenue between Central Avenue and Austin Boulevard): $110,000
- West Corcoran Place improvements (north exterior wall of the L track and underpasses at Mayfield, Menard and Parkside avenues): $90,000
This will be the third time Ald. Taliaferro is having 29th Ward residents help decide how to spend menu money the city allocates to each of the 50 wards.
Introduced in 2009, participatory budgeting started in the North Side 49th Ward with then-Ald. Joe Moore and has now been tried in 15 wards across the city; eight wards are currently using the process, according to UIC’s Great Cities Institute.
Taliaferro first brought up the idea of participatory budgeting during his first run for the 29th Ward seat in 2015, when he successfully challenged then-Ald. Deborah Graham, though he did not partner with Participatory Budgeting Chicago, a community project at UIC’s Great Cities Institute, until 2016.