AustinTalks (http://austintalks.org/tag/participatory-budgeting/)
29th Ward residents approved six out of seven projects that will be completed over the next several months. The projects include street resurfacing, community park improvements and a pedestrian crosswalk, with a safety island.
Voting will be available to any resident of the 29th Ward who is 14 or older. Ballots will be available online on Ald. Chris Taliaferro’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. Voting ends Nov. 20.
Ald. Chris Taliaferro will be hosting a discussion on participatory budgeting in the 29th Ward. Residents will have a chance sometime in November to vote on the projects they think should be funded out of the alderman’s “menu money.”
The first of three meetings being held to discuss which neighborhood projects should be funded with “menu money” is set for June 14 at Amundsen Park. Two other gatherings are planned for Rutherford-Sayre Park and the Columbus Park Refectory later this month.
Ald. Chris Taliaferro says $700,000 in funding will pay for six projects – ranging from community gardens and murals to pedestrian islands and park equipment. Six months of community meetings and two weeks of voting determined how the menu money will be spent.
The last day to cast your vote is Saturday, June 4th. This is the first year West Siders have been asked to weigh in on how Ald. Chris Taliaferro will spend $700,000 in menu money.
At a recent community meeting, 29th Ward residents weighed in on their favorites, which will be paid for with “menu money.”
The first of Ald. Chris Taliaferro’s two meetings about participatory budgeting will be 6 to 8 p.m. Dec. 3.
New Ald. Chris Taliaferro says that kind of citizen input will have to wait for next year’s budget.