The People’s Money: Idea Generation Session

This September, the NYC Civic Engagement Commission (CEC) will be launching The People’s Money – NYC’s first-ever citywide participatory budgeting process! All New Yorkers age 11 and up will be able to decide how to spend $5 million of mayoral expense funding.

To kick-off Phase 1,  The Baychester Library will be hosting an idea generation session. This is your opportunity to submit an idea for a better city!

In the session you will learn about the city budget cycle, identify community needs, and brainstorm ideas for expense projects. You can also view events as they are scheduled on the NYC Civic Engagement Commission website. Residents can also propose ideas online on the CEC website: participate.nyc.gov   Join the conversation and make a difference in your community! 

What is Participatory Budgeting: Participatory budgeting (PB) is a democratic process in which community members decide how to spend  part of a public budget. PB originated in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1989 as an anti-poverty intervention. Since then, it’s been implemented in over 10,000 municipalities across the world to help residents directly decide  budgets for states, counties, cities, housing authorities, schools, and other institutions.

The History of PB and the Civic Engagement Commission (CEC): PB was brought to NYC in 2010 by four City Council Members – Brad Lander, Melissa Mark-Viverito,  Jumaane Williams, and Eric Ulrich. Since then, over 33 City Council districts have invited their residents to  decide how to spend public funds in a process called PBNYC.

In November 2018, close to one million New Yorkers voted in a citywide referendum proposed by the 2018 Charter Revision Commission for a ballot initiative creating the CEC and mandating it to implement a citywide participatory budgeting program. This mandate can be found in Chapter 76 of the NYC Charter.

Assistive Listening and ASL