For Rosalina Garcia, this year’s Participatory Budgeting (PB) process within the 11th Council District, which covers Norwood, was her first. And it was an eye opener and one she proudly described as a “very interesting journey.”

“You see how the [council members] want to spend the money to help the community, and that’s rare because usually politicians like to fill their own pockets,” said Garcia. On April 26, Council Member Andrew Cohen, one of 31 council members participating in PB, announced the results of the yearly PB to volunteers and District 11 residents in front of the 52nd Precinct.

PB, which has taken off in the last few years, lets constituents decide how $1 million from a City Council Member’s annual capital budget should be spent.

Winning Projects

The winning projects include the installment of security cameras in the 47th, 50th and 52nd precincts, a technology upgrade for eight schools within the district, and a renovated ADA accessible bathroom at the Riverdale Library. They will each receive a cut of the $1 million budget for community-driven capital improvement, a portion of the $5 million allocated to Cohen by the state.

Beginning last fall, residents submitted their proposals for capital projects to Neighborhood Assemblies on the New York City Council website and through emails to Cohen’s office. This year community volunteers, including Garcia, reviewed over 125 proposals, and created the ballot with the final 10.

“Each idea has to be vetted to make sure that it’s viable and the agency that we’re funding ultimately can do the project and supports doing the project,” said Cohen. According to Cohen, the process of streamlining the proposals was extensive for PB volunteers, but valuable.

The PB process gives community members over the age of 14 and non-citizens the opportunity to vote. Exactly 2,237 residents voted at the end of March, each choosing projects they wanted to see come to fruition. According to Cohen, voting has increased by 27 percent from the previous year. This could be due to the addition of online voting, which drew in around 700 voters.

“There are fringe benefits of civic engagement and young people getting an opportunity to vote,” said Cohen. “We try to get them into the habit of knowing, ‘your vote matters.’”