By Imani Hall

Bronxites living in the northwest Bronx began a rare exchange with the city–fleshing out next year’s budget.  The process is part of Participatory Budgeting Program (PBP), and on Monday council member Andy Cohen’s chief of staff, Daniel Johnson, held a public info meeting, informing Bronxites about the project. 

How it works
The process begins with residents of Councilman Cohen’s Council District 11, comprised of Norwood, Bedford Park, Riverdale, and Kingsbridge to brainstorm ideas for impending delegate members to consider.

The delegates then craft proposals for residents, based on the ideas proposed by the residents. The most popular projects are the ones that get funded. The money is made up of capital money and is 20 percent of the full budget the district receives. This year, District 11’s budget was five million dollars. One million of it will be reserved for the PBP.

Who can participate?
Participatory Budgeting meetings are open to the public. However, public delegates must be at least 14 years old and live in, attend school, work, own a business, or have children who are a part of the district.  Voters must be at least 16 years old and a resident of the district.

The next meeting about the PBP will be held at the Thursday, July 10, Williamsbridge Oval Recreation Center at 7:00pm and is open for all community members to attend.

More details about the project can be found on its website, www.pbnyc.org.

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Welcome to the Norwood News, a bi-weekly community newspaper that primarily serves the northwest Bronx communities of Norwood, Bedford Park, Fordham and University Heights. Through our Breaking Bronx blog, we focus on news and information for those neighborhoods, but aim to cover as much Bronx-related news as possible. Founded in 1988 by Mosholu Preservation Corporation, a not-for-profit affiliate of Montefiore Medical Center, the Norwood News began as a monthly and grew to a bi-weekly in 1994. In September 2003 the paper expanded to cover University Heights and now covers all the neighborhoods of Community District 7. The Norwood News exists to foster communication among citizens and organizations and to be a tool for neighborhood development efforts. The Norwood News runs the Bronx Youth Journalism Heard, a journalism training program for Bronx high school students. As you navigate this website, please let us know if you discover any glitches or if you have any suggestions. We’d love to hear from you. You can send e-mails to norwoodnews@norwoodnews.org or call us anytime (718) 324-4998.