Participatory Budgeting Has Arrived In St. Louis
Imagine residents in your ward coming together to suggest ideas on how to ward spend capital improvement funds. Dream on, right? People are apathetic and don’t participate, according to the usual narrative. Well, residents of the 6th ward don’t have to imagine, they just need to show up with ideas — and they have been. On Wednesday I got to witness the 2nd participatory budgeting assembly in the 6th ward, a very reaffirming experience at a time when democracy is breaking down nationally. Watch this brief video for an overview and go to pbstl.com.
If you’re a resident of the 6th ward and want to participate, you’ve got a few more opportunities this week:
- Monday, October 14th
Stray Dog Theater
2348 Tennessee Ave
6:30pm-8:30pm - Wednesday, October 16th
Lafayette Park United Methodist Church
2300 Lafayette Ave
6:30pm-8:30pm - Saturday, October 19th
Barr Branch Library
1701 S Jefferson Ave
10:00am-12:00pm
Have an idea but can’t attend? No problem, email your idea.
Once all the ideas are collected, volunteer budget delegates will work with city departments to turn them into projects, with real budgets. Then, in April 2014, 6th ward residents will get a chance to vote to see what gets funded. Will they pick one $100,000 or five $20,000 projects?
No matter what gets funded, citizens are participating in their community.
— Steve Patterson
This is a good thing. This is also a good example of not having to change the law or having to modify the charter to implement change. The alderman, through simple leadership, reached out beyond the normal core of “participants” (the Democratic party and major contributors) and opened up the process. The next step will be seeing the process actually taken to completion – I’m a bit cynical, having been involved in several “public” processes around here, only to see much of the public “input” ultimately ignored. Hopefully this one works out better, and to the ward’s residents’ satisfaction.
This is a very good thing, the usual public process goes something like this:
Official: I’ve decided to spend $100,000 in ward funds on a roller rink
Resident: I don’t like the idea
Official: Too late, already committed. Should’ve spoke up sooner.
Resident: You never asked anyone
Official: Not true, the five people I always talk to said it was a good idea.
I also agree that it is a good start. What is just as important is to keep it up over an extended period to develop the process further. I tend to agree with JZ. I have found public input pretty well ignored in the past. The other tactic used is to make predetermined ideas appear as a choice. For instance do you favor route a over route b and not whether a new route should be constructed at all. But definitely it is way past time to explore new, transparent and inclusion orientated methods of governing.
Please note that the options pictured do not take into account broader questions of governing, such as city planning policy and expenditures. For instance why not a discussion for the need of form based zoning on such and such street.
If everything stays on this minor whether I should cut my toe nails or not level, the effort to get this going will likely fail as residents still have no real voice in government and ultimately they will understand that fact.