Chicago Election Results

Chicago's municipal elections this Tuesday delivered good news for participatory budgeting. Joe Moore won the 49th Ward in a landslide with 72% of the vote, after barely winning in a runoff last election.

Amongst the other candidates who pledged to launch PB in their wards, 8 won office:
1st Ward: Proco "Joe" Moreno
5th Ward: Leslie Hairston
7th Ward: Sandi Jackson
28th Ward: Jason Ervin
29th Ward: Deborah Graham
30th Ward: Ariel Roboyras
47th Ward: Ameya Pawar
48th Ward: Harry Osterman

Six other PB supporters are heading for run-off elections on Tuesday April 5th:
17th Ward: David Moore
25th Ward: Cuahutemoc Morfin
43rd Ward: Michelle Smith
45th Ward: John Arena
46th Ward: James Cappleman
50th Ward: Deborah Silverstein

Posted by: SJBoatwright at February 28, 2011 02:56 PM

PB candidates in Chicago elections

Chicago is holding municipal elections on February 22nd, and participatory budgeting is on the ballot, indirectly at least. Alderman Joe Moore, who launched PB in Chicago's 49th Ward, is up for re-election. Following Moore's lead, many other alderman candidates are also calling for PB. A few examples:
- Valerie Leonard, 24th Ward
- Emily Steward, 46th Ward
- Ameya Pawar, 47th Ward
- Ahmed Khan, 50th Ward
- Bertha Starks, 8th Ward

The Independent Voters of Illinois-Independent Precinct Organization (IVI-IPO) distributed a questionnaire to all alderman candidates, and question 27 asked "Will you institute participatory budgeting to allow ward residents to vote on discretionary spending in your ward?" Of the 88 candidates that responded, only 17 said 'No.' Two did not respond, and 69 responded 'Yes.' Of the 69 that responded 'Yes', seven are incumbents.

New Videos on Participatory Budgeting in Argentina & Brazil

The Bertelsmann Foundation has posted short videos (in English) describing the seven finalists for the 2011 “Vitalizing Democracy” Prize. 158 democratic innovations from around the world were submitted, and three of the finalists are cases of participatory budgeting. Each case also uses technology in innovative ways, for SMS-voting, internet voting, electronic ballots, or online forums.
1) La Plata (Argentina)
2) Belo Horizonte (Brazil)
3) Recife (Brazil)

Cincinnati's 40k Challenge

There's a new participatory budgeting initiative in Cincinnati's Price Hill neighborhood. The 40k Challenge, run by the organization Price Hill Will, is inviting community members to decide how to spend $40,000.

Starting with a public meeting in December 2010, organizers are asking people to generate project ideas and proposals for four themes: business & entertainment, community cooperatives, community promotion & connection, and public spaces & things to do in them. Like in Chicago's 49th Ward, project teams will then refine the proposals and present them to the public for a vote.

The pot of money may be small, but the 40k Challenge shows how an organization can open up budget funds to the public, and spark more community engagement in the process. Could this be a new model for participatory budgeting?

Talk at Columbia

For those in the New York area, I'll be speaking at Columbia University's Lectures in Planning series next week:

Talk: Participatory Budgeting in the US: Public Control Over Public Money
Speaker: Josh Lerner, The Participatory Budgeting Project
February 15, 1:00PM
Avery Hall 114

Faced with huge budget crises and low public trust, governments are increasingly turning to participatory budgeting. Through this democratic process, community members directly decide how to spend part of a public budget. Since emerging in 1990 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, participatory budgeting has spread to over 1,000 cities around the world, giving communities control over spending decisions in municipalities, public housing, and schools. As Co-Director of The Participatory Budgeting Project, Lerner has researched and helped develop participatory budgeting processes in North America over the past decade. In 2009, he worked with Chicago Alderman Joe Moore to launch the first participatory budget in the US, in which over 1,600 residents decided how to spend Moore's $1.3 million discretionary budget. This talk will focus on the recent experience in Chicago and on new possibilities for participatory budgeting in New York.