By Gus Saltonstall
It is the most magical time of year.
Participatory budgeting season.
Both Upper West Side Councilmembers Gale Brewer and Shaun Abreu are looking for ideas from residents on how they should each spend up to $1 million in funding in the neighborhood.
The idea submission phase will last until November 28, which will then be voted on by the public in the spring. The ideas that receive the most votes from locals during that period will be granted funding in the upcoming New York City budget.
If you want your project to have a chance at qualifying, it must cost at least $50,000 to complete, and it must have a lifespan of more than five years if it has to do with infrastructure, or at least three years if it involves electronics, such as funding the purchasing of laptops for a local school or library.
Here are some of the Upper West Side and Morningside Heights ideas submitted so far.
- Convert the grass soccer field in Riverside Park at West 70th Street to astroturf.
- Add left-turn green-light signals along West 79th Street.
- Install guards for trees along West 98th Street.
- Create an indoor space for deliveristas to shelter, wash, and eat meals at West 103rd Street and West End Avenue.
Another submitted idea that caught the eye was to create a “swimming beach” at the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir.
“Dump some sand. Create a beach. Earn money from naming rights. The water is clean. You could use 5 percent of the surface area of the reservoir leaving lots of space for wildlife,” explained the anonymous person who submitted the proposed project.
Ideas that have received funding on the Upper West Side and in Morningside Heights in the past include additional security cameras on streets, new tree guards, staircase repairs in Riverside Park, and funding for locals schools to repair air conditioning systems.
You can check out all of the proposed ideas so far, and also submit your own local funding idea — HERE.
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Subsidize all of the empty retail spaces to bring back mom and pop shops.
Two of the examples used here do not meet the criteria. Additionally, as evidenced by what is on the website, many of the submissions do not meet the criteria. The fact that so many cannot follow the most simple of instructions is troubling.
Agreed. Many of the “projects” are just rants or random musings. Even the ones that target a problem are so vague they’re useless, like “fix the park.” Seriously?
I love the idea of participatory budgeting, but think it could benefit from reason-giving (or at least more access to reason giving), since not all proposals are self explanatory. Why is astroturf better than real grass at 70th? (Astroturf is less environmentally friendly and causes worse burns when you slide on it.) What restrictions if any would there be for use of a space for deliveristas? Would unhomed folks also be able to shower and rest there? Etc…
If there are good forums where this discussion is already taking place, please let us know!
Astroturf is terrible, does not last, and extremely expensive and not environmentally friendly. And why is the city paying to hose private companies employees. Let the delivery companies with record profits pay for this.
Those are all terrible. Invest in trees, benches, lighting, cameras. Parks and school improvements should be paid for by the city budget.
There were a couple of good ideas in there. I liked the proposal to draw clear lines on the sidewalk to show where there’s a driveway or garage entrance so pedestrians (especially young ones!) know when to stop and pay extra attention. Probably fairly inexpensive–but perhaps would be better implemented by requiring garages and driveway owners to paint those lines of demarcation themselves.
Converting a grass field to astroturf would be an awful mistake. Parks only has so many of those left in Manhattan, and there are new ones coming online in riverside park south.
Fund neighborhood crime patrols.
New concept – Return money to taxpayers.
This whole “Participatory Budgeting” is a scam that people fall for every year.