It’s Participatory Budget Time Again-Vote for Worthy Community Projects in D33

By on March 25, 2017 1:49 am in Brooklyn Heights, Government, News, Other Brooklyn, P.S. 8, schools

It’s Participatory Budgeting (or PB) time again and City Councilmember Steve Levin has “dedicated 1.5 million dollars to capital projects [in District 33] suggested and developed by community volunteers and you can help decide which ones get funded.”  Of the many proposals up for a vote are lockers for thirteen classrooms at M.S. 8 for a cost of $115,000.  The middle school currently has no lockers for the 6th through 8th students’ books and belongings.

Others proposed projects include repair of a Williamsburg toddler playground ($500,000), technology upgrades for two special needs schools ($250,000) in Bed-Stuy and Downtown Brooklyn and and STEAM and STEM labs for two schools in Williamsburg ($218,000 and $250,000 respectively) among others.  The full list can be found HERE.

District 33 residents 14 and over are able to vote online starting midnight on Saturday March 25th. Ballots may also be cast in person at several Brooklyn Heights sites (below) and others across the district found HERE.

P.S. 8 Robert Fulton School
37 Hicks Street
Monday, March 27th and Friday, March 31st
8:00AM – 10:00AM

Brooklyn Heights Library
109 Remsen Street
Tuesday March 28th
1:00PM – 3:00PM
Saturday, April 1st
11:00AM-2:00PM

Brooklyn Borough Hall
209 Joralemon Street, Borough Hall Plaza
Monday, March 27th – Friday, March 31st
9:00AM – 5:00PM

Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket
209 Joralemon Street, Borough Hall Plaza
Tuesday, March 28th and Thursday, March 30th
8:00AM – 10:00AM

Want to volunteer to help with the process? Have questions? Contact Benjamin Solotaire at 718 875 5200 or bsolotaire@council.nyv.gov.

EDIT: The cost of the MS8 lockers has been corrected from $150,000 to $115,000.

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  • Slyone

    Cost for lockers at MS8 is $115K, not $150 — according to the ballot. Still high, but lower, and I understand the reason for a chunk of the costs is potential for need for asbestos abatement when they’re installed in the closets.

  • JDubs

    Can someone explain to me why Participatory Budgeting (PB) has become a process and a process that people seem to be embracing?

    Do we not elect officials to make decisions and hold them accountable to those decisions? Is this not an abdication of that role?

    Instead of demanding our council to finally get rid of “member items” PB now promulgates this arcane system and creates more inequity and harm by making the awarding of these funds a popularity contest and creates division across neighborhoods

    If people really think PB is the right answer than why don’t we make the entire budget a popularity contest

    Sunday morning rant over….

  • Fred

    PB gives the elected official credit for the taxpayers’ benevolence. Taxpayers should ask how much money is the elected handing out above and beyond the PB$? Schools should have lockers, teachers who teach for the benefit of students who are there to learn. Potholes should be filled, streets plowed and swept. Those we entrust with our tax dollars should serve without the payback of re-election. Lander and Levin embrace PB and promote it as a way to give the people a voice. Taxpayers don’t realize that the elected officials are playing a game with the taxpayers’ money.

  • SongBirdNYC

    Corrected. Thanks.

  • Andrew Porter

    Can’t vote on-line without a smart phone…