participatory budgeting

There were a number of gains for walking and biking in last week’s participatory budgeting election in the 45th Ward, a Far Northwest Side district represented by Alderman John Arena. Meanwhile, the city is moving forward with a safety overhaul of a stretch of Milwaukee Avenue within the ward. This project was watered down due to pressure from residents, but it will still be an improvement to the high-crash corridor.

The Chicago Department of Transportation has proposed to build the city's first-ever traffic diverters and bike-friendly speed humps, as part of the Leland Avenue neighborhood greenway through Uptown. The traffic diverter at Beacon will block cut-through car traffic, making Leland a quieter, more comfortable street for bicyclists. Speed humps would replace stop signs, and feature a gentle "sinusoidal" hump – quite a change compared to the "hitting the wall" feeling of the city's current speed humps.

For the second year in the row, voters passed over bicycle projects in the 45th Ward’s participatory budgeting election. But separately, a safety overhaul of Milwaukee Avenue, including protected bike lanes, may still be in the works for this Northwest Side district.

Earlier this week, I reported that the proposal for a north-south neighborhood greenway in Rogers Park was left off the 49th Ward participatory budgeting ballot, but that bike-priority route is still expected to become a reality. Similarly, 22nd Ward PB voters didn’t elect to fund a proposal for an east-west greenway in the Little Village neighborhood, but that doesn’t mean the idea is dead in the water.

I was nonplussed when I checked out the results of Saturday’s 49th Ward participatory budgeting election this morning. The most exciting proposal, a bike-priority neighborhood greenway, which was discussed at a community meeting in mid-April, wasn’t one of the winning projects, since it wasn’t even included on the ballot.

The city is gearing up to add 175 more Divvy bike-share stations this year, bringing the total to 475. On Thursday, 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore hosted a community meeting at Eugene Field elementary to discuss potential Divvy station locations within Rogers Park. The meeting also covered the proposed north-south neighborhood greenway that’s a ballot item in the ward’s upcoming participatory budgeting election. Joining Moore to discuss these projects were Chicago Department of Transportation deputy commissioner Sean Wiedel and bikeways planner David Smith.

As we recently reported, 5th Ward Alderman Leslie Hairston experimented with participatory budgeting process in 2013 but won’t be holding a PB election this year. However, it turns out that Hairston will still allow constituents to have some input on how the ward’s $1.3 million in discretionary “menu” funding is spent. Last year, only about one in 500 ward residents  voted in the budgeting election.

As we’ve seen in several wards, the participatory budgeting process often results in residents choosing to spend some of the ward’s discretionary “menu” funds on walking, biking, and transit projects. 47th Ward Alderman Ameya Pawar, has has opted not to hold a full-fledged PB election, but for the second year in a row, he's allowing constituents to have a say in how the district's money is spent via an online survey.

As we’ve recently reported, the 49th Ward is holding its fifth participatory budgeting election this year, the 45th Ward is holding its second, and the 22nd Ward is taking the process for a spin for the first time. However, the 5th and 46th wards, which experimented with PB last year, won’t be taking part.