Participatory Budgeting 2017: and the winners are

PB 33 Results 005web — District 33’s Participatory Budgeting Coordinator Ben Solotaire and Council Member Stephen Levin with some of the project leaders whose efforts to brough out a record 3789 votes for their district.

District 33

“How do we restore our relationship with government? It’s daunting [especially] with the federal government. The antidote is to engage locally and you all have done that,” stated Council Member Stephen Levin at District 33’s reveal of the winning projects.

3789 voted in District 33’s Participatory Budgeting this year, this was about 1000 more votes than they received last year. The increase was attributed to the convenience of being able to vote online (1200 voted by paper ballot). $1.58M will fund the six winning projects in District 33. These four are in North Brooklyn: Real Time Bus Clocks on the B62/B32 bus routes, renovated toddler playground at Independence Towers, new electrical for AC at Monitor School, and a STEAM Lab for PS 31 Samuel Dupont Elementary School

District 34

PB 34 2017 003 web — Maria Caceres a teacher from PS 257 shows where her school’s project is on the ballot. Her school was one of the winners.

District 34 had three winning projects that netted the $1M allocated for Participatory Budgeting projects. The three winners are all in our community: an auditorium facelift for PS 147, an auditorium upgrade for PS 257, and technology upgrades for PS 319 & EBC High School. However, like in years past, Council Member Reynoso has picked a couple projects to additionally fund. The one (of the two) that is in Williamsburg will receive $500K (of which $100K will be funded through Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams) for and upgrade of NYCHA Hope Gardens’ community center.