Fort Greene School, Library Among Cumbo's Budget Winners

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — Two projects in Fort Greene will get a portion of the more than $1 million that was up for grabs in Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo's participatory budgeting round this year.

Thousands of voters cast their ballot earlier this month to choose between 13 projects that were proposed for District 35, which includes Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights, Crown Heights and Bed-Stuy. The participatory budgeting process lets residents brainstorm, pitch and then vote on how to spend a portion of city funding in their community.

Among the six spots that won the money were local elementary school P.S. 67 and the Walt Whitman Library, both of which are on St. Edwards Street.

P.S. 67 will get $200,000 to renovate its third and fourth floor bathrooms and the library will be given $250,000 to install a new teen/young adult section. The money will cover the "initial outfitting" of the teen space, according to the proposals.

A few other local projects for Fort Greene and Clinton Hill were on the list of proposals, but didn't make the cut. These included a sculpture garden in Fort Greene Park, safety improvements near the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and Grand Avenue and technology upgrades at P.S. 56 on Gates Avenue.

Here are the other winning projects for the district, according to vote counts o Kings County Politics:

1. $100,000 for technology upgrades to the Medgar Evers College Prep campus with 2,555 votes
2. $200,000 to renovate the two girls' bathrooms on the first and second floor of P.S. 316 Elijah Stroud with
3. $50,000 to install trees and tree guards along Nostrand Avenue in the district with 1,633 votes
4. $250,000 to install a new teen/young adult section at Walt Whitman Library with 1,484 votes
5. $200,000 to renovate its third and fourth floor bathrooms at P.S. 67 Charles Dorsey Campus with 1,406 votes
6. $200,000 to convert an existing classroom into a hydroponics lab to increase Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) opportunities at P.S. 9 Sarah Smith Garnet with 1,393 votes