How To Pick Which Brooklyn Projects Get City Funding

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Does your neighborhood park need a diaper changing station? Or maybe you'd rather have a reading garden with WiFi at the local library? Or, just maybe, you want both?

All of these options could become a reality with this year's vote for the Participatory Budget, which lets residents decide how to spend a portion of city funding in their neighborhoods. Voting for Brooklyn's District 39, which stretches from Carroll Gardens down to Borough Park, will start this weekend and give residents until April 7 to cast their votes.

This year, $1.5 million for one-time capital projects and $50,000 for more long-term expenses is up for grabs and the year-long process for brainstorming, researching and presenting projects has come up with no shortage of interesting ways to spend the money.

Here are this year's pitches:

• Capital Projects
• A $250,000 "down payment" for an elevator at the 7th Avenue and 9th Street station.
• $500,000 toward sidewalks at Prospect Park's Litchfield Villa parking lot
• $140,000 for new all-gender bathrooms and water fountains at MS 51 on 5th Avenue
• $600,000 for tile to replace hazardous flooring at PS 130 Lower School
• $500,000 for a new playground at P.S. 58, one of the last elementary schools to have a "plain, unshaded, tarmac for a playground."
• $300,000 for bleachers and seating at Brooklyn Secondary School for Collaborative Studies
• $350,000 for a reading garden with WiFi for the Borough Park Library on 43rd Street

• Expense Projects
  • $6,500 for diaper changing stations for nine parks and playgrounds around the district
  • $8,000 for trash bins district-wide to improve the "rampant" litter problem
  • $7,000 for a "tool lending library" led by Garden Train at the Old Stone House
  • $15,000 to strengthen the District 15 middle school Diversity Plan with videos as an alternative to in-person tours
  • $5,000 for a young adult space at the Pacific Library on 4th Avenue
  • $16,000 for One World Project in Windsor Terrace to train Spanish-speaking teens to become educators
  • $15,000 for to repair the Brooklyn Housing and Family Services office in Kensington, which has not been updated since 1992
  • $7,460 for livestream equipment for Interference Archive to improve ongoing public events and podcasts
  • $7,600 for Muslims Thrive to offer bilingual mental health first aid training
  • $10,000 for five sessions of sewing circles in Kensington for survivors of domestic violence

A full description of each project and why it is needed can be found on the district's Participatory Budget website, along with information about where to vote. An overview of the Participatory Budget process is also on the website.

Voting will take place throughout the district from March 30 to April 7.