Submissions Open For Brad Lander's Participatory Budget

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — The time of year has come again for Brooklynites in Council Member Brad Lander's 39th District to decide how to spend more than $1.5 million in their neighborhoods.

The Participatory Budgeting process — which has residents brainstorm, pitch and vote on ideas for local funding — has opened in District 39, which stretches from Carroll Gardens down to Borough Park.

The council member each year has $50,000 for expense projects, or small services projects, and $1.5 million for capital projects, or larger one-time expenses, to allot to his constituents.

The funding will likely be more important than ever this year as New York City faces the ongoing coronavirus crisis and calls for racial justice.

"The projects that feel most urgent this year will, no doubt, be different," Lander's team wrote online. "Some may help our community rebuild from the Covid-19 crisis, addressing weaknesses the pandemic has exposed or needs it has revealed. Others may address racial injustices we’ve come to see more clearly in the wake of the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Daniel Prude."

Last year, the winners for funding included a new subway station elevator, initiatives to clean up litter and school projects. Winners are chosen by a vote in the spring.

Ideas for this year's funding can be submitted online or through one of several brainstorming sessions that will be part of the participatory budgeting process.

So far those have included a Zoom meeting on Tuesday, a meeting in Carroll Park last Sunday and a Park Slope Library meet-up Friday afternoon.

Find out more about how to get involved here.