Ten years ago, when we launched Participatory Budgeting in NYC, I hoped it would help energize our local democracy by providing new pathways for people to get involved. A decade later – at a time of urgent need to strengthen trust in government – I’m just as hopeful. No, actually, more so: because I really believe that under the stewardship of incoming Council Member Shahana Hanif, PBNYC is going to thrive in ways we couldn’t even imagine then.

Now it’s your turn to help: Idea submission for the current PBNYC cycle ends on December 31, so if you have yet to share your ideas for how to solve a local problem or make our community even better, please visit the PBNYC website. You can learn about PB, suggest ideas, support or comment on other ideas, and even sign up to volunteer!

(Look, I know the current Omicron wave is really dampening spirits; it’s got me down as well. But several of last year’s winning PB ideas – like the Brooklyn Diaper Project and the new Kensington farmstand – grew out of mutual aid work in response to Covid-19. They show how the spirit of PB can help us recover from the pandemic, stronger and more inclusive.)  

Last week, I had the pleasure of dropping into my last PBNYC neighborhood assembly as your Council Member. Although this one was virtual, the discussion brought me back to past cycles and neighborhood assemblies going back a decade to the beginning of PBNYC.  

How it started…              How it’s going

So I wanted to share a few of my favorite projects over the years

Across the past decade, an amazing array of people have led the way to make participatory budgeting in our district a genuine model for civic engagement and community-driven decision making. Our District Committee, facilitators, delegates and volunteers make the process happen year-in and year-out. I want to especially call out and thank a few District Committee members, like Jason Boutin, Caron Atlas, and Christa Paterline, who have provided PB leadership across the entire decade! And our remarkable PB Youth Committee (shown here along with Council Member-Elect Shahana Hanif) has taken extraordinary leadership to energize grassroots democracy far into the future.

It has been my honor and joy to help build PBNYC into a citywide, participatory democratic process. And it’s now my honor and joy to hand it off to one of its staunchest advocates – incoming Council Member Shahana Hanif. 

Shahana’s deep belief in the radical potential of genuinely inclusive democracy – where young people, women-of-color, her Bangladeshi Muslim neighbors in Kensington, and every single one of us feel encouraged and empowered to participate, knowing that our voices can be heard, that we take real leadership together, and that our shared ideas are far better, more inspiring, and more supportive than what we could do alone – shines through in all her work. I really can’t wait to see how PBNYC flourishes under her leadership.

Of course, this is not actually goodbye to PBNYC for me. I’m still a District 39 constituent, after all. So watch out for my project ideas next year! 

Brad