Direct democracy comes to Harlem

A video that introduces PB by telling the story of two budget delegates in New York City.

On October, 2011, New York City residents took part in a historic new experiment in direct democracy. Over a six-month period, ordinary citizens young and old were given the unusual power to decide how millions of their city districts’ budgets were spent.

We followed two newcomers to civic engagement — Stefan Poaches, a 27-year-old assistant college basketball coach, and 30-year-old clerical worker Ashante Blue — as they made their way through this novel experience in government participation.

In the end, a total of $6 million in budget discretionary funds were turned over by the four participating city council members to their constituents. In addition to Councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito of Manhattan’s District 8, council members Brad Lander and Jumaane D. Williams of Brooklyn and Eric A. Ulrich of Queens participated.

Nearly 9,000 residents among the four districts took part in New York’s first participatory budgeting process, according to the advocacy group Community Development Project at the Urban Justice Center. Some 250 New Yorkers signed up to be budget delegates, while approximately 6,000 voters cast ballots on which projects to fund. Nearly half of those voters had never been active in community issues before participatory budgeting, according to the group. And in the overall effort, people of color and low-income residents were represented at higher rates than in traditional electoral politics.

Source: Bill Moyers
Author information: Jessica Wang

Year of publication: 2012