City’s new map shows winning participatory budget projects
The City of Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday launched an interactive map that allows users to explore the 72 projects that have won funding through city’s participatory budgeting initiative.
The city Budget Office worked with the Cambridge Geographic Information System to produce the map, which displays each project’s location, completion status and site photos.
Cambridge began its tenth participatory budget process last September, in which residents submitted more than 1,100 ideas for how to spend $2 million of the city’s 2025 budget. Eight projects won funding, including free maternity services, smart recycling and trash compactors, improving pedestrian safety and upgrades to public restrooms.
From March 7-17, a record 10,522 Cambridge residents aged 12 and older voted on a select few proposals, a 20% increase in voter participation from the previous cycle.
Participatory budgeting, a democratic process in which community members can decide how to spend part of a public budget, was first developed in Brazil in 1989. The process is now used in over 1,500 cities around the world, including 29 cities in the United States, including Boston; Chicago; Greensboro, North Carolina; New York and Vallejo, California, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
According to the announcement, the map will be regularly updated and is accessible via mobile or desktop devices.
