Residents attending the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association discuss ideas for how to best spend at least $1 million in city funds for the neighborhood. Photo by Anna Gustafson
Crowded around tables in the basement of a Woodhaven church, residents, armed with black markers and many an idea, began to write: police cameras on Jamaica Avenue, a community garden, a municipal parking lot, a noise barrier.
The thoughts kept coming: What if there was Wi-Fi on Jamaica Avenue? Or more trees on Woodhaven Boulevard? A repurposing of the lot, now a haven for what residents said is gang activity, next to PS 60?
The extensive wish list of projects, created by dozens of residents attending the Woodhaven Residents’ Block Association meeting at the Emanuel United Church of Christ in Woodhaven on Saturday, is part of a city initiative called participatory budgeting, which Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park) and eight other City Council members will use this year to directly involve community members in the decision about how to spend millions of taxpayer dollars.
“We started participatory budgeting in Rockaway, and it was tremendously successful,” said Ulrich, who launched the participatory budget process on the peninsula in 2011. “Woodhaven is a very strong community, and it will be a laboratory for democracy.”
After seeing the kind of interest the participatory budgeting process drew in Rockaway, Ulrich announced this year that he would expand the program into the Woodhaven, Ozone Park and Richmond Hill sections of the 32nd Council District. As part of the participatory budget process, residents in districts represented by Council members involved in the initiative are able to vote on projects totaling at least $1 million, which will then be included in this year’s city’s budget.
For example, Rockaway residents in Ulrich’s district voted last year for technology upgrades at schools, traffic island landscaping, and projects at Broad Channel Library and Rockaway Freeway Dog Park, among others.
Between September and April, residents identify projects they would like to see funded with capital discretionary funds. In April, individuals in the nine districts employing this process will vote on the infrastructure projects and the legislators then submit the projects with the most votes to the Council.
In addition to Ulrich, the Council members involved in this budgeting process are: Mark Weprin (D-Oakland Gardens), Donovan Richards (D-Laurelton,) Sara Gonzalez (D-Brooklyn), David Greenfield (D-Brooklyn), Brad Lander (D-Brooklyn), Stephen Levin (D-Brooklyn), Melissa Mark-Viverito (D-Manhattan), and Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn).
In Ulrich’s district, there are split projects – one for the Broad Channel and Rockaways neighborhoods and another for Woodhaven, Ozone Park, and Richmond Hill. Howard Beach and Lindenwood are not yet included in the budget process.
“I expect this to grow to other districts and other neighborhoods,” Ulrich said.
Alex Blenkinsopp, of the WRBA, noted that he and other Woodhaven residents living in Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley’s (D-Middle Village) district are urging the legislator to implement the initiative.
“We’re meeting with Liz Crowley’s office to encourage participatory budgeting,” he said.
Still, while residents who live in Woodhaven but are not in Ulrich’s district may not vote, they are still able to be part of the process to generate ideas.
“Don’t get hung up on district lines,” said Rudy Giuliani, Ulrich’s chief of staff. “We can work around district lines. Forest Park is not in Eric’s district, but we fund plenty of stuff in Forest Park.”
Among the ideas discussed at Saturday’s meeting include a garbage holder for PS 36 “so garbage doesn’t run down the street,” one resident said; safety crossing upgrades on Woodhaven Boulevard and Jamaica Avenue; graffiti removal; and installing a sound and privacy barrier wall behind 98th Street.
The next public meeting on the participatory budgeting for Ulrich’s district will be held Jan. 29 at 8 p.m. at the One Stop Richmond Hill Community Center.
By Anna Gustafson
