#pbnyc

This past weekend I went to two PB meetings, one in Sunset Park and one in Red Hook. From September to October, residents collectively brainstorm as many ideas as they can for proposals and then they vote on their top three. The first phase reminded me a lot of the design processes I've been learning at school. It's all about the listening to the user and gathering their needs which involves interacting with all the stakeholders.  Both experiences followed the same protocol but were vastly different in experiences. Each meeting would start with an introduction about PB, followed by a short Q&A. Participants would break into smaller groups where the brainstorming would start with one facilitator writing down all the ideas. After 20 minutes, everyone would vote and pick their top 3. All the groups would then reconvene and each group would share their top 3 ideas. At the end of the meeting, participants have the option of signing up to be a budget delegate who act as representatives for their district and  continue to work on these ideas until April. They are responsible for fleshing out and refining the concepts into proposals which get voted again by the community and then pitched to the Council. 

Sunset Park

Saturday's meeting took place in Brooklyn Chinese Baptist Church, located in a predominately Chinese area. There were a handful of volunteers and one main representative of PB. Since majority of the participants were Chinese, they had to bring in Chinese translators. Over time, I could see overlapping ideas from all the groups. I'm not too familiar with Sunset Park but I was surprised to see that many were concerned with the safety of their neighborhood.

Demographic overview:

80 participants

10% seniors, 70% 40-50, 10% 20-30, 10% <20

90% Chinese, 10% other

60% men, 40% women

Insights:

top 3 themes: safety (security cameras), street infrastructure (pot holes, traffic lights, garbage cans, etc.), and transportation (subway entrances)

loud and seemed chaotic but surprisingly organized

people were confused what was considered capital vs. expense (operations, service)

everyone was extremely engaged and everyone listened to each other

ideas inspired other ideas

Red Hook

Sunday's meeting took place in Visitation Church located right near Coffey Park. This was a much more intimate setting so I was able to listen and observe participants' discussions closely. We started out by giving a short introduction about ourselves. This group was a lot more diverse than Sunset Park in terms of background and socio-economic status even though it was a much smaller group. There also wasn't as many overlapping ideas although most of the ideas revolved around maintenance to public buildings.

Demographic overview:

10 participants

25% 60+, 50% 30-40, 25% 20-30

70% Caucasian, 20% African American, 10% Latina 

90% Women, 10% Men

Insights:

top 3 themes: park (bathrooms, bins, turf), schools, library maintenance

a handful of participants seemed to be involved in some organization related to their neighborhood 

this group seemed more concerned about services/programs, not infrastructure

It was a really great experience to see how people communicated with each other. In both instances people were respectful of each other's ideas and everyone seemed to be equally involved. I would say though that they should have started with individuals writing down their own ideas before grouping to avoid too much influence on each other. It's too early in the process to see where there are gaps and issues but I hope to continue to observe until its over. So far from what I experienced, here are a few issues that were already prominent:

involve the community at every part of the process and not just the brainstorming phase

focus on both capital and expense and provide alternatives in how expense projects can get proposed

I think there needs to be more accessibility to this process where participants can connect. I wonder if live streaming all the meetings and allowing people to comment remotely after the brainstorming would be helpful. The second point is interesting because I did notice how participants had to think longer about infrastructural needs. I don't think infrastructure and services should be separate because its easier to think about the infrastructure needs in the context of a service. 

Next steps:

volunteer and work with budget delegates

interview community members on their experiences of PB

interview employees at PB 

The process of PB is different in every city but they all aim to increase transparency, equity, and inclusion among a diverse set of stakeholders that includes Council Members, organizations, and community members. Because PB is still fairly new in NYC, they only concentrate on infrastructural projects and limit to a few districts.

The New York City Council is made up of 51 members from 51 districts throughout all the boroughs. The City Council is responsible for approving the city budget, monitoring the operations of city agencies, and making land use decisions. They have an equal partnership with the Mayor in governing the city. Each Council Member can allocate $2-$9 million dollars as individual discretionary funds and a few Council Members are using this to fund capital items. Capital projects are anything related to infrastructure such as installing new bathrooms, traffic lights, etc. A proposed project must:

cost more than $35k but less than $1 million

have a least 5 years of usage

improve physical public structures or space

Normally the budgeting process is slow, filled with heated debates, and barely involves the community's input. This is what it looks like:

PB is breaking down a lot of the process by actually listening to what people want and taking a somewhat agile approach although it could bring in more of the community at every stage. 

This is great for the community because it gives residents a platform to

express their opinion, feel empowered and gain leadership skills

interact with their neighbors from diverse backgrounds which strengthens the community

increase openness and trust with their local government