Join Your Neighbors To Discuss Bringing Participatory Budgeting To Our Area This Week

Anna Gustafson -

Following yesterday’s post about a proposal to create a more pedestrian friendly intersection at Cortelyou Road and Coney Island Avenue through the city’s participatory budgeting process, neighbors noted they were disappointed to see that Councilman Mathieu Eugene (who represents the area at Cortelyou and CIA) isn’t involved in the participatory budgeting process.

Nearby legislators are participating in the city’s program (which lawmakers can opt to be a part of) that allows constituents to directly vote on projects they’d like to see funded in their area, including Councilman Jumaane Williams and Councilman Brad Lander. This means that neighbors in Eugene’s district can suggest something like pedestrian improvements for Cortelyou and CIA as part of Williams’ or Landers’ participatory budgeting process, but only constituents living in Williams’ and Lander’s districts will ultimately be able to vote on the proposals they’d like to see funded.

A number of you have said they’d like to encourage Eugene to change his tune on participatory budgeting – and neighbor William Cerf let us know he’ll be holding informal gatherings for anyone who’d like to further speak about this.

If you’d like to meet with William and other neighbors about this, you can do so on:

  • Wednesday, November 5 from 1-2:30pm at Café Madeline (1603 Cortelyou Road)
  • Thursday, November 6 from 5-6:30pm at Qathra Café (1112 Cortelyou Road)

If anyone has further questions about the gatherings, you can reach William at william.cerf@gmail.com.