Graciela Seda recited her name, birth date, and address aloud before writing them on the sign-in sheet at the Jackie Robinson Senior Center in West Harlem. Volunteer Jean Green Dorsey held the page down and passed her a ballot.
Seda was one of the participants in West Harlem's participatory budgeting process, in which locals voted on neighborhood improvement projects from April 13 through April 19. Voters gathered this Saturday at the Jackie Robinson Senior Center, on Amsterdam Avenue and Lasalle Street, to select what projects they thought would best impact the neighborhood.
16 projects were on the ballot, each of which had undergone a yearlong process of community input.
City Council member Mark Levine, who represents West Harlem and Hamilton Heights, allocated $1 million dollars of his capital discretionary fund for participatory budgeting, joining 23 other City Council members who participated this year.
"I had not heard about this before I came in today, but I figured it's helping the community so it was important for me to vote," Seda said in Spanish.
"Most people don't know about participatory budgeting," Elise Barber, CC '18 and an intern for Levine, said.
Barber stood on the corner of West 125th Street on Friday to inform residents about the participatory budgeting voting process. As the weeklong voting process came to a close on Sunday, Barber said that she wanted to ensure "everyone votes."
"The people here are really excited about voting because it directly affects them and their neighborhood," she said.
Bertha Davis, another resident, was eager to have the money put toward the Manhattanville and Grant Houses playground repairs, projects which, if selected, would cost $450,000 each.
"I've been here for a long time. When I first moved here, the area was beautiful—there were flowers, the grass was so green, the playground was used by children. Now it's dirty, dangerous," she said.
"Things are changing. It will swing the other way," Dorsey assured her.
"I hope so," Davis said as she handed Dorsey her completed ballot.
Thirty minutes later, Seda reappeared in the voting area—a room that had been converted from a meeting space for the daylong occasion—after encouraging several of her friends to vote.
Doris Rodas, another resident who came to the center to vote, scanned the 16 project options on the ballot.
"Education and sanitation is always the right choice," she said. "I have grandkids who live around here, so I always think of them first, no matter what."
Jonathan Hernandez, another intern for Levine's office, had no preference. He was familiar with the projects and the process of getting them onto the ballot. Hernandez stood outside with Barber talking to local residents.
"This is special because we give the constituents of District 7 the opportunity to decide how they want to spend the $1 million dollars.
"Community engagement is the answer to making change in the community," he said.
Dorsey supports the concept of participatory budgeting because it engages the community, instead of allowing policymakers from outside to decide how money should be used.
"I look forward to the day when those that are affected by problems in the community can have a voice," she said.
Photo credit: Shaoyu Liu
