Every year, many New York City council districts engage in a Participatory Budgeting (PB) process that allows community members age 11 and up to directly decide how to spend part of the public budget. The practice started in 2011 with just a few districts, and has since spread throughout the city, giving communities real decision-making power over more than $30 million in taxpayer money each year. The voting portion of the process kicked off on April 6 and will continue through April 14.

The High Line engages its paid Teen staff to lead PB efforts in District 3, as part of an ongoing partnership with the New York City Council. Participating Teens support all aspects of the process to allocate $1 million for our district, while learning about community engagement and civic leadership.

After the success of their work with New York City Council Member Erik Bottcher’s office last year, the Teens were recommended to the Mayor’s People’s Money Initiative to help get more youth voters and local voters involved.

Three High Line Teens share how their PB experience lit a spark of civic engagement:

“The community has more power than they realize to change things. I sat at a table in Hell’s Kitchen trying to talk to people passing by about the ballot, and lots of them ignored me—which I get. But it’s discouraging, because you realize if all their votes were included, it could actually add up to a creative project. Now that I know the power we have, I don’t want to see people ignore it.”
—Bismark

“Teachers always tell us: ‘You can make a change.’ But they don’t necessarily tell us how to make that change. Now that I know what Participatory Budgeting is, I can go back to the Bronx where I live and bring what I learned. I tell my peers: This is what you can do. This is what’s accessible to you. We didn’t realize how much power we had to impact our community at a scale you can really see.”
—Keisha

“When Councilman Bottcher gave the High Line Teens a public shout-out for our PB efforts, I felt acknowledged in all the hard work we’d done. It was cool to know that people were actually paying attention. I was surprised. It felt like what I was doing actually mattered. And I realized with everything the High Line does, they keep the community in mind. The accessibility makes you feel like you belong here.”
—Aniyah

We spoke with District 3 Council Member Erik Bottcher on how Participatory Budgeting can light a spark of civic engagement—especially in teens.

What sparked your interest in civic engagement as a young person?
“When I went to college, I wrote a letter to the school board in my hometown in Lake Placid. I wrote about bullying and my experiences as an LGBT person. I later found out they read the letter out loud at the school board meeting and subsequently changed the non-discrimination policy at the school. It was a huge light-bulb moment for me, that it is possible for individual people to make a difference.”

How does Participatory Budgeting work?
1. Idea Collection (October – November — First we engage community members on what they want to see included in the budget, and make a long list of potential projects
2. Proposal Development (December – February) — Budget Delegates transform ideas into full proposals and narrow down the list by selecting projects that meet the needs of the community
3. GOTV and Voting (March – April) — Teens and other community members lead engagement efforts to get out the vote for a nine-day community vote
4. Evaluation and Planning (May – June) — Winning projects are included in NYC’s upcoming fiscal year budget, and planning for implementation begins

Why is it important for teens (and all New Yorkers) to get involved in PB?
“In this time when the government seems so far removed from regular people, when we feel even more isolated from one another, and frankly, when we feel helpless about the direction that the world is going in, Participatory Budgeting offers an opportunity for people to have a direct voice in New York City government.”

What did the people vote to fund in 2023?
The winning projects were announced last July, and our borough of Manhattan voted to fund two projects: Trade Skills and Vocational Resources for Students, and Housing Resource Outreach.

The participatory budgeting process kicked off on April 6 for New York City. Learn more about how you can participate →