After watching as DUMBO and Red Hook and Flatbush get to play around with $1 million in participatory budgeting money, Bushwick residents might have been feeling a little jealous and left out. Well, feel left out no longer, because next week, Bushwick gets a piece of the direct democracy action, with the neighborhood’s first participatory budgeting meeting to discuss how to spend some City Council fun money. Not on a giant cocaine party, get your mind out of the gutter. You spend the money on things that are actually helpful for the neighborhood.
According to an email we got from Council Member Antonio Reynoso’s office, the first meeting in the process will go down on Thursday, October 16 from 6pm to 8pm at the St. Joseph Patron Church (135 Suydam Street). There, as in participatory budgeting meetings held in other districts, you’ll argue with your neighbors over why your idea to spend this money is great and their idea is bad.
If you want to get things going already, you can even start adding ideas to this fancy map. As you can see, there’s already a bit of “Jesus you idiot, we don’t need that,” going on, just in case you thought New York City had totally lost its edge for arguing. Reynoso’s District 34 actually covers parts of Williamsburg, Bushwick and Ridgewood, so whether you’re an old-timer or hipster trash that lives in those neighborhoods, email afarkas [AT] council.nyc.gov to RSVP