Vote on Cambridge Participatory Budgeting Projects January 4-9, 2021, How Would You Spend $500,000 to Improve Cambridge?

Participatory Budgeting (PB) in the City of Cambridge is back. If you are a Cambridge resident age 12 [including all 6th graders] or older, you can vote from January 4-9, 2021 to help decide how to spend $500,000 on projects to improve the city. This process is open to everyone in our community, including non-U.S. citizens and university students.
Residents can vote online at pb.cambridgema.gov. Online voting will be text message authenticated: voters enter their cell phone number on the PB website and a code is sent to them via text message or email. Voters will then enter that code online for one-time access to the ballot. The online ballot will be available in English, Chinese, French, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, Amharic, Arabic, and Bengali.

Residents can also vote over the phone by calling the City of Cambridge Budget Office at 617-349-4270, from 9 a.m. – 8 p.m., Monday, January 4 through Thursday, January 7, and 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Friday, January 8 and Saturday, January 9.

In September 2020, community members submitted over 660 ideas about how to spend $500,000 of the City’s Fiscal Year 2022 Capital Budget beginning July 1, 2021. From October through December, more than 60 volunteer Budget Delegates worked in four committees to research and evaluate those ideas and develop final proposals for the ballot.

Thanks to input from the community and dedicated volunteer Budget Delegates, there are 16 exciting projects on the 2020 PB ballot. Residents can vote for up to five of the following projects:

• Fast Response High Visibility Fire Hydrant Markers ($8,000)
• Bike Signals at Busy Intersections ($40,000)
• Rain Gardens for Resiliency ($120,000)
• New Park Pavilion ($175,000)
• Pedestrian-Controlled Crosswalk Lights ($100,000)
• Add Color to our Youth Centers ($25,000)
• Who Let the Dogs Out? ($20,000)
• Open Our Doors - Automatic Door Openers on Public Buildings ($50,000)
• Swinging into Inclusivity ($40,000)
• Bridging the Digital Divide ($95,000)
• Public Meeting Space Hearing Technology ($150,000)
• Safer Streets Around Parks and Schools ($90,000)
• Urban Micro-Forests for Cambridge (85,000)
• We Need More Crosswalks ($40,000)
• Waste Management Education Campaign ($85,000)
• Keeping Cambridge Cleaner ($45,000)

The winning projects will be announced at an online PB Results Party on Wednesday, January 13. from 6-7 p.m. Check the PB website below in January for more information, including the virtual registration portal.

Past winning PB projects include critical resource kits for the homeless, musical instruments for students, tree planting, water bottle fill stations, and many others.

Don’t forget to vote for your favorite PB project January 4-9, 2021. For more information or to vote online please visit pb.cambridgema.gov or contact the City of Cambridge Budget Office at pb@cambridgema.gov or (617) 349-4270.