PB Cycle 11
The votes are in! The City of Cambridge launched the 11th Cycle of Participatory Budgeting and collected over 1,300 ideas from the community between August - October 2024, about how to spend $1 million on projects to improve Cambridge. From October 2024 through January 2025, volunteer PB Delegates researched all submitted project ideas and developed the final proposals for the PB ballot. Between March 6-16, 2025, 10,110 Cambridge residents age 12 and older voted to decide how to allocate City funding to address community needs.
Scroll through the page to read more on this year's ballot projects and see how the PB11 cycle got to where it is today.
Project Statuses
Cycle 11 Vote Results
The PB11 Vote Results Party
The following seven projects won $1,060,000 in FY26 funding:
- Improve Parks with Shade Structures and Seating ($250,000)
- Build a Pollinator Garden in a City Park ($75,000)
- Funding for High School Clubs ($150,000)
- Slower Speeds for Safer Streets ($250,000)
- Mobile Center for Hard-to-Recycle Items ($75,000)
- Welcome Baby Boxes for New Parents ($60,000)
- Electric Vehicle Chargers ($200,000)
Thank you to the 10,110 Cambridge residents that voted this year! The full vote totals are outlined below.
| Project | Cost | Votes | Cumulative Cost | |
| 1. | Improve Parks with Shade Structures & Seating | $250,000 | 5,042 | $250,000 |
| 2 | Build a Pollinator Garden in a City Park | $75,000 | 4,064 | $325,000 |
| 3 | Funding for High School Clubs | $150,000 | 3,609 | $475,000 |
| 4. | Slower Speeds for Safer Streets | $250,000 | 3,498 | $725,000 |
| 5. | Mobile Center for Hard-to-Recycle Items | $75,000 | 3,433 | $800,000 |
| 6. | Welcome Baby Boxes for New Parents | $60,000 | 3,071 | $860,000 |
| 7. | Electric Vehicle Chargers | $200,000 | 2,972 | $1,060,000 |
| 8. | Basketball Court Upgrades | $350,000 | 2,577 | |
| 9. | Moses Youth Center Upgrade | $150,000 | 2,505 | |
| 10. | Mobile Pet Care | $200,000 | 2,499 | |
| 11. | Girls' Empowerment Sports Events | $45,000 | 2,495 | |
| 12. | Shoot for the Stars: Public STEAM Programs | $15,000 | 1,907 | |
| 13. | Install Safe Disposal Boxes for Sharp Items | $30,000 | 1,902 | |
| 14. | Submersible Wheelchair at Gold Star Pool | $12,000 | 1,857 | |
| 15. | Bring Adventure Play to Cambridge | $150,000 | 1,584 | |
| 16. | Free Sunscreen in City Parks | $20,000 | 1,313 | |
| 17. | Live Captioning Accessibility for City Meetings | $250,000 | 1,288 | |
| 18. | Free Lice Combs in Public Schools | $60,000 | 1,175 | |
| 19. | Fun, Educational Bike Events for Adults | $110,000 | 1,083 | |
| 20. | Accessible Mats for Public Events | $20,000 | 894 |
Voting
The 20 project proposals on the ballot this year are listed below! Click on each project title to view each project page. Projects are categorized by the committee that wrote them. The PB11 vote was open from March 6-16, 2025.
| Committee | PB11 Ballot Projects | |||
| Environment | ||||
| Community Resources | ||||
| Youth | ||||
| Transportation, Streets, and Sidewalks | ||||
| Facilities, Parks, and Recreation | ||||
Proposal Development
Starting on October 1, 2024, and through the end of January, 2025, 60-70 volunteer Cambridge residents will be working in five committees to research, assess, and prioritize all of the submitted ideas and develop the final proposals for the March 2025 PB ballot.
Follow along on the Proposal Development process through the PB Newsletter! Take a look at all issues from this year's Proposal Development process via the links below.
Issue 1: A Powerful Start to PB11!
Issue 2: An Important Step in Proposal Development
Issue 3: PB11 Proposal Development Going Strong!
To learn more about the PB Delegate role and the Proposal Development process, read the PB11 Delegate Guide.
Idea Collection
Idea Collection for the eleventh cycle of Participatory Budgeting in Cambridge began on August 26, 2024, and ended on October 1, 2024. During the idea collection stage, over 1,300 ideas were submitted by community members via community events, classroom and neighborhood idea collection workshops, email, mail, and the online idea collection map! To read all of the ideas that were submitted in the eleventh cycle, please select the map below.