budgets are us...

There is a relatively new trend in the arena of local governance and it's the concept of participatory budgeting. In this scheme, residents of an area are given a direct role in deciding on the budget spend for their neighbourhood. In other words, the residents decide what is important to them and the local government uses a portion of its budget to accommodate that action, event or structure. The allocation can be up to 20% of the municipality's budget.

To be clear, this is a new trend in the United States not in the rest of the world. Countries such as Brazil have used participatory budgeting since the late 1980s and more than 1200 municipalities in Latin America, Africa, Asia, Canada and Europe use this approach regularly.

Participatory budgeting does not involve a complete handover of the budget process to voters; rather, a portion of the budget, generally for one-off, non-essential projects, is set aside for this process. As outlined on Shareable by Mira Luna in the article Participatory Budgeting: Sharing Power Over Public Resourses, the steps include the following:

• A government and/or nonprofit develops the 1st year participatory budgeting process.

• The government approves the amount of the budget to be turned over to the voters.

• Neighborhood assemblies are organized and meet to determine budget categories (public safety, education, health, environment, sanitation, etc.) and who will be making project proposals to the community, either on a city-wide or district/neighborhood basis.

• Proposals are developed in collaboration with nonprofits, technical experts and government officials.

• Proposals are presented, publicized, discussed and voted on by everyone eligible in the community (usually more inclusive criteria for voting than electoral voting).  

• The process is refined to achieve greater budget inclusion, transparency, diversity, participation, and quality of proposals.

Toronto Community Housing actually gives over its capital budget (some $9 million) to its tenants, who use the participatory budgeting approach for decision-making.

This is an exciting way to promote civic engagement and participation and, of course, true democracy. It would be interesting to see it happen in Bermuda.

Update on 2013-04-18 19:07 by A Ratteray Pryse

Alexander Lange writes for The Design Observer Group. This is a brief account of her first experience with participatory budgeting as a voter. I thought it handy to update this blog post with a link to her article, What it Costs (to Buy a Bench, to Extend a Curb). Interesting...

hamilton's waterfront: just a thought

Now that the design concept for the Hamilton waterfront is available for the public to review, comment on, get excited about, etc., etc., it's hard to resist adding to the general cacophony.

Just a thought, though, at this point. The re-development of the waterfront is important, and not just because construction jobs will be created for several years to come. Done right, the project can serve as a catalyst for investment in the island and as a vibrant focal point for the arts, events, recreation, business and much more. The key words? Done right.

image: tamara leighFor now, however, I will occasionally highlight projects, ideas and design concepts I think might be applicable here in Bermuda. The first such one is in Lancaster, California, and it, in turn, was lifted from Barcelona, Spain! It is a "ramblas" like boulevard in downtown Lancaster. The online magazine Better Cities & Towns outlines in a brief post, Spanish ramblas energizes California suburb, by Robert Steuteville, the regenerative impact the boulevard has had on the downtown. It has driven investment and brings crowds to the area.

As I said, just a thought...

one bermuda alliance and the environment

As you know, Bermuda had a general election last week and the Opposition One Bermuda Alliance squeaked past the post to become the party forming our new government. As an urban planner, I was curious about where their 19-17 seat win would take us in terms of the environment.

Below is an extract from the OBA platform which appears under the heading “Environment” in the document More OBA Solutions.

Reading through it, a couple of things stand out for me. First, some of these tasks the PLP government promised before, in some cases going so far as to hire consultants, only nothing actually happened. Let’s hope we are not in for a repeat.

Second, other promises intend to initiate corrective actions when, frankly, the solutions are in place already. The challenge is the political and/or judicial processes within which they are undertaken. (In the case of illegal development, it is far more complex than simply pursuing people in accordance with current law. I know. I tried hard in the late nineties, when I was Assistant Director in the Department of Planning, and came away only with a bruised head.)

Glancing through the OBA platform documents generally, it is clear that authentic ‘joined up thinking’ is needed for Bermuda to be a success story. In my opinion, active recognition of the connectivity of Bermuda’s social, economic and environmental issues is crucial.

In any case, read for yourself the OBA platform on the environment.

A One Bermuda Alliance Government will protect Bermuda’s fragile environment for future generations and present-day enjoyment.

We will:

• Incorporate environmental considerations in all government decision-making.
• Support the Blue Halo initiative.
• Pursue solutions to the problems of feral animals and invasive species.
• Perform an operational review and an organizational methods review of the entire Planning process to make the Planning Department more user friendly.
• Review Special Development Orders protocols granted to the Environment Minister to ensure the process is clearly articulated, transparent and fair.
• Expand and upgrade neighbourhood parks, recreational and open green space, coastal parks and picnic areas.
• Aggressively pursue illegal developments in accordance with Bermuda's Planning laws.
• Require environment impact studies to be done on all major and unusual developments and projects.
• Promote the "Polluter Pays Principle" through proper enforcement and increases in penalties for littering, illegal dumping and other actions dangerous to the environment.
• Provide incentives for the development of brown field sites.
• Open the Southlands National Park.
• Establish a National reforestation plan, along with a national seed bank.
• Establish a White Paper for the development of Bermuda's Agricultural Industry.
• Review legislation to promote the greater use of bio-pesticides.
• Encourage a cottage industry for local produce, and support light manufacturing, agriculture, fisheries and food processing industries.
• Conduct coastal sensitivity mapping to identify risk hazards and vulnerable areas.
• Work to bring affordable hurricane insurance to fishermen.
• Establish training programmes and initiatives for the use of new technologies in fishing.