You may have read some of the information I’ve posted regarding Participatory Budgeting in Chicago this year, specifically in the ward I live in (46). Residents have a chance to vote on how their alderman will spend $1,000,000 in menu funds in their ward. Many of the projects on the ballots deal with street safety and infrastructure improvements for pedestrians and people on bikes. After months of planning, it’s time to vote!

Voters can allocate 6 votes to the projects; weighted voting (voting more than once for a single project) is not permitted. All 6 votes do not have to be used. Votes do not have to add up to $1,000,000 (the usual amount to be allocated).

Here is voting information for each of the 4 wards participating this year:

5th Ward – Ald. Leslie Hairston

Tuesday, April 30 – Thursday, May 2
5th Ward Service Office
2325 E. 71st St.
10am -4pm

Saturday, May 4, 2013
Gary Comer College Prep
7131 S. South Chicago Ave.
10am -2pm

45th Ward – Ald. John Arena

Monday, April 29 – Friday, May 3
9am – 5pm
45th Ward Service Office
4754 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630

Saturday, May 4 and Sunday, May 5\
10am – 2pm
45th Ward Service Office
4754 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL 60630

46th Ward – Ald. James Cappleman

Saturday, April 27
9am – 12pm
Monday, April 29 – Friday, May 3
9am – 5pm
46th Ward Service Office
4544 N Broadway,
Chicago, IL 60640

Saturday, May 4
9am – 2pm
Uplift Community High School
900 W. Wilson Ave
Chicago, IL 60640

49th Ward – Ald. Joe Moore

Monday, April 29 – Friday, May 3
9am – 5pm
49th Ward Service Office
7356 N Greenview Ave
Chicago, IL 60626

Saturday, May 4
9am – 3pm
Chicago Math and Science Academy
7212 N Clark St
Chicago, IL 60626

Voting

In all 4 wards, the voting process is simple. Residents of the ward 16 and older must bring a form of ID that proves ward residency, such as:

• Document from a government agency (driving license, state ID, military ID card, etc)
• Voter registration card
• Current lease
• Paycheck or paycheck stub
• Bank statement
• Permanent resident (Green) card
• Tax forms
• And more

Please note that you do not have to be a US citizen to vote! Any resident 16 and older can vote.

Yesterday I volunteered at an Active Transportation Alliance Bike Pit Stop on Clark at Montrose, right near the 46th ward boundary. It didn’t seem like a ton of people knew what Participatory Budgeting was. It’s important that we get the word out about this so the people who it affects can voice their support for safety improvements!

If you know anyone who lives in these wards or would like to give out some information, share this post and flyers listed here. You can also share the half-sheet flyer I made specifically for the 46th ward:

Larger-resolution files for printing can be found here.

Do you live in one of the wards that will have a choice of how $1,000,000 in menu funds will be used this year? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Today was the first of two project expos for the participatory budgeting process in Chicago’s 46th Ward. Four of the City’s Wards are participating this year.

Project expo at Uplift Community High School.

Turnout was good for a Saturday morning. There will be another expo at Preston Bradley Center (941 W Lawrence) this Monday, April 8, from 6–8 PM. Please join us! The expo starts with an overview of the process, followed by explanations of the projects. After the short presentation, community representatives such as myself and several others are available to discuss the specifics of our proposals.

Arline Welty of Bike Uptown looks at the project posters.

Below, I will post the 5 project expo posters for the Streets & Cycling Committee (click on each one for a higher-quality PDF). There are 3 other committees in the 46th Ward – Beautification, Safety, and Arts. We all have excellent proposals for making the entire Ward a better place to be. Big thanks to Eric Hanss for putting together the posters in a uniform, easy-to-understand manner.

Bike Infrastructure Improvements: This project is composed of several different projects that all deal with bike infrastructure. This is the subcommittee I was on. Currently, a protected bike lane is already planned on Broadway between Leland and Montrose. This section of Broadway is currently two traffic lanes in each direction with parking on both sides. There is not often much traffic, so removing driving lanes should not jam the roadway. We have two proposals to extend this protected lane north to the Ward boundary at Ainslie, and another proposal to extend bike infrastructure south on Broadway to Wrigleyville.

Wilson Ave also has existing marked shared lanes (sharrows) but many of them are worn out or have been paved over. Our proposal is to re-paint these markings. We also proposed building bike lanes along Winthrop and Kenmore, which connect to great bike lanes on calmer residential streets in Edgewater, and would bring these lanes south into the 46th Ward.

Finally, two of the proposals are combined with two other projects proposed by members of the Streets & Cycling committee (see below).

For the bike infrastructure proposals, we put up pieces of paper and gave expo visitors stickers to informally vote on their top 3 proposals (someone called this “dot-mocracy”). This is not the same as voting on the proposals, which will take place later this month. We want to see which proposals will end up on the final ballot (an infrastructure primary, if you will).

Leland Greenway: Covered in a recent Streetsblog Chicago post, this project focuses on Leland Avenue in the Ward, a residential street that continues west into the 47th Ward and also goes near to the lake. The proposal is to create chicanes along the route to slow traffic, since much of Leland does not have any traffic calming (just easily ignored stop signs). Curb bumpouts with stormwater retention as well as bike signage on the street would make Leland into a great route for the Ward and also for 47th Ward residents, since Alderman Pawar has expressed interest in creating a neighborhood greenway along Leland that could meet the 46th Ward at Clark St. This would create a very long neighborhood greenway from Western Avenue to the lake, and a great alternative to using busy Montrose or Lawrence to move east-west across the area. Western Avenue is also just a few blocks from the North Shore Channel Trail.

Clarendon Corridor: This project is a series of improvements to Clarendon that make the street safer for all users. As the project poster states, many parts of the street are damaged and dangerous. Many street intersections do not have crosswalks where they belong. A big improvement would be the intersection of Clarendon and Broadway. There is currently a channelized right turn and the intersection is too large. The proposal is to reconfigure the intersection, eliminate the channelized right turn, and reduce crossing distance.

View Larger Map

Walkable 46th: A series of improvements to walking all across the Ward. Like with the Clarendon corridor, there are too many places where crosswalks are non-existent, like along Lawrence Ave (where the #81 bus route runs). Some of these intersections could be signalized. Some bus shelters are not ADA compliant, surprisingly, one adjacent to a hospital. And some crosswalks need to be repainted, especially along Wilson. The Chicago Crash Browser was used to find and display problem locations in the Ward.

Project expo display and model for the SherMon Plaza, also covered by Streetsblog. I unfortunately don’t have copies of the posters to post here.

Ready to Vote?

Voting will take place at the Ward office (4544 N Broadway; Wilson Red line stop, #36 & 78 bus routes) from April 27th to May 5th during regular office hours. There will also be a voting day on a weekend at Uplift Community High School from 10-2 (stay tuned for confirmed date).

For all of the Participatory Budgeting votes in Chicago, you do not need to be a US citizen to vote. You must only prove that you are 16 years old and live in the Ward (state-issued ID, energy bill, lease with name on it, etc).

And, if you have not stopped by a project expo yet, please do so this Monday at Preston Bradley Center from 6–8 PM! Let’s make the 46th Ward a great place to be!