You decide how to spend $2 million of the City’s budget

The month of September is your chance to vote for your favorite local park and street improvement projects. It’s all part of the City of Seattle’s Your Voice, Your Choice: Parks & Streets, a participatory budgeting program in which community members democratically decide how to spend a portion of the City’s budget on small park and street improvements. Approximately $186,000 is available for each City Council district, and residents can cast their ballots for their top three choices in the district where they live, work, go to school, receive services, or volunteer. The projects that receive the most votes will be funded by the City and implemented in 2020.

Each council district has its own ballot. The projects were selected from 619 ideas submitted in January by community members across Seattle. More than 1,289 community members evaluated and prioritized each idea based on the need and community benefit. The projects, which can be viewed at www.seattle.gov/yvyc, range from new pedestrian lighting to sidewalk installations.

Community members ages 11 and up can vote online or at in-person polling stations happening at local events between September 3 – 30 (you can find these events on our website). Paper ballots are also available at all Seattle Public Library branches.

You can find information and voting instructions at www.seattle.gov/yvyc.  

Of the $2 million, $700,000 overall will go toward funding projects in Equity and Environment Initiative (EEI) Focus Areas. These are geographic areas where communities of color, immigrants, refugees, people with low incomes, Native peoples, and limited-English proficiency individuals tend to live. Because these areas are highly impacted by socio-economic and environmental challenges, the City’s goal is to ensure those most affected have a voice in finding solutions.

After ballots are tallied, the winning projects will be announced in October.