Richmond citizens to choose how $3 million is spent in new initiative

Max Walpole, Contributing Writer

Abdullah Karabatek, Contributing Writer

The city launched its People’s Budget program on Sept. 10 at Abner Clay Park which encourages residents of Richmond to submit ideas for new buildings, beautification projects and infrastructure to improve their community, according to its website.

It has an overall budget of $3 million, split among the city’s 15 districts, according to its website.

People interested in submitting proposals to the Richmond People’s Budget can do so through its website, according to Matthew Slaats, Richmond senior civic innovation manager who worked with the People’s Budget steering commission.

Alternatively, citizens can write their proposals on idea cards located in all Richmond libraries, according to Slaats. People should also write their information on the back and put the card in the library’s collection box.

After a three month period of idea collection, the submitted ideas become project proposals, according to Slaats. Citizens then have two weeks to vote on which project they want to succeed. Following the end of the voting period, the winners will be announced. The winning projects will proceed to the implementation stage and receive the necessary funding to be completed.

Slaats said the steering commission is aware it’s already the city’s responsibility to attend to infrastructure issues.

“We want to see some more creative projects,” Slaats said. “Like, how do we make our neighborhood better? Maybe it’s a beautification project, maybe it’s a mural that tells about the history of the neighborhood.”

The People’s Budget was influenced by a similar ongoing community improvement project in Durham, North Carolina, according to Slaats.

“It comes back to things that people want to see happen,” Slaats said. “People who live in these neighborhoods know what they need and what they want, so how do we be more responsive to that is a really big piece of all of this?”

One of the main goals is community outreach  — which extends not only to Richmond residents, but VCU students or commuters from Henrico and Chesterfield, according to Slaats.

“In the end, those decisions are going to be made by residents who live in the city, but we want to see the VCU students play a vital role in this,” Slaats said. “They have a stake in what the future of Richmond looks like.”

The speakers welcomed the crowd’s questions about the initiative.

Afterward, several attendees wrote down their own proposals to improve the community on idea cards provided by the steering commission.

First District City Councilman Andreas Addison also spoke at the event. He echoed Slaats’ sentiments concerning community outreach.

“Richmond People’s Budget as a whole is meant to be solely voted on by the neighborhood, by the residents,” Addison said.

He wants the people who live in the city to be the ones making decisions about utilizing government funding, Addison said.

Addison said that he thought the city should make the People’s Budget a regular practice.

“This should be how we improve neighborhoods across the city,” Addison said.

Addison said he hopes the People’s Budget will be a blueprint for how a community can voice their needs and collaborate on solutions for allocating funds and resources.

“I would love to see a community driven approach to improving all parts of our city. It starts with this,” Addison said.

Other members of the community in attendance were less receptive.

Leslie Brown, who has lived in Manchester since 2014, said based on her past experience in working in budgeting, the People’s Budget was more valuable as an educational aid than an urban improvement project.

“I think it has a potential for being tremendous in terms of actually educating people about the budget process, and I think it has the potential for bringing some deeply felt projects to the forefront, things that people are really passionate about,” Brown said. “But I value more the education piece than the actual project piece because one percent is not a lot of money.”

Brown said she was skeptical about how much involvement citizens would actually have in the decision making process.

“I’m going to have to see a lot more evidence that this isn’t just fancy dressing, and the city has to decide what it’s going to do anyway,” Brown said.

Brown said she thought the launch event being scheduled for the middle of the day indicated it was not meant to engage with the community, but to generate publicity.

“But, I get it,” Brown said. “Photo ops make a difference, photo ops get in the newspaper. You’ve got to do something and then that gets the word out.”