Here are some of Richmonders' ideas for how to spend the city's $3M People's Budget
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
The first round of ideas from Richmonders on how they'd like to spend $3 million in taxpayer money is out.
Why it matters: Public mobility-related projects — crosswalks, bike lanes and public transportation improvements — garnered the most requests among the 2,000 submissions from locals on how they'd use the first-ever "people's budget."
The big picture: After years of false starts, the city last year launched its first official participatory budgeting (dubbed "the people's budget") plan, modeled on similar ones in other cities.
- The program's delegates — three volunteers from each city council district — spent the last few months gathering the ideas online and in-person.
- In total, 1,926 ideas were submitted. Mobility was top of mind for locals. Park and green space improvements had the second highest number of ideas by category.
Zoom in: Sidewalks, either fixing existing ones or creating new ones, were among most often requested use of funds, per an Axios review of the submissions.
- Nearly 100 proposals asked for more and improved bike lanes.
- Around 50 ideas were related to crosswalks.
- And closing Carytown to cars came up more than a dozen times.
Zoom out: Some ideas were oddly specific, and would likely only benefit a handful of residents. One request was to burrow a tunnel under Forest Hill Avenue so folks going from the park to a nearby coffeeshop don't have to cross the street.
- Others were clearly beyond the scope of the project, including multiple requests for improvements to the privately-owned Stony Point Fashion Park.
- There were also at least five submissions for a "new mall," multiple requests for new parks and trees across from specific (redacted) home addresses, and one ask that Widespread Panic play the amphitheater's summer opening.
Of note: Each council district will get $200,000 to spend on their district.
- The districts will also collectively decide how the remaining $1.2 million is allocated, with a focus on "communities in need," per the website.
What's next: The budget delegates will refine the list into specific proposals the public can vote on this spring.
- The projects will be funded in summer.