Somerville officially launched its second-ever round of participatory budgeting on Sept. 20, allocating $1 million of the city’s budget toward city improvement projects that will be voted on by residents. Participatory budgeting, which Somerville first implemented in 2023, strives to involve more community members in the democratic process by giving them a voice in how the city’s budget is spent.
To submit an idea, any Somerville resident age 12 and up can fill out a form on the city of Somerville’s website. Proposals can be made in five categories — “Streets & Sidewalks,” “Parks & Green Spaces,” “Community Resources,” “Arts & Culture” and “Education” — or placed under “Other.” The website also has a feature where people can comment on others’ posts or indicate support for an idea.
Megan Huckenpahler, Somerville’s budget analyst, reads all the submissions and then connects with different city department heads, who work with subcommittees made up of Somerville residents to refine the proposals into fundable projects. Somerville residents must apply through the website to be part of a subcommittee.
"[Subcommittees'] favorite meetings are the ones where they meet with city staff and hear about how they prioritize projects and think of their work,” Huckenpahler said. “Since that’s a part [of government] that not a lot of residents would see otherwise, like a peek behind the curtain. They’re always shocked at all the regulations and steps and hurdles you have to go through to get a project off the ground.”
During Somerville’s first participatory budgeting cycle, residents submitted over 900 different proposals. From those proposals, the city produced a finalized list of 20 proposals that were voted on by over 3,890 people. Five projects were ultimately selected, addressing the issues of the city’s rat population, community food access, construction of Somerville’s Bicycle Network Plan, bus stop improvement and the effects of urban heat.
The first project to be completed was the adoption of BigBelly trash cans around the city to reduce the rat population. The food access project is also up and running, with community fridges stocked with fresh produce located around the city.
During the construction season next spring and summer, 1.61 miles of bike lanes will be implemented throughout Somerville. Shade structures are currently in procurement and will be installed at the Capuano School. Lastly, the participatory budgeting team is in their final talks with the MBTA about bus shelters and hopes to install them in the spring at the most highly trafficked locations.
According to Huckenpahler, Somerville’s participatory budgeting team has assessed the successes and failures of the first cycle in 2023 and has implemented changes for this next round. Last year, white people were overrepresented in both voting and submissions, submitting 75% of the proposals and making up 84% of voters. This year, the city hopes to address the issue of accessibility by hosting a mix of in-person and virtual meetings for subcommittees, instead of only meeting in person.
Another change to the process is that voting will take place in April rather than in the fall, allowing construction teams more time to plan for projects.
“Last year, we had winning projects that were voted on in the fall, and [there] wasn’t enough lead time for our teams to get them done in this next summer construction season,” Huckenpahler said. “Ideally, with voting happening in April, they can have a full calendar year to plan and then get everything, hopefully, completed the following year.”
The participatory budgeting process in Cambridge, which inspired the project in Somerville, is currently in its 11th cycle. In Cambridge, community members can submit ideas over the phone, through the website, by email, mail or in person.
“I actually remember the very first [participatory budgeting] cycle from when I was in middle school,” Melissa Liu, participatory budgeting and engagement coordinator for Cambridge, said. “It’s something that stuck with me for so long. Being able to vote in a citywide process was like, ‘This is crazy, I thought voting is what adults do.’ It really made me more conscious of the space that I live in. It gave me a bit more of a community-oriented perspective.”
Unlike Somerville, Cambridge allows nonresidents to participate in the participatory budgeting process so long as they have a connection to the community. Also unlike Somerville, Cambridge does not have an age restriction for submitting proposals. By removing age limits, Liu said that more families in the area have become engaged in the governmental process.
“It’s often a family-oriented thing we hear from Cambridge families,” she added. “It’s a whole thing they do over the dinner table with their kids and it’s awesome. We [also] go to classrooms to collect ideas.”
For the second year, Cambridge is also allowing people to submit ideas for “operating projects,” or projects that require ongoing costs for up to three years. This also distinguishes their process from Somerville, which only accepts proposals that require one-time expenses.
“[Operating projects] open the realm for something very creative and identifies these more niche problem areas that, if solved and if addressed, really could have huge impact, with some really creative proposal development coming from our volunteer delegates,” Liu said.
Somerville Councilor-at-Large Jake Wilson also expressed the importance of creativity in the proposals.
“My personal belief is that if people are having to propose infrastructure improvements, street safety or sort of nuts-and-bolts stuff, that’s a sign that we’re failing to address those needs as a city,” Wilson said. “It should be a nudge to us as a city government that we should be doing more to address those so people can vote for fun stuff for participatory budgeting.”
The submission window for the second round of participatory budgeting in Somerville will be open until Nov. 20, with the city set to begin implementing the winning projects in summer 2025.
