For one more week, interested parties can weigh in on a “participatory budgeting” experiment in the City of Atlanta. Amir Farokhi, City Council Member from District 2 – which includes much of the historic downtown of Atlanta, is seeking the best ideas on how to spend $1 million to improve transportation infrastructure. Farokhi has been hitting the streets, recently spending the day at Peachtree Center MARTA station, to tout the program and solicit project ideas.
There are a few parameters though, laid out on their website DowntownATLdecides.com. These rules put pretty strict limits on the types of proposals that will be considered. No roller coasters or $1 million public pillow fights. The rules are simple though.
Submissions need to be the right size, the right location and the right type.
Right size basically means that it has to cost $1 million or less. Ideas could be one worth the full million or there could be 20 ideas that cost $50,000. If there was an idea that cost one dollar, it could be done one million times.
Right location means that the project idea needs to be in the downtown area of Atlanta. For some metro readers, this may be a vague concept applying to much of Atlanta – some readers may call anything south of the river “downtown.” For the Atlanta City Council however, it has a pretty strict definition and for the purposes of this project, is limited to a few blocks west and east of Peachtree Street south of North Avenue, plus a little rectangle several blocks away around the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site.
Right type means that it’s transportation-related. The source of the funding, Renew Atlanta/TSPLOST tax revenue, requires that it be used for transportation.
Farokhi gave some examples of projects that might be accepted. “In other words, improvements to public streets, traffic control, curbing, storm water drainage, street names and directional signage, and bridges all count,” said Farokhi. “Some more tangible examples include changes to streetlights, new street striping, sidewalks, bike and e-scooter lanes, or street repair.”
Farokhi and the District 2 team also gave some tips for getting an idea selected:
1. Areas of Greatest Need: Think about projects that a large group of voters/residents see as an area in need of immediate improvement.
2. Be Creative: Ideas are going to jump to the top of the list if they’re feasible and impactful, but also unexpected and exciting.
Proposals will be accepted through January 15th. Following the end of the submission period, the city will take a couple month to review proposals and make sure interesting submissions are legal and cost what they are supposed to.
In May, there will be a vote. If you live, work or go to school Downtown – think Georgia State students particularly, you will be eligible to vote. They will be using paper ballots so, likely, if you see a ballot you will be able to cast a vote. There can be multiple winners as long as the projects collectively come in under the $1 million.
It will be interesting to review the final number of submissions and vote counts. If there is particular enthusiasm for this type of project, you may see more of it in the future in Atlanta.
