Slavic Village to Vote on Project Finalists in $100,000 Participatory Budgeting Pilot Program

Residents of Slavic Village will soon help narrow down the options of how to spend $100,000 raised to help better their neighborhood.

Starting August 1, residents high school aged and up will be able to vote online and by mail on ten proposed projects gathered in the People’s Budget CLE’s pilot plan. Those 10 were selected from an original 125 submitted to PB CLE’s team earlier this spring.

Three weeks of voting kicks off with pitches and presentations from the 10 project leaders at a Voting Expo to be held on August 1 at the Polish American Cultural Center.

Those 10 proposals include:

ANTMEN, a mentoring program with teens and young adults at the Stella Walsh Rec Center
Clean Up, So We Can See, a surveillance project tied to Slavic Village’s empty lots
Fleet Garden Center
Forest City Community Park and Trail Expansion
Morganic Gardens Remediation, a lead clean-up of one of the neighborhood’s most troubled green spaces
Pet Food Security, a fund to boost food for pets in the area
Save PLAV Lincoln Post #13 and Electronic Information Sign
Sustainable Sewing Project, a partnership with the nearby Haven Home, supporting kids who need a safe place to sleep
These Kids Can Swing!, a project of First Tee Cleveland, a nonprofit that teaches kids how to golf
A Vacant Property and Conditions Survey

Voters will pick their top three through ranked choice voting, with the ideal aim of funding up to five proposals with that $100,000, program manager Najah Muhammad told Scene. Project heads will publicize a ballpark budget in their expo pitches on August 1.

Two years after a citywide proposal for participatory budgeting failed by a slim margin at the ballot box. PB CLE launched the pilot program as a result, focusing on Slavic Village.

Though new retail has moved in in the past few years, the neighborhood’s main street, Fleet Avenue, still suffers from vacant storefronts and lots strewn with trashed furniture and overgrown weeds.

“There’s a lot more that could be done with the businesses on Fleet Avenue,” she said. “So I think the neighborhood would really be excited to pour into people who are actually trying to do things there.”

Attendees of PB’s Voting Expo will have a chance to scrutinize projects to decide which three they see best fit for the neighborhood. Voting closes August 22.

A report will follow, Muhammad said, with the goal of figuring out how to eventually pursue a sequel convincing city voters participatory budgeting can work on more than a neighborhood level.

“This is really, you know, again, something new for the City of Cleveland, really,” Muhammad said. “And yeah, so we’re just kind of giving it all we got.”

Slavic Village residents interested in attending the August 1 Expo can register here.