Early Voting on Menu Money Expenditures Begins this Week by Polyana Wolf

If you are wondering about the signs placed everywhere in the 49th ward asking you to VOTE, this week residents get to decide how to spend 1.3 million dollars of menu money. The menu money is allocated each year for infrastructure improvements in every ward of the city. Since 1994 this has been a set amount for each ward, the arrangement made to allay concerns about one ward or another getting favorite treatment. Usually it is at the discretion of the alderman to allocate expenditures, however in the 49th ward it is up to residents to decide where to spend the money.  That’s all a person needs to be to vote, a resident, at least 16 years of age with some form of identification and proof of address. no previous registration required, and no, you do not have to be a registered voter or even a citizen, which is exciting if you happen to be Canadian, a college student from Ohio or too young to register to vote. If you are civic minded, but still under the age of sixteen, you can get your older friends to vote, and the exciting part is each person can vote for up to eight proposals.

So exciting it is. On a sunny day in Loyola park you could overhear folks at the tennis courts with a pack of playing dogs discussing the proposal for a dog park, see people intently walking around the bathrooms figuring on the best spot to put the showers or an amateur engineer studying the depth of the sand covering the footpath and kicking the boardwalk barely visible but intact and leading to the water’s edge. Indeed, the education about the possibilities for infrastructure improvement involved hundreds of hours of walking the ward and taking stock of the the parks, streets, eE stations, crime hot spots and visual appeal as well as meeting with city officials and special interest groups.

So we have our proposals on the final ballot.* There are some who think like our founding fathers of democracy that the people are too foolish to make direct decisions regarding government. They grouch and groan that people will be dazzled by frivolities like public art and an overpriced dog park while the streets crumble around us. Then there’s some that do have the power to influence public spending who think committees and consensus and things like that are a waste of time There are others who think it’s the responsibility of the park district to improve the parks.  Some are baffled that no proposal provided for improved play lots for children. There’s those that are appalled we would foot the bill for free wifi for the few who can’t afford it at the expense of those who do and them that think police cameras and murals make the neighborhood an eyesore. Well all the same, this time around voters will get to decide, so VOTE!

What was mentioned like a promise at the beginning of this adventure in participatory budgeting is that other communities who’ve implemented the process generally looked out for the greatest good and gave votes freely for the proposals that answered the greatest need. What has already happened here in our ward is that the committees did their duty and considered all ideas submitted by the community. How things ended up for final ballot vote involved a complex filter system. Some projects are already slated for completion with other money. Some do not fit within the scope of menu money eligibility. Some require a feasibility study, some are more expensive that the menu money available. Even with that filter system there are projects that could be funded by other sources of money but got on the ballot to avoid waiting for other sources to come through. What is amazing is that we can afford to fund nearly half of the proposed projects. In two years we could fund all of them but one police camera. It looks like the people of the 49th ward are going to be getting a lot of what people want.

The ballot is organized according to the recommendation of six committees. The streets committee included all of the streets in the ward that could use some resurfacing in order of priority, excluding those streets already slated for resurfacing with other money. The worst streets are priority one, needing it the most, it’s not sections of the ward. All the streets could be done with the menu available and leave $260,800 left for other projects, but street resurfacing enthusiasts can’t vote for all the streets projects because there are ten groups of them on the ballot and a person can only vote for eight.

The traffic safety committee is pretty straight forward. There’s possibly a hundred things to discuss about speed humps and dangerous intersections and even dangerous speed humps but there’s three projects to pick from on the ballot.

The parks and environment committee has some nice items at a low price. Showers in the park and two new community garden spaces plus a completed circle path in Touhy park all for less than one dog park.  It’ll be interesting to see how well the Pottawatomie campaign pans out. Do cocktail parties and little fliers everywhere overcome the high price tag, the bewilderment of parents who wanted improved play lots and the opposition of many dog owners to dog parks? We’ll see…

The transportation committee looked at green transportation specifically. For commuters facing longer wait times we can provide an additional heated shelter at the Jarvis, Morse and Loyola platforms. For pedestrians we can fix the most dilapidated sidewalks at 27 locations throughout the ward. A poster will be provided for viewing the locations at voting. Finally, a bike network for Rogers Park that will link to the lakefront trail to the north, go southwest along Rogers, feed traffic from the west along Touhy to a north and south route along Ashland to the ward boundary in phase one. The network provides access to the lakefront along both Pratt and Morse for recreational biking and seeks to complete the commuter route by linking to the existing routes south and east of the ward in phase two. The routes increase safety and ease of commutes for bikers and motorists.

The arts and other projects committee continues the vision of murals for Rogers Park with 12 new locations in the underpasses of the Metra and CTA. They also propose the addition of historical signs and also public sculptures that double and triple as bike racks and educational tools and you have to see them to imagine them and if you haven’t yet you will if you go to vote. Finally, they picked up a project the city tried to implement but canceled for free wi fi for residents. It would be a pilot project along Howard St. between Ashland and Paulina that could be expanded ward wide and continue the momentum for municipal wi fi and a model for other potential municipal utilities in the future if you are a big dreamer, which is a pretty big dream for a little price tag….

The public safety committee continues the ward wide implementation of street lighting for safety and crime deterrence. Recommendations for more cameras are included, though the police recommend lighting as much more effective than cameras.

So we’ll get almost half of what we want, will you help decide?

Early voting hours are at the ward office: 7356 N. Greenview (in Jarvis square)
                                        Monday April 5th through Friday April 9th
                                        9am-5pm (open until 7pm Wednesday)

Assembly voting at the Chicago Math and Science Academy:
                                        7212 N. Clark St.
                                        Saturday April 9th 9am-3pm

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