Our September Public Newsroom highlighted the ways Chicagoans can push for a city budget that serves their needs

By Ebony Ellis

This September, our Public Newsroom focused on how community members can start a People’s Budget event in their own neighborhoods. The People’s Budget Chicago (PBC) is a series created by Chicago United for Equity (CUE) in order to change the fact that the budget-setting process is not very accessible to people outside of government. 

We were joined by folks who work with the People’s Budget: 

  • Paola Aguirre, founder of Borderless — a Chicago-based city design and research practice focused on cultivating collaborative design agency through interdisciplinary projects; she was also a 2019 CUE Fellow

  • Vanessa Dominguez, a PBC coordinator

  • Kiara Hardin, a PBC facilitator

  • Troy Gaston, a PBC facilitator

Here’s what we learned:

Understand Your Community

One cannot always assume that people who live in the same neighborhood have the exact same ideas on how the neighborhood can be improved. “What do our communities need to be safe and thriving?” is the question that is PBC’s main focus. At the beginning of each of the pop up events (whether in-person or virtual), this question is asked before the main activity. This question is important because it encourages participants to start thinking about the changes they would like to see in their communities.

“I’d say—I’m still trying to find my community. Chicago has been a really big part of how I see the world,” a participant said.

The Importance of Consensus

The truth is we all may have different ideas about how we think resources should be allocated around the city. But we all have to live and work together. In the breakout groups, participants were given a particular amount of money and had to decide how each of them would allocate their funds. This involves a lot of thought and conversation between participants. There is a set amount of time for this activity, but ultimately it seems like there is never enough time. In one of the groups, members were deciding on placing some of the funds either in housing or infrastructure. Out of $100, the group decided that $24 would go towards housing and $19 would go towards infrastructure.

We Need Resources, Not Just Cops

This may sound self explanatory. Or maybe not. For one of the breakout groups, as a result of the activity, groups allocated funds to every section of the budget—except for the carceral system, which involves the police. The city of Chicago spends the most amount of money on policing. When the question was asked, a participant responded with her experiences of contacting the 311 non-emergency service for individuals seeking mental health assistance.

“One of the things that stood out to me was the amount of times I called 311 trying to get someone who is not a police officer to help someone who is in need of mental health services and how I get laughed at,” the participant said. “I think that’s absolutely ridiculous and we can do so much better.”

Want to learn more or get involved?

Check out some of the take-aways for this month’s workshop.

Next steps

  • Attend the People’s Policy School: Who decides how Chicago spends our tax dollars? Join CUE in launching our new public program, The People's Policy School! This event will be online on September 23rd, 6-8pm.  

  • Take action: more you can do to help us create an equitable budget

Further reading

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