Content about Chicago

We recently stumbled across what might be one of Cyburbia’s oldest and richest resources, “A Citizen Planner’s Toolbox”. This forum was created a while back as a gathering place for the kinds of complimentary, affordable, and alternative resources that are desperately needed by citizen planners. Since its inception, there have been quite a few ideas and links posted by peers thoughout ther planning field, that we think our readers will find valuable; especially those who often have little or no budget to work with in communicating their projects’ development plans.

Solutions to the problems associated with over-spending, clutter, and mass consumption just may lie within our own neighborhoods. One easy way to explore exactly how we can share skills and services locally comes to us through the online collaboration platform for neighborhoods, OhSoWe.com.

First implemented in the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1990,  Participatory Budgeting (PB) is a planning process which allows citizens to decide directly how to allocate all or part of a public budget, typically through a series of meetings, work by community “delegates” or representatives, and ultimately through a final vote. While the process has been widely utilized worldwide, especially in Europe over the past two decades, only recently has it been implemented in a few U.S. cities — including Chicago.

With new tools for public engagement popping up everyday, it takes a fresh perspective to grab our attention anymore. With that being said, we’d like to commend Give a Minute!, for fearlessly embarking on their mission to create a ‘new kind of public dialogue’.