WICKER PARK — Wicker Park, West Town and Logan Square neighbors living in the 1st Ward can again vote on infrastructure projects they would like to see funded over the next year.
Ald. Daniel La Spata’s (1st) office opened voting this week for its annual participatory budgeting process, which allows neighbors to weigh in on how $1 million of the ward’s 2025 “menu money” should be spent.
Projects under consideration include new pedestrian bump-outs, sidewalk replacement and street resurfacing on certain blocks.
The ballot also asks neighbors to rank “bike infrastructure improvements” on major thoroughfares such as Damen Avenue and Division Street that they want La Spata to advocate for with the Chicago Department of Transportation.
Additionally, the 1st Ward office is seeking feedback on how funds from the Fullerton/Milwaukee tax increment financing district, which is set to expire in 2027, should be spent. Possible options include new bus shelters and benches, traffic signals and improvements to a vacant lot at 2900 W. Medill Ave. in Logan Square.
The participatory budgeting ballot is live. Anyone living in the 1st Ward ages 14 and older can vote.
The voting process is the final public step in La Spata’s annual participatory budgeting initiative. Residents submit ideas that volunteers then “mold” into feasible projects prior to public voting.
La Spata on Tuesday said the process has been successful in highlighting new projects and infrastructure needs across the 1st Ward.
“It’s been super helpful not only in getting smart, community driven projects on the ballot, but also in getting more and more of our residents to think critically about how infrastructure intersects with how they live their lives,” he said.
Each alderperson receives $1.5 million in menu money to spend every year on infrastructure priorities in their wards. This year, those funds are being paid for by a controversial $830 million bond plan passed by City Council last month.
La Spata and other proponents have argued that the borrowing plan is vital to fund urgent infrastructure needs such as bridge repairs and resurfacing projects.
But before the plan passed by a narrow 26-23 margin, some critics on the City Council and elsewhere derided it as fiscally irresponsible, citing analysis that it could cost the city $2 billion by the time it’s fully repaid in the 2050s.
The 1st Ward office is also seeking feedback for improvements to the intersection of Hoyne Avenue and Division Street in Ukrainian Village. La Spata has introduced an ordinance to add four-way stop signs there, and is considering additional “infrastructure installations” like pedestrian bump-outs.
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