The Woodhaven Residents' Block Association (Official Site / Facebook / Twitter) kicked off 2014 with a presentation on Participatory Budgeting, a program through which the residents of a community decide how their tax dollars will be spent. They were joined by a bevy of elected officials who came out to wish the residents of Woodhaven a Happy New Year. You can read local news coverage of this meeting here: Queens Chronicle, South Queens Forum.

Note: The next meeting of the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association will take place on Saturday, February 22nd at 1 PM at Emanuel United Church of Christ (91st Avenue and Woodhaven Boulevard).

First up - participatory Budgeting. This is an exciting program which will allow residents of Woodhaven to choose which programs they believe their tax dollars will be spent on.  Here are some highlights of the meeting:

Now the results were very interesting - as you can see, police cameras & elevators for the J Train were both popular vote-getters - but these results are far from final.  These projects need to be narrowed down and eventually voted upon.  So even if you have not yet been involved, you can be involved when it comes to voting on a project for Woodhaven.  Remember, the available funds are split between projects in Woodhaven, Richmond Hill and Ozone Park -- so, voting matters!

Here is Rudy Giuliani, chief of staff for Councilman Eric Ulrich, giving a presentation on how participatory budgeting works:

A nice crowd gathered for the first meeting of the WRBA in 2014.  In fact, as the meeting started we needed to fetch more chairs for people to sit on. It was good to see so many residents engaged in the process of choosing which projects could be funded.

We were happy to see our representative in Congress, Ms. Nydia Velazquez. She came to speak about the budget and other issues (click here for details). 

Here is Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez --

State Senator Joe Addabbo, a frequent visitor to the WRBA meetings.

And here is Senator Addabbo:

Assemblyman Mike Miller, who hardly ever misses a chance to engage residents from Woodhaven --

And here is Assemblyman Miller --

And finally, Councilman Eric Ulrich, who is bringing participatory budgeting to Woodhaven.

And Councilman Eric Ulrich --

Here are the board members of the WRBA with our elected representatives.  From left to right: Maria Thomson, Cong. Nydia Velazquez, Arlene Annunziata, Assemblyman Mike Miller, WRBA Vice President Giedra Kregzdys, WRBA Communications Director Alexander Blenkinsopp, President Martin Colberg, Vance Barbour, Treasurer Stephen Forte, Sen. Joe Addabbo, and Councilman Eric Ulrich.

The residents were animated and engaged as they brainstormed for ideas.

The ideas were written down on large yellow sheets. Every idea was collected and will be entered into a spreadsheet for later discussion.

The different groups discussed the merits of each idea.

And finally, each group voted upon their ideas and announced their top three.  It was an exciting process in which residents had the chance to be part of the process.

If you would like to join this process, email the Woodhaven Residents' Block Association at info@woodhaven-nyc.org or call the WRBA and leave a message at 718-296-3735.  You can also call Councilman Eric Ulrich's office at 718-738-1083.

If you have any comments, or would like to suggest other projects, drop us a line at info@projectwoodhaven.com or projectwoodhaven@aol.com.  

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Photos by Joey Wendell