Richmond’s participatory budgeting pilot is entering its next phase.
Leidiana Delgado, civic engagement coordinator for the Richmond City Council, presented councilors with the results of outreach work so far on the People’s Budget.
That program sets aside $3 million of the city’s funds — about 0.1% of the total budget — to be allocated through a process of public engagement and voting.
Funding for the program will be split among districts unevenly; instead, it’s being divvied up according to a climate equity index crafted for the city’s long-term climate action plan. Districts with the most vulnerability to climate change impacts, including high energy bills , will have more funding to work with through the program.
Districts 1, 2 and 4 will get $200,000; districts 3, 5 and 7 will get $300,000; and districts 6, 8 and 9 will receive $500,000.
So far, Delgado said, the city has collected 1,926 ideas that “encompass a range of community priorities.”
City workers split suggestions into seven categories: parks and recreation, public mobility, arts and culture, equity, environment and safety, health and wellness, and other.
Community members had more ideas relating to public mobility than any other topic by far.
They include broad suggestions to include traffic calming measures that slow down cars, new bike and pedestrian infrastructure and bus system improvements like covered waiting areas and new routes.
Responses also included specific proposals, like repairing roads in Shockoe Bottom and closing natural gas leaks from the city’s distribution system in Church Hill.
But demographics of the people who participated in VCU-run focus groups are not very representative of the city as a whole, according to researchers reviewing the work.
For instance, 78.87% of respondents were white, compared to about 43.2% of the city’s total population according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Black and Hispanic residents were particularly underrepresented in the data when compared to census info.
And according to household income, the largest chunk of respondents reported bringing in $120,000 or more every year, while more than three-quarters said their household income was above $60,000. That’s compared to a median household income — again, according to the Census Bureau from 2019-23 — of $62,671.
Sixth District Councilor Ellen Robertson questioned the concentration of respondents in Richmond’s more affluent areas, given the decision to put more of the project’s resources in its Gateway, Southside and South Central districts.
“The participation … seems to be significantly different from those districts that we are recognizing by the appropriation that the needs are significantly different,” Robertson said. “The question is whether or not … we need to reassess the level of participation.”
Delgado said VCU’s evaluation of respondents, which reached 63 people who participated in People’s Budget events, was limited to in-person and online focus groups and was also not entirely representative of where ideas for the People’s Budget came from.
“It’s actually primarily in the Southside,” Delgado said. “We saw most of our idea collection derive from the 5th, 7th and 8th district[s].”
VCU’s survey of participants elicited some suggestions, including more extensive outreach.
One response said, “I would suggest making a very heartfelt and concerted effort to ask citizens in public housing and in historically disadvantaged neighborhoods to contribute.”
Delgado said three delegates from each district, selected to narrow down requests from their communities, have passed on specific proposals to City Council.
Next, Delgado and other city workers will take those proposals back to the council districts, where residents will vote on three projects to prioritize.
