As part of its 9th Participatory Budgeting (PB) Cycle, the City of Cambridge invites the community to vote on projects to improve the city from December 1-11, 2022. This process is open to all Cambridge residents age 12 and older (and all 6th graders), regardless of citizenship status, including university students.  

Participatory Budgeting is a democratic process that empowers community members to decide how to spend part of a public budget. In June and July 2022, community members submitted 1,320 ideas on how to spend $1 million of the City of Cambridge’s FY24 Capital Budget.  From August to November, over 70 volunteer PB Delegates worked on five committees to research and evaluate those ideas and develop 20 final proposals for the PB ballot.    

Projects are eligible for funding if they:

- Benefit the public;
- Are capital projects (something bought or built);
- Are one-time expenditures that cost $1 million or less;
- Are implemented by the City of Cambridge on city property (streets, sidewalks, parks, libraries, schools, youth centers, senior centers, municipal buildings, etc.).
- Are consistent with existing policies.

Past winning PB projects have included public bathrooms, urban micro forests, laundry access in Cambridge Public Schools, pedestrian-controlled crosswalk lights, STEAM Youth Center Upgrades, and many others. 

Residents can vote online, beginning December 1, 2022, at pb.cambridgema.gov. Online voting will be code authenticated; voters will enter their cell phone number or email on the PB website, a code will be sent to them via text message or email, and then they will enter that code online for one-time access to the ballot. The online ballot will be available in English, Chinese, Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese, Amharic, Arabic, and Bangla. 

Residents can also vote over the phone by calling the Budget Office at 617-349-4270 during regular business hours: Thursday, Dec. 1, from 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 2, from 8:30 a.m.– 12 p.m., Monday, Dec. 5 from 8:30 a.m. – 8 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Dec. 6-8, from 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 9, from 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. 

Cambridge residents can also vote in person. Learn more at pb.cambridgema.gov/pbevents. Paper ballots are also available through the Budget Office during regular business hours.

For more information about how you can vote, please visit pb.cambridgema.gov or contact the City of Cambridge Budget Office at [email protected] or 617-349-4270.