real utopias

We recognize a city government’s first responsibilities: to keep our neighborhoods safe; to keep our streets clean; to ensure that those who live here – and those who visit – can get where they need to go in every boroughs. But we know that our mission reaches deeper. We are called to put an end to economic and social inequalities that threaten to unravel the city we love. And so today, we commit to a new progressive direction in New York. And that same progressive impulse has written our city’s history. It’s in our DNA.

Tuesday’s election signaled a political sea change in New York City as voters chose a candidate who repeatedly emphasized his progressive vision.

A right-wing website warned earlier this month, “Occupy Wall Street may soon occupy New York’s City Hall.” Get out your tents, folks.

"We are living in the world Occupy made," says Dan Cantor, executive director of the Working Families Party.

In New York, Participatory Budgeting (or PB) is a relatively new program where district residents participate directly in the city budgeting process, deciding how to spend $1,000,000 in city funds. These funds can go towards capital projects in our parks, our schools—or wherever else the residents of our district decide.