Londoners with ideas on how to make their neighbourhood better are once again being given a chance to make their pitch to city hall.
The London Neighbourhood Decision Making program's online idea submission portal opened on Monday after a one-year hiatus due to the pandemic.
The program, first introduced in 2017, encourages residents from all areas of the city to come up with initiatives that would enhance or make their neighbourhood a more enjoyable place to live. The ideas are then reviewed by city staff to determine whether they are feasible and compiled into a list for Londoners to vote on. The city has allocated $250,000 for the program, with each of the five geographic areas that the city has been divided into getting $50,000. Individual projects are capped at $30,000, which allows each area to receive funding for multiple ideas.
Past winning proposals included a ninja warrior course in Medway, park improvements for Cedar Hollow, the addition of fruit trees in central London, and a community movie theatre in Glen Cairn.
"Neighbourhood Decision Making is a program that engages, empowers and connects residents by bringing neighbours together to support community-driven projects that enhance and strengthen their neighbourhoods, but it is also an example of participatory budgeting,” said Karen Oldham, the city's manager of neighbourhood development and support. “Funded projects can really make a neighbourhood come alive and make it a better place for neighbours to live and connect with one another.”
More than 200 ideas were submitted during the 2019 Neighbourhood Decision Making program and more than 10,300 people cast votes in favour of the winning projects.
Idea submissions for this year's program can be made at getinvolved.london.ca/NDM until September 21. The ideas will then be developed into one-page proposals for the online community vote slated for November 6.
