Your Vote Can Earmark City Cash for New Tribeca Park and Other Worthy Projects
Lower Manhattan residents will have the opportunity this week to help decide whether $250,000 in discretionary City Council funds should be allocated to revivify a forlorn vest-pocket park in Tribeca. Barnett Newman Triangle (at the convergence of Church Street, Sixth Avenue, and White Street) has become the passion project of three Tribeca residents: Alice Blank, Lesley Sondey, and Jeannette Rosoff. Together with architect Marie Stargala, they have formulated a plan to transform the concrete traffic island into a a green oasis.
Working as Friends for Barnett Newman Triangle, they have developed a proposal to create a new, 8,570-square-foot park, running the length of the block between Franklin and White Streets, that will be “serve as a testament to the intersection of nature and culture.”
But how to pay for such a vision? One way is to be one of the capital projects chosen in the City’s participatory budgeting process. This is the week that constituents may vote on proposed local projects. In District 1, City Council member Christopher Marte is making $1 million available from his discretionary funds, to be divided among as many as three proposals, depending on what voters decide.
In addition to the $250,000 for Barnett Newman Triangle (which would be used to buy and install planters), other proposals contemplate allocating the same amount to replace worn-out stage curtains in the auditorium of Tribeca’s P.S. 234, or using $200,000 to provide laptop upgrades for students at Richard R. Green High School of Teaching in the Financial District, or spending $150,000 to purchase and install tree guards throughout the district.
Ms. Blank is asking for votes. “This is a critical opportunity for our community to reclaim an underutilized space and create a much-needed breath of green at the entrance of Lower Manhattan,” she said. “We’re inviting our neighbors to vote and help us bring life, beauty, and environmental benefits to this important urban space through strategically placed planters that will begin our broader mission of revitalization.”
There are multiple ways to cast ballots in the participatory budgeting process. Between now and Sunday, April 6, residents can browse the New York City Council Participatory Budgeting page, select Council member Marte (District 1), then browse the full list of nine proposals to choose their preferred options. Those wishing to vote in person are invited to stop by Manhattan Youth’s Downtown Community Center (120 Warren Street, between West and Greenwich Streets) this Tuesday or Thursday between 2pm and 4pm, or Saturday between 11am and 1pm.
One striking contrast between voting in elections for office, versus participatory budgeting, is that the latter is much easier and more inclusive. Not only is registration unnecessary, but children as young as age 11 are welcome to cast ballots, making this a productive way to introduce junior citizens to civic engagement.
There is also a mathematical anomaly that makes it likely individual votes will punch above their weight. According to a data analysis by online civics educator Daniel Golliher (proprietor of Maximum New York), Lower Manhattan cast the second-fewest votes of any City Council in the 2024 round of participatory budgeting. Only 983 residents showed up last year, a 48 percent decline from the year before, when 1,907 votes were tallied. (For context, almost 9,000 votes were cast in the 2023 City Council election, which returned Mr. Marte to office.)
This means that each vote that is counted in Lower Manhattan may count proportionally for more than in a higher-turnout neighborhood, such as City Council district 34, which straddles Brooklyn and Queens, and drew 9,030 votes to take part in participatory budgeting last year.