Bull City residents have cast their votes on how to spend $2.4 million in public money, and City Hall is getting ready to turn those choices into bricks, paint and fiber-optic cables. Through the latest cycle of PB Durham, a slate of projects that includes park upgrades, public art, neighborhood-safety improvements and digital-access boosts has cleared City Council and is slated to begin rolling out this spring.
City posts winners after vote
According to the City of Durham, residents delivered what officials framed as a decisive community vote, summed up in the city’s own words as “Bull City has spoken!”, and the council signed off on a community-driven portfolio totaling $2.4 million. The brief announcement highlights park upgrades, downtown amenities, public art and neighborhood-safety investments among the winning ideas and notes that implementation is scheduled to begin this spring.
What’s in the package
Earlier in the PB cycle, local reporting showed that the ballot featured an unusually wide mix of neighborhood projects, from tennis court repairs and park shelters to murals and new downtown restrooms, a spread that underscored how broadly residents distributed their priorities, as detailed in a wide range of neighborhood projects. The City of Durham characterizes the winners as “one-time” capital projects meant to improve public spaces and services without adding new long-term staffing obligations, according to the City of Durham.
How the vote worked
PB Durham reports that Cycle IV collected 964 ideas, which were refined through months of review by community budget delegates before a citywide vote that ran last fall. The official PB Cycle IV update notes that voting was open from Oct. 7 through Dec. 7, with residents able to cast ballots online or in person. The final tally was prepared for presentation to City Council in February, closing out the PB cycle and clearing the way for implementation, according to PB Durham…