Who Participates in Participatory Budgeting? 

The results are in: when it comes to civic engagement, Cambridge, Massachusetts, residents go above and beyond. The city of Cambridge held its 12th cycle of Participatory Budgeting, in which residents voted on which of 20 project proposals should receive funding from the municipal government, from Mar. 5 to Mar. 15. Out of the 121,186 city residents, 10,172 went to the ballot box to vote on these initiatives. The Harvard community maintains deep ties with Cambridge’s local government; many faculty members and their families are Cambridge residents, alongside several undergraduates. However, while middle and high school students are well-represented in Participatory Budgeting, college students seem to be left behind.

Cambridge Participatory Budgeting is open to all city residents aged 12 and older—this includes all sixth graders, non-U.S. citizens, and university students. Each resident can vote for up to five of their favorite projects. The results of the vote were announced on Mar. 18 during a Vote Results Party at Cambridge City Hall, with $1,032,000 awarded to the following nine projects: 

1. Fixing Sidewalks, Saving Trees ($100,000; 5,057 votes)
2. More Complete Streets ($200,000; 4,355 votes) 
3. Transportation Assistance Services ($50,000; 3,868 votes)
4. Cold and Wet Weather Kits ($60,000; 3,757 votes)
5. Rain and Pollinator Gardens ($100,000; 3,621 votes)
6. Supporting Continuous Access to School Supplies ($12,000; 3,394 votes)
7. Residential Rat Control ($110,000; 3,335 votes)
8. Concrete Barriers for Bike Lanes ($150,000; 3,275 votes)
9. Basketball Court Upgrades ($250,000; 2,525)

The most popular project, “Fixing Sidewalks, Saving Trees,” will allocate funds to repair sidewalks that have been damaged by tree roots through Cambridge’s Transportation, Streets, and Sidewalks Committee. Damaged concrete or brick will be replaced with a sustainable, rubber-based paving material called Flexi-Pave that will accommodate future root growth by bending instead of cracking under pressure.

“More Complete Streets” has a similar safety mandate; the plan will allocate $200,000 to upgrade intersections with improved crosswalks, countdown signals, bike safety signals, and raised crossings.  

The 11 projects that did not make the cut include providing free bikes to low-income residents, improving local dog parks, and an initiative called “My Future, My Vote” that would provide a “vote tote” bag to young Cambridge residents containing information on elections and voter registration. 

The first cycle of Participatory Budgeting was held in Mar. of 2015 and allocated $528,000 to six projects. The original six projects included planting 100 healthy trees, providing 20 laptops for the Community Learning Center, and funding a public toilet in Central Square. Since it was first introduced, the Cambridge Participatory Budgeting initiative has grown considerably. The program has amassed over 11,000 project proposals and is committed to spending over $11 million of the city’s public budget on over 80 approved projects. 

The momentum of Participatory Budgeting has provided an increasingly visible opportunity for Cambridge residents to get involved in their local government. Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, in a conversation with the publication “Cambridge Day,” reflected on the value of boosting community engagement through Participatory Budgeting. 

“Some of these are things I think the city could be doing anyway, right?” Siddiqui asked. “But it’s nice to know that some of this, it’s coming from the community, and that’s the whole point. People are voting and telling us what they want.” As Siddiqui suggests, community engagement has been heightened since Cambridge residents began embracing this budgeting policy—during Sept. and Oct. 2025, community members submitted over 1,100 ideas that were whittled down and shaped into formal project proposals over the winter. 

Participatory Budgeting is not unique in its involvement of local voices. For over 80 years, the city has used a system of proportional representation voting for city offices like the City Council and the School Committee. By allowing residents to elect nine City Council members and six School Committee members through ranked-choice voting—in which voters rank their candidate preferences rather than choosing only one option—the city hopes to give residents a more direct say in their representatives. 

The Participatory Budgeting project builds on this community structure, allowing young locals to get involved in the political decisions that directly affect them. In a conversation with “Wicked Local” in 2021 about the eighth cycle of Cambridge Participatory Budgeting, then-Vice Mayor Alanna Mallon praised the program’s emphasis on youth involvement. “Empowering our young people to have a voice in capital improvements made in their city is one of the biggest benefits of participatory budgeting,” she said.

The program has been largely successful in reaching the youngest eligible residents of Cambridge. Of the more than 10,000 votes cast in the 2026 Participatory Budgeting cycle, over 1,000 were cast by students in sixth through 12th grade. Cambridge upper schools organized designated school voting days to simulate real polling places and election procedures, and nearly all students in grades sixth through eighth voted. 

Alex Mahajan ’28, who attended middle and high school in Cambridge, recalled being encouraged to engage with Participatory Budgeting. “They allotted some class time for us to do it,” Mahajan said in an interview with the “Independent.” “There were some kids like me who really were interested in it, enjoyed it, and thought, ‘Oh, this is a really cool entry to understanding how to split the budget.’ I remember my friends and I would discuss, ‘What would you spend your money on? What would you do?’” 

However, there has been far less discussion of the program’s outcomes with college-aged residents. This is consistent with the voting habits of college students; Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr-Ryan Center for Human Rights explained that “college students have traditionally voted at one of the lowest rates of any group in the United States.” 

For Harvard students from Cambridge—a large portion of the student population—this affects their representation in local government. However, a lack of awareness and accessibility to these policies deters college-aged residents from participating.

“I think I wish I felt more connected to Cambridge,” Mahajan said, who has not engaged with Participatory Budgeting since beginning college. “I actually have no idea what’s going on with Cambridge legislation and the projects they’re planning, which makes me a little sad because I grew up in Cambridge.”

Other barriers reinforce Mahajan’s point. Time constraints and convenience may be among the most significant barriers to college students engaging with local government. “A lot of times they may feel like they don’t have the time or the bandwidth to be dealing with everything that’s going on in their lives as well,” Amir Smith ’29, co-chair of the nonpartisan Harvard Votes Challenge, explained to the “Independent.” “They don’t find out about these elections, or they completely forget about them without having reminders.” 

While the city of Cambridge has not yet released an official timeline for the upcoming Participatory Budgeting Cycle 13, the idea collection period in recent years has consistently begun in the late summer or early fall. Students from Cambridge can submit proposals through the City of Cambridge online map, by contacting the City’s Budget Office via email, phone, mail, walk-in, or by filling out forms at local pop-up events. When the voting period opens, residents can cast their votes by calling the Cambridge Budget Office at (617) 349-4270, by voting in-person at one of the voting sites listed on the City of Cambridge website, or by visiting the Participatory Budgeting online voting platform. 

Téa Shouldice ’29 (teashouldice@college.harvard.edu) is eagerly awaiting the safer street crossings.