Success Stories
How Boston Voters Changed Who Controls the City Budget with Question 1
Boston's 2021 Question 1 gave the City Council power to amend the mayor's budget and created an Office of Participatory Budgeting. Here is what changed.
Series
Success Stories
Documented cases where organized residents changed a local decision — what they did, and what it cost them.
Success Stories
How Two Neighbors Saved the High Line — And What Came After
How two Manhattan residents founded Friends of the High Line, stopped demolition of an abandoned rail viaduct, and sparked a debate about gentrification.
Success Stories
How New York City Let Residents Vote on Part of the City Budget
How NYC participatory budgeting grew from four council districts in 2011 to the citywide People's Money — how it works, what it funded, and its limits.
Success Stories
How Flint Residents Used Citizen Water Testing to Force Action on Lead
How Flint residents, led by LeeAnne Walters, teamed with Virginia Tech scientists to test tap water, prove a lead crisis, and change water policy.
Success Stories
How Austin Voters Used a Citizen Initiative to Save Barton Springs
How Austin's Save Our Springs movement turned an all-night 1990 council hearing into a 1992 citizen-initiated ordinance protecting Barton Springs.