The City of Somerville completed the first-ever Participatory Budgeting cycle in 2023. In Participatory Budgeting, residents submit ideas for how to improve Somerville with one million dollars; volunteers score and select the 20 best ideas; and residents vote on the final ideas.

This dataset describes all the ideas that were submitted. Residents could submit ideas through the Participatory Budgeting website. Ideas were public to other users, who could comment or indicate support with a click. Ideas were then reviewed, combined, and scored for eligibility, need, and impact to determine which would appear on the ballot. This dataset includes the ideas that were submitted in this initial submission phase.

The City of Somerville completed the first-ever Participatory Budgeting cycle in 2023. In Participatory Budgeting, residents submit ideas for how to improve Somerville with one million dollars; volunteers score and select the 20 best ideas; and residents vote on the final ideas.

Voters could choose and rank up to 5 ideas out of the 20 selected final ideas. This dataset provides the number of votes in each rank slot for each of the final ideas.

All responses to the Citizenserve Applicant Feedback Survey, which asked respondents to rate their experience with the Citizenserve platform and overall application process in Somerville. The survey was offered to permit and license applicants in Somerville who had submitted an application through the Citizenserve platform between 7/1/2023 and 11/30/2023. Responses were recorded from 12/8/2023 to 12/29/2023.