We track every idea that has been submitted using our digital portal.

However, PB only has a limited amount of funds to spend, so we have to cut down the number of projects with the help of our volunteer budget delegates. We use three criteria to determine which projects should be on the voting ballot: equity, feasibility, and impact.

Many projects that do not make it are too expensive, do not impact marginalized or disenfranchised groups, and may have a limited impact compared to other projects. Nonetheless, idea submissions still inform much of the work of other city departments. If a lot of people are requesting sidewalks to be fixed in a certain neighborhood, we take that into consideration in future plans!

While PB is a useful tool for increasing participatory democracy, it is not meant to replace representative democracy. The City of Durham works hard to provide basic services such as wastewater treatment and trash collection. In addition, the city has a number of initiatives meant to increase community engagement and involvement in city policies, such as their Comprehensive Plan Engagement with residents, as well as equity-focused programs such as their Green and Equitable Infrastructure Project Planning and YouthWorks programs. PB helps guide the work of the City of Durham and understand what residents want in their communities, but it does not replace or take funds from the general services that the city provides to keep Durham running. 

We are currently in our planning phases for our third PB Cycle, in which we plan to return to in-person engagement. We expect to begin idea collection in late Fall.

To look at our list of winning projects, check out PB Cycle 1 Winning Projects, PB Cycle 2 Winning Projects, and our digital portal. In addition, feel free to look at our project guidelines document to see what projects are more likely to get on the PB ballot. We are currently working on guidelines for PB Cycle 3.

We are currently working on guidelines for eligible and ineligible projects for PB Cycle 3. Feel free to check out our Evaluation Matrix that we used in PB Cycle 1 to score projects based on equity, feasibility, and impact.

Feel free to look at our Project Implementation Tab. This site is routinely updated.