Albuquerque councilor asks International District residents to spend $1.7 million

Albuquerque City Councilor Nichole Rogers is again asking International District residents to decide how public money gets spent, this time with $1.7 million in capital funds on the table. The second round of participatory budgeting turns a neighborhood grievance into a budget question: whether people who live, work or study in District 6 can shape real projects, not just weigh in after decisions are made.

The new round builds on a 2025 pilot that started with more than 240 submissions, narrowed to nine final projects and drew more than 1,200 District 6 voters between March 29 and April 19, 2025. The top vote-getter was the Kathryn San Mateo Grower’s Market, later publicly referred to as The People’s Market, a project city officials said came from 243 entries. On June 9, 2026, city officials and the Participatory Budgeting Albuquerque steering committee gathered in the International District for a ribbon cutting at the market, giving the process a visible result in an area long shaped by debates over investment, livability and trust.

That earlier round also included Rogers’ $1.5 million District 6 set-aside and bonus projects funded from the same pool. City officials have framed the model as a way to direct capital dollars into concrete improvements such as lighting, street improvements and beautification, the kind of spending that can be seen block by block in places like the International District, the San Mateo and Kathryn area and the South San Pedro neighborhood.

The city says the second round is open to people who live, work or study in Council District 6. Close to 30 community members applied to serve on the District 6 Participatory Budgeting Steering Committee, and PBABQ held a steering committee orientation on April 14, 2026 before beginning project idea workshops. That wider invitation matters in a district where residents have often questioned how much control they really have over public dollars and whether neighborhood planning reaches the people most affected.

Marcus Porter, who serves on the South San Pedro Neighborhood Association board and is part of a group reviewing ideas from the district, said the process helps people see what is on their neighbors’ minds and brings more residents into civic life. His comments capture the appeal of participatory budgeting in District 6: not just a vote, but a test of whether city hall will keep handing over meaningful budget power, project by project, to the people most directly living with the results.