Nashville’s ‘participatory budgeting’ experiment is over. How will residents get a say in city spending?

At Timothy Park in Bordeaux, the basketball courts pop with fresh blue paint. The large walking path is re-paved and smooth. And there’s a new playground — a towering climbing structure, swirling slides and swings.

On a brisk afternoon in September, Jamelia, who lives nearby, lets her puppy run around. She remembers how rundown the park used to look.

“It was kind of breathtaking to come, honestly,” Jamelia says. “That’s why we pulled up. We were going somewhere and I was like, ‘Let’s stop over there.’ ”

The park renovations were one of two dozen projects funded through what’s known as “participatory budgeting,” or “PB.” It’s a process where residents identify neighborhood needs, ranging from traffic bumps to apprenticeship programs to musical instruments for the library branch. Then peo