Your Alderman controls some of the dollars that go to neighborhood public works program through a program called the "Aldermanic Menu Program." In 2000, each member of the City Council gets $1.2 million to spend at his or her discretion on alleys, street paving, curbs, sidewalks, lighting, and traffic signals. Your Aldermen should base his or her decisions on the community's most pressing needs as voiced by area residents. If you have an infrastructure need that fits these categories, be sure to let the Alderman's office know as early as possible

Since 1994, each Alderman has been given a sum of General Obligation Bond funds to spend on various infrastructure projects in his or her ward, including residential street and alley resurfacing, sidewalks, street and alley lighting, alley speed bumps, curbs and gutters, and street light pole painting. Originally, each Alderman received $1 million to distribute at his or her discretion – hopefully, based on public input – among the eligible project types. That amount has increased to $1.2 million per ward per year.

The Aldermanic Menu program has the potential to be an effective way of delivering public works dollars to the most pressing local infrastructure needs. If individual City Council members make full and fair use of the program, the Menu program can locate important decision making powers at the neighborhood level. Unfortunately, some Aldermen do not make full use of the dollars allocated to them, and still more distribute the Menu monies without any sort of open public participation in selecting projects and prioritizing needs.

In the bigger picture, the Aldermanic Menu represents a fairly small share of the overall public works plan. The $485 million allocated through the Aldermanic Menu program accounts for 7.5 percent of the $6.47 billion in ward-by-ward CIP allocations from 1994 to present. Of the $1.2 billion in neighborhood infrastructure allocations over this period, the Menu Program accounts for 41 percent of the total.

What Types of Programs Are Funded With Menu Money?