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Youths Vote On Projects For Boston's Capital Budget

BOSTON (CBS) - If you had a million dollars of Boston's money to spend, how would you spruce up the city? WBZ's Jeff Brown found some young people have some pretty cool ideas.

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Ah, to be young again. Boston's youth essentially gets a check for a million dollars, and they come up with some solid ideas that are being included in the city's capital budget.

"Mayor Walsh sets aside a million dollars of the capital budget," says Shari Davis, director of the city's Youth Engagement and Employment Department. "Young people convene, they form a steering committee, they write the rules for the process."

And it's popular.

"We saw over 1500 ideas come in this year," Davis says.

This is the second year Boston's done this. It's the only program of its kind in the U.S.

"Finally, these items make it to a ballot where young people vote and this year we saw over 2500 young people participate in a city-wide vote," Davis said.

The most popular project is Wicked Wi-Fi 2.0

"The mayor is going to install some Wi-Fi hot spots in areas where young people are," Davis says, "where they need the connectivity to get real time information and educational tools."

Other plans include a water bottle refilling station and two more Hubway stations.

The big money winner is a plan to renovate the gym at Boston Latin. The plans win, the city wins and so does the city's young people.

"Not only do you learn about projects, and cost estimates, but you also learn about the implementation of what a capital project and what its lifecycle looks like and what it feels like," Davis said.

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