In some city wards, residents vote on how tax money is spent. Should all Chicagoans get a seat at the budget table?

Edwin Ortiz, equity officer in the city’s Housing Department, stands listening during a Youth Budget Roundtable session in the Winter Garden of the Harold Washington Library last month. (Marc Monaghan/WBEZ)

Along Chicago’s north lakefront near Rogers Park, there’s a couple of strange looking exercise stations with gravity workout machines, pull-up bars, benches — they look like a mix of a playground and gym. On a recent sunny afternoon, three kids and their grandmother were playing there.

“I have absolutely no idea [what I’m doing], but according to this I’m working out my upper body and I’m stretching at the leg lift station,” said 12-year-old Britain Konczal, who smiled ear-to-ear as she swung back and forth on a workout machine.