Tuesday, October 20, 2020

What's Missing?

My brother Big Mike sent me a link to a decent article by Seth Barron, Trouble in Grand Central’s Paradise, originally published January 30th, 2020.  Mike included the question: What's missing?

From the article:  

The creation of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), with the power to levy taxes on local businesses in order to supplement municipal services like sanitation, security, and public amenities, became key to midtown’s revitalization. Starting around 1980, businesses formed the Bryant Park Corporation, which organized extra park maintenance, security, and public programming to attract office workers to eat lunch there during the day. The Bryant Park Corporation achieved official BID status in 1986, around the same time that businesses a few blocks east were forming the Grand Central Partnership to address quality-of-life problems that had turned the terminal into a way station for homeless people. As the then-largest BID in New York City—covering 70 blocks of prime midtown real estate—the Partnership rebuilt street furniture, hired state-certified security officers, provided supplementary maintenance and sanitation, and, importantly, contracted with nonprofit social-services providers to reach out to homeless people and connect them to shelter.

If you own a business in any given BID (Business Improvement District), your taxes go up.  In exchange for higher taxes, you supposedly get what you've been paying for all along: Police, Fire, City Maintenance and Sanitation.  In other words, the local police will start enforcing the laws that are already on the books, and the increased police presence will deter crime.  City maintenance will maintain the city infrastructure, such as park benches and the like.  The Dept. of Sanitation will collect garbage - which they get paid to do, but haven't done.  The social service providers, all of whom are non-profit organizations, will provide services to the homeless.  Or in other terms, get the homeless out of the area and 'home' them someplace else.  Indianapolis, Indiana looks promising.

In my opinion this is stable dressing.  The business owners are already paying for these services, but the services were never provided.  No amount of complaining would get the City to provide service, but add a few bucks to your complaint and something happens.

My question: What's missing from the article?

2 comments:

Ed Bonderenka said...

Sort of the opposite of "Enterprise Zones"

Mad Jack said...

Ed: Yeah, sort of.