34th Street Partnership security staff
The number of Business Improvement Districts has expanded greatly over the last twenty years, both in New York City and nationally. There are now close to 1,000 BIDs in the US, with over 60 in New York, and more in the pipeline. The focus of most BIDs is what’s been labeled “Clean & Safe.” Following the model we set up at Grand Central Partnership, they provide staff to sweep the sidewalks and curbs and empty trash baskets. Larger BIDs also tend to provide unarmed private security services on sidewalks within the district, and often those staff members are trained to provide directions and other tourist information. While at GCP, as well as in Bryant Park and 34th Street Partnership we hired and trained our own staff to provide these services, many small BIDs, and even some larger ones contract out to third-party providers for this work.
Data from the Furman Center indicate that while larger BIDs have a significant effect on commercial property values, smaller BIDs in New York City lack sufficient resources to make much of an impact (http://furmancenter.org/files/publications/FurmanCenterBIDsBrief.pdf ). The Furman Report questions the efficacy of the creation of small organizations, much of whose budgets is necessarily spent on administration, and in recent years, it has been smaller BIDs that have been started in New York. This was certainly my experience in Downtown Jamaica, Queens, which has three BIDS, two of which are quite small. None of the three can afford to maintain a security program, and even the largest of them finds itself with very limited resources, given the magnitude of the challenges with which it has been tasked.
Jamaica Alliance staff
It has also been my experience that the best quality services are delivered in-house. I found this to be true at Greater Jamaica Development Corporation (GJDC) when we took the security function at our parking facilities inside. By doing so, we were able to improve the quality of staff, as well as their compensation and training. We were able to hire members of the community who were far more committed to our mission than security agency employees. And, we gained a mid-level staff member who was a retired New York City police officer who added a great deal of value beyond his responsibility for supervising his team. Quite frankly, I don’t understand the benefit of contracting out security and sanitation services for all but the smallest organizations. A tremendous amount of the benefit of the BID is lost when doing so.
Center City Philadelphia community service representative
But the larger question I’d like to raise is why, with the huge improvement in the perception of public safety in downtowns across the country, many of the larger BIDs continue to provide security services at all, and why so many BIDs aren’t challenged to do more. There is still a need for a safety patrol in many places. In Downtown Jamaica, the biggest obstacle to private investment and attracting high quality commercial tenants continues to be the perception of a lack of public safety. Jamaica needs MORE resources to provide private security services. But with so much having been accomplished in midtown and downtown Manhattan, as well as in the Center City District of Philadelphia (CCD) and other places (like D.C.), why are those larger districts still spending as much as a third of their budgets on security services? Might there not be a need for BIDs 2.0 that provide the next level of services?
Artist Eric Ajama in the chashama Jamaica gallery
My first thought as to where those funds might be better applied is to a higher level of programming, particularly in supporting artists and artistic endeavors. The cost of space has become the single most significant impediment to the health of the arts in a number of cities. One of our most successful projects in Jamaica was a partnership with chashama (chashama.org), an organization that supports visual artists, creating gallery and studio space in an empty former dentist’s office. By providing free space to artists, who in turn expended “sweat-equity” in improving the space, we animated a dark block, particularly at night. The impact of this project was far beyond what we had imagined when we first engaged in the partnership: Ultimately an architectural firm bought the building and moved its offices there, which was a major step forward for the Downtown. This success was recently repeated in Jamaica with a group called No Longer Empty (nolongerempty.org), which not only provided free space to local artists, but also created a brilliant series of programs targeted toward engaging the community in their work. This long-empty space, too, leased-up days after the residency began.
No Longer Empty gallery on 165th Street in Jamaica, Queens.
GJDC provided free and low-cost performance spaces to performing arts groups in Downtown underused venues. This activated those spaces and drew the attention of the artistic community to the low cost of space in Jamaica. Frankly, I wish we had expended more resources on this kind of programming because of the substantial benefits it provided to the perception of the Downtown, going well beyond enhancing the perception of safety. It advertised that the Downtown was a vital, lively and creative place. This is placemaking at its highest level. We also provided essential financial operating support for the local arts center, which had been founded by GJDC decades before, and which struggled to secure adequate resources to program its spaces in a disinvested community.
While in Vancouver for the Project for Public Spaces placemaking week, I met the people from Big Car in Indianapolis (bigcar.org) who are doing similar work in a smaller city, supporting artists in order to build community and engage in placemaking. They have done a range of creative and impactful projects. There has been a great deal of talk, particularly in the philanthropic community, about creative placemaking, and these folks are demonstrating its efficacy.
Support for arts and artists is just one example of an area where BIDs might extend their reach. The New York BIDs have the capacity to incur debt secured by the BID assessment. While GCP and 34th Street used this tool to pay for district capital improvements, City government was resistant to the idea, and as a result it has proved difficult for others to emulate. CCD of Philadelphia has also had great success in using its bonding capacity to enhance its effectiveness. I believe this ability has been underexploited and could be used for a range of downtown revitalization projects from improving parks to adaptively reusing architecturally significant structures. City government and affected property owners need to be persuaded of the tremendous benefits BIDs might provide by taking advantage of their ability to borrow for capital projects. Some places have used tax increment financing in a similar way. In New York, a comparable structure was used to finance the public space improvements required to support the Hudson Yards project.
BIDs do marketing, work on retail improvement, façade improvement, better retail presentation, to pay for social services for those without shelter and engage in research and advocacy for and about their districts. Chaotic retail signs are one of the biggest impediments to downtown improvement, but they have also proved to be one of the most difficult problems to address. More thought needs to go into creating programs that deal with this problem effectively. BIDs might also support co-working spaces, business incubators and improved street food vending (through capitalizing carts and providing commissary, storage and sanitary facilities). I think it would be productive for BIDs, perhaps led by the International Downtown Association, their professional organization, to engage in a conversation imagining how BIDs might be more creatively employed to enhance the urban experience, as downtowns become revitalized and there is a need for newly conceived services to support their growth and the urban quality of life. At the same time, we need to work with municipalities and elected officials to garner their support and assistance for a broader range of BID programs.
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The useful chart linked below includes data supplied by the New York City Department of Small Business Services to the not so downtown curmundgenly David Milder . The chart analyzes the amounts spent on security services of BIDs of various budget sizes. Thanks to David for sharing.