Business Improvement Districts And The Shape Of American Cities

Jerry Mitchell provides a comprehensive analysis of business improvement districts (BIDs)—public-private partnerships that shape city places into enticing destinations for people to work, live, and have fun. Responsible for the revitalization of New York's Times Square and Seattle's Pioneer Square, BIDs operate in large cities and small towns throughout the United States. Mitchell examines the reasons for their emergence, the ways they are organized and financed, the types of services they provide, their performance, their advantages and disadvantages, and their future prospects.

The "livable city," the "creative city," and more recently the "pop-up city" have become pervasive monikers that identify a new type of urbanism that has sprung up globally, produced and managed by the business improvement district and known colloquially by its acronym, BID. With this case study, Susanna F. Schaller draws on more than fifteen years of research to present a direct, focused engagement with both the planning history that shaped Washington, D.C.'s landscape and the intricacies of everyday life, politics, and planning practice as they relate to BIDs. Schaller offers a critical unpacking of the BID ethos, which draws on the language of economic liberalism (individual choice, civic engagement, localism, and grassroots development), to portray itself as color blind, democratic, and equitable. Schaller reveals the contradictions embedded in the BID model. For the last thirty years, BID advocates have engaged in effective and persuasive storytelling; as a result, many policy makers and planners perpetuate the BID narrative without examining the institution and the inequities it has wrought. Schaller sheds light on these oversights, thus fostering a critical discussion of BIDs and their collective influence on future urban landscapes.

The “livable city,” the “creative city,” and more recently the “pop-up city” have become pervasive monikers that identify a new type of urbanism that has sprung up globally, produced and managed by the business improvement district and known colloquially by its acronym, BID. With this case study, Susanna F. Schaller draws on more than fifteen years of research to present a direct, focused engagement with both the planning history that has shaped Washington, D.C.’s segregated landscape and the intricacies of everyday life, politics, and planning practice as they relate to BIDs. Schaller offers a critical unpacking of the BID ethos, which draws on the language of economic liberalism (individual choice, civic engagement, localism, and grassroots development), to portray itself as color blind, democratic, and equitable. Schaller reveals the contradictions embedded in the BID model. For the last thirty years, BID advocates have engaged in effective and persuasive storytelling; as a result, many policy makers and planners perpetuate the BID narrative without examining the institution and the inequities it has wrought as BID urbanism has oiled the urban gentrification machine. Schaller sheds light on these oversights, thus fostering a critical discussion of BIDs and their collective influence on future urban landscapes.

This comprehensive book covers the theory and practice of Business Improvement Districts or BIDs – partnerships between local communities and governments established to revitalize neighborhoods and catalyze economic development in a region. In this book, author Seth Grossman demonstrates the ways in which BIDs work, pull stakeholders together, and acquire funds to manage the difficult process of community revitalization especially in urbanized, threatened town centers. BIDs also blur traditional lines between public and private organizations, and their governance raises critical new questions about democratic representation, accountability, transparency, and responsiveness. As this book illustrates, BID managers act as public entrepreneurs, and management in the public realm requires community development skills (community planning, organization and leadership) and economic expertise (jobs, business development, housing and public infrastructure). Through an in-depth examination of Business Improvement Districts and their managers we begin to see that the future of public administration might no longer be contained behind the walls of formal government, with an increasing number of public administrators defining and creating public solutions to real life commercial problems. This book is essential reading for all practicing urban and regional administrators and government officials, as well as students studying public administration, public management, and urban and regional politics.

The Future of the City Centre: Global Perspectives debates future directions. It looks beyond the post-industrial, post-commercial, and post-retail city centres to examine differing visions of the future form and function of the urban core. This theme and the related sub-topics will assist the development of future city models and help to contextualise urban change. The in-depth research covers not only urban form and the re-use of the built heritage but also the provision for cultural events and different forms of entertainment that will offer vitality, together with visitors and responsible tourism. City authorities are starting to realise that structural changes are happening in city centres, as their influence is declining, and therefore new forms of governance will be needed. The book is based on an international research network hosting four symposia over 24 months. They took place in four cities in four different continents to encompass a world view of developed and developing countries. This book offers theoretical and practical perspectives from leading thinkers, academics, and practitioners, drawing on thematic issues explored across four international cities: Newcastle, UK; Newcastle, Australia; Pretoria-Tshwane, South Africa; and João Pessoa, Brazil. It draws on a wider set of global examples to reveal the shared issues and pressures being brought to bear on city centres and the diversity of responses being undertaken to ensure their long-term future. The book includes illustrations from cities around the world, and it is directed at academics, students, and professionals in architecture, planning, urban design, the built environment, geography, economics, sociology, and cultural studies.

This book examines how privatization has transformed cities, particularly through the role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the revitalization of America’s downtown. These public-private partnerships between property owners and municipal government have developed retail strips across the United States into lifestyle and commercial hubs. BIDs are non-profit community organizations with the public power to tax and spend on services in their districts, but they are unelected bodies often operating in the shadows of local government. They work as agents of economic development, but are they democratic? What can we learn from BIDs about the accountability of public-private partnerships, and how they impact our lives as citizens? Unger explores these questions of local democracy and urban political economy in this age of rampant privatization and the reinvention of neighborhoods.

This popular text mixes the best classic theory and research on urban politics with the most recent developments in urban and metropolitan affairs. Its very balanced and realistic approach helps students to understand the nature of urban politics and the difficulty of finding effective solutions in a suburban and global age. The eighth edition provides a comprehensive review and analysis of urban policy under the Obama administration and brand new coverage of sustainable urban development. A new chapter on globalization and its impact on cities brings the history of urban development up to date, and a focus on the politics of local economic development underscores how questions of economic development have come to dominate the local arena. The eighth edition is significantly shorter than previous editions, and the entire text has been thoroughly rewritten to engage students. Boxed case studies of prominent recent and current urban development efforts provide material for class discussion, and concluding material demonstrates the tradeoff between more ideal and more pragmatic urban politics.

In today's world, towns and cities dynamically develop over time and that's why urban regeneration is a widely experienced phenomenon. How can Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) create necessary conditions for the development of these phenomena? What is the role that BIDs have in entrepreneurial urbanism, supporting SMEs, city marketing and city branding? These are questions examined in this volume, in an effort to provide an extensive analysis of business improvement districts. Enriched with an analysis of various case studies, including South Africa, Ontario, Tokyo, Barcelona, Slovenia and with an in-field analysis of a cultural heritage site, Korca, Albania, the book analyses the importance, benefits, and impacts of this kind of organization. It highlights the social, economic and ecologic challenges to the historic city markets today, which led to their rapid stagnancy. This book offers a practical and structured guide of the concept of Business Improvement Districts and highlights the best practices for management, financing and organizing. It sheds light on the impacts and benefits of business improvement districts, offering conclusions about their influence on the future improvement of cultural and urban sites. It will be of value to researchers, academics, professionals, and students in the fields of management, organizational studies, strategy, and sustainable development of tourism districts.