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Although BIDs existed in an earlier form as early as the 1930s and 1940s, they grew in number after the recession of the late 1970s and early 1980s, when New York City and other urban centers were at their worst–blighted and infested with crime.Ĭities are in trouble again.
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Each property owner in the district pays a fee–called an assessment–to a private nonprofit corporation that puts that money right back into the district, providing essential services like sanitation and security, improving the streetscape, and marketing the area to attract more shoppers and businesses.
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At a time when city budgets are shrinking, more BIDs may step in to fill those budget gaps.īIDs are something like a little city. Researchers agree that BIDs have grown partly due to the financial challenges of city governments. Now there are more than 650 BIDs across the United States. Biederman took over Bryant Park in 1986, crowding out drug dealers and bringing in movies and restaurants and Broadway music and ice skating to make it one of the biggest and most successful BID ventures. The Bryant Park Corporation is one of the best-known and most successful business improvement districts (BIDs), in which a private entity takes over the management of a public space. The Bryant Park bathroom is perhaps as famous as a public bathroom can be–not just as a "resplendent park respite" (according to The New York Times) but as a symbol of what private-public partnerships can achieve: a public bathroom with cherry wood and crown molding, all without taxpayer dollars. A senior project manager looked at the bright side of the noise and lengthy queues: "When you're famous, that's what happens." Solution: Nicer smelling disinfectant spray? Brochures to alert tourists that the restroom's mosaic tile and imported marble were courtesy of the Bryant Park Corporation? Biederman directed staff to take a soundmeter and gauge the sound of the idling buses to make sure it didn't disturb park patrons. Issue Two: Tourist buses were stopping at the Bryant Park bathroom, increasing traffic and noise. Issue One: The offensive disinfectant smell in the evening, perhaps preferable to a sewage smell, but still not up to the Bryant Park standard for comfort. NEW YORK–Dan Biederman, president of the Bryant Park Corporation and the 34th Street Partnership, called to order the Streetscape Team Meeting and launched immediately into a first-priority problem: the Bryant Park bathroom.