Facing gentrification and skyrocketing property prices, business owners in New York's Chinatown are thinking about forming a Business Improvement District. Many say the plan would hurt small businesses.
"Many Chinese-Americans thought that through decades work and sacrifice, the poverty and racism that many had historically experienced would diminish. However, many residents now feel that the trauma of gentrification and rising rents, the loss of Chinatown's manufacturing and garment sector to outsourcing and continuing racism threaten to push the quality of life for Chinatown residents back to the 1870s when the community began."
"Wong's Restaurant Alliance is but one of many groups in a new coalition called the Coalition to Protect Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Gentrification and racism are long-term issues facing Chinatown residents, but recent attempts by the Chinatown Partnership and the Rebuild Chinatown Initiative to launch a business improvement district, or BID, have triggered a wave of activism and debate in the community."
"Business improvement districts are formed by property and business owners to improve commercial districts. They work by assessing all property owners in the district an additional 3 percent to 5 percent property tax, and then use these funds for privatized sanitation services - such as street cleaning and graffiti removal - security and other activities that owners would like to bring to the neighborhood, such as cultural programming."
"In order to win approval, more than 50 percent of the district's property owners must back the BID, but usually much more support is needed than that. Commercial landlords generally pass on the assessment to their commercial tenants, while residential co-ops usually have only a nominal fee, very often $1."
"The Chinatown Partnership, a major advocate for a local BID, currently runs programs like a Taste of Chinatown and a clean-streets initiative, and it believes that without the resources from BID assessments, these beneficial programs would be forced to close."
"But the proposal has angered residents such as Lee and Wong, who believe the property-tax increase would push small business owners - barely hanging on already - over the edge, and out of Chinatown."
FULL STORY: BID battle brews amid a changing Chinatown
The Mall Is Dead — Long Live the Mall
The American shopping mall may be closer to its original vision than ever.
The Paradox of American Housing
How the tension between housing as an asset and as an essential good keeps the supply inadequate and costs high.
Report: Las Vegas, Houston Top List of Least Affordable Cities
The report assesses the availability of affordable rental units for low-income households.
Anchorage Leaders Debate Zoning Reform Plan
Last year, the city produced the fewest new housing units in a decade.
How to Protect Pedestrians With Disabilities
Public agencies don’t track traffic deaths and injuries involving disabled people, leaving a gap in data to guide safety interventions.
Colorado Town Fills Workforce Housing Need With ‘Dorm-Style’ Housing
Median rent in Steamboat Springs is $4,000 per month.
City of Yakima
City of Auburn
Baylands Development Inc.
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.