Reorienting Business Districts for Walkability

In a piece for Bloomberg CityLab, John Surico describes the historically car-oriented politics of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), business groups that emerged in the 1970s as a response to declining downtown conditions. “Historically, BIDs also typically favored access for cars, prioritizing suburban commuters and visitors with amenities like parking discounts and public lots. Indeed, the built environment of the American downtown — a ‘precarious urban monoculture’ optimized for white-collar work — is one that these groups helped cement into being.”

Now, “it’s striking to see the same groups now bang the gong for bike lanes, vehicle bans and pedestrian-focused facelifts. Reeling from the rise of remote work and the ongoing effects of the Covid pandemic, business groups are embracing policies and practices they long shunned.”

While not all BIDs are changing their views, many in the country’s biggest cities are recognizing the value of pedestrian and bicycle traffic and reorienting their efforts to new downtown residents and visitors in the post-pandemic era. “The paradigm shift that’s now underway could pay big dividends for walkability boosters — and be crucial to the survival of the urban core.”

“It took decades to create the modern office district; now that its critical vulnerabilities have been exposed, adapting these neighborhoods to again welcome a more diverse set of uses stands to be a similarly prolonged process.” Surico points out that BIDs, with their significant influence and resources, can be a key partner in creating more livable, walkable downtowns.