Business Improvement Districts in Southern California: Implications for Local Governance

Business Improvement Districts: A Systematic Review of an Urban Governance Model towards City Center Revitalization

“…The 2012 special number of the European Urban and Regional Studies (EURS) contains 5 articles on policy transfer and the execution of BIDs in Canada [77], Germany [35], Johannesburg [78], Los Angeles [68], and Sweden [75], as well as a conceptual editorial [72] and three more articles on the subject, between 2017 and 2021 [56,59,73]. It is interesting to note that the (temporal) preceding special issue of the International Journal of Public Administration, from 2006, still possesses an important role within the BID policy transfer process; in this case, the published research retains an advocacy power, as most of the articles analyzed BIDs in specific North American contexts, namely: Southern California [79], Washington [80], Pennsylvania [81], Philadelphia [82], New Jersey [66], and Atlanta [83]. In this analysis of the role of journals from the selected publications, the Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal has also been a relevant communication mechanism for the discussion on BIDs, combining published articles from academics, as well as practitioners, attesting the close link and importance of different agents on the matter of BID policy transfer.…”

Analysing Democracy in Third‐Party Government: Business Improvement Districts in the US and UK

“…On both sides of the Atlantic there is good support for the assertion that — at least to date and in cases where there are no particular controversies such as the one that engulfed New York's Grand Central Partnership in the mid‐1990s (Traub, 1995) —‘BIDs largely operate under the general public radar’ (Meek and Hubler, 2006: 49). As with legitimacy and consent, the rhetoric of BIDs typically emphasizes their accountability to business constituencies, and non‐business individuals and groups have little or no direct role in reviewing or sanctioning the BID boards and managers.…”

The Business Improvement District Model: A Balanced Review of Contemporary Debates

“…However, they are not allowed to vote or formally participate in planning or decision‐making processes (Morçöl and Zimmerman 2006a,b). In contrast, BID boards in New Jersey (Freehold Center Partnership and the Union Center Special Improvement District) have granted residents voting power by including residents in the governing structure (Justice and Goldsmith 2006; Meek and Hubler 2006). Beyond the issue of board representation, proponents note that BIDs also generate policies that are helpful to BID residents such as the Alliance for Downtown New York's work in utilizing tax abatements to promote residential redevelopment of older office buildings and the Center City BID's work in Philadelphia that is aimed at improving city social welfare programs (Justice and Goldsmith 2006).…”

“…However, as Briffault (1999) points out, it is unclear whether governments simply ignore their legal obligations and let BIDs operate in virtual independence or whether they try to hold BIDs accountable to the enabling laws. Some articles that explore the relationship between BIDs and democratic accountability within the governance structure include: Briffault (1999); Hochleutner (2003); Koppell (2000); Meek and Hubler (2006); Morçöl and Patrick (2006); and Morçöl and Zimmermann (2006a,b).…”