Business Improvement Districts in the United States

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.

One of the few book-length studies solely devoted to public-private partnerships involved in the remaking and gentrification of urban space Explores BID practices as they relate to democratic theory and debates about the privatization of government services Presents a detailed case study of BIDs and public-private partnerships in New York City

Autorentext
Abraham Unger is Assistant Professor of Government and Director of Urban Programs at Wagner College, USA, and Senior Research Fellow at the Carey Institute for Government Reform. Unger is a member of the Staten Island Borough President's Strategic Policy Advisory Committee.

Inhalt

1. Privatization in the Neighborhood .- 2. The Structure of Bids: Public-Private Hybrids .- 3. The Real Lives of BIDs .- 4. How BIDs Behave: Publicness and Privateness in BID Organizational Life .- 5. DSBS and BIDs: Advocacy, Not Oversight .- 6. Epilogue.