“Don’t believe the hype!" Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) and the Implications for Democracy
Channel: Rochester Indymedia
Date: 27/06/2022

Ted Forsyth gives a brief overview of what Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are and how they might impact the City of Rochester. 

Their stated purpose is to revitalize downtown cores and economically depressed neighborhoods. That said, the implications are:

- BIDs are undemocratic and unaccountable neoliberal mechanisms of wealth creation and social control
- Property owners are the primary constituency; consumers tend to be  white middle class
- Private security, intensified surveillance, and working agreements with police are leveraged to exclude and displace those individuals who do not fit the profile of affluence and consumption. Excluded people include youth, homeless people, poor people, People of Color
- Businesses and real estate in the BID are taxed twice, once by the city and once by the BID, making property owners and business owners tax averse
- BIDs are not required to adhere to the open meetings law or the Freedom of Information Law
- Public space for all is transformed into controlled space for consumption

Check out the presentation and get more details at https://www.nobidroc.com/.