BID FOR A BID FOR A BID

The battle about BIDs is ongoing, and SoHo is just the latest neighborhood to be at the center of this hullabaloo…

There’s currently a rift over whether SoHo should have one— lines being drawn, trash piling up… It’s a standard urban drama.

In this case, what is at stake is the operational future of this neighborhood, a true risen phoenix which in the past 15 years has become one of the premier shopping destinations on the planet.

In general, I’m not opposed to private-public partnerships, but it is hard to support a BID that is basically promising to put an existing nonprofit out of business… 

You see, SoHo already had a solution to its garbage pile-up problems until Broadway merchants got greedy and stopped paying for the services, supposedly to create the “proof” that they need a BID.

As the NYT writes:

For nearly two decades, the nonprofit group ACE had supplied the area with street cleaners through a vocational program that provides transitional work experience for formerly homeless men and women

But in the past five years, the group, which was founded by the philanthropist Henry Buhl, received fewer and fewer donations from residents and retailers along Broadway between Houston and Canal. Sometimes the budget shortfalls exceeded $100,000, and the group found itself diverting money from other programs.

“We were doing this for multinational corporations making billions, and this tiny nonprofit is shouldering this load for nothing,” said Jim Martin, ACE’s executive director.

Part of the problem is that ACE can’t force the businesses to pay. As CurbedNY reports, “the Soho BID, which would have the power to assess mandatory fees to fund its $550,000 budget.”

But rather than creating something that much of the community opposes (including EVERYONE on CB2), why not just create a provision that makes it mandatory for the businesses to pay ACE?

Problem solved!

And if you had any doubts about the unsavory nature of the BID, check out the creepy website.