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Paying for the Public Life

Center City District, Philadelphia

More than 800 business improvement districts (BIDs) are reviving downtown and commercial areas in North American cities, large and small. Jerry Mitchell’s 1999 survey offers the first independent, systematic census, providing valuable information about their size, budgets, services, and priorities. But, by choosing to view BIDs primarily as a new mechanism for municipal service delivery, Mitchell occasionally misses implications of his own research, such as the leadership many of these organizations exercise in shaping public policy and their emerging role in the management and governance of cities. While originating in North America, city center management organizations are springing up in Europe, Japan, Australia, and South Africa and represent a creative response to suburbanization. This article, written by the executive director of one America’s largest BIDs, looks at their origin and evolution, discusses current trends and new initiatives, and addresses some of the criticisms that have been directed at BIDs.

Economic Development Quarterly, Vol. 15, No. 2, 124-131 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/089124240101500202


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