The Business Improvement District Movement

Book excerpt: This comprehensive book covers the theory and practice of Business Improvement Districts or BIDs - partnerships between local communities and governments established to revitalize neighborhoods and catalyze economic development in a region. In this book, author Seth Grossman demonstrates the ways in which BIDs work, pull stakeholders together, and acquire funds to manage the difficult process of community revitalization especially in urbanized, threatened town centers. BIDs also blur traditional lines between public and private organizations, and their governance raises critical new questions about democratic representation, accountability, transparency, and responsiveness. As this book illustrates, BID managers act as public entrepreneurs, and management in the public realm requires community development skills (community planning, organization and leadership) and economic expertise (jobs, business development, housing and public infrastructure). Through an in-depth examination of Business Improvement Districts and their managers we begin to see that the future of public administration might no longer be contained behind the walls of formal government, with an increasing number of public administrators defining and creating public solutions to real life commercial problems. This book is essential reading for all practicing urban and regional administrators and government officials, as well as students studying public administration, public management, and urban and regional politics.