Plan seeks private $$ to refresh Downtown Crossing
By Donna Goodison Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Photo by BRA
City officials have revived controversial plans for a business improvement district - or BID - at Downtown Crossing, with the hope of raising $2 million to $4 million annually from private property owners to pay for a ?clean and safe? program, events and marketing for the down-on-its-luck shopping area.
The proposals for the BID and new organizations to oversee the area were revealed yesterday as consultants hired by the city unveiled recommendations, previewed in February, to rebrand and rejuvenate Downtown Crossing as ?Boston?s meeting place? and attract new businesses.
Talks of a BID come 11 years after the city and some Downtown Crossing business leaders first attempted to get legislative approval for a special zone where property owners would be levied a surcharge based on the size of their holdings there. That BID proposal languished and died on Beacon Hill due to opposition from labor groups, most notably the Boston Police Patrolmen?s Association, which in part feared that private security guards would encroach on their turf and paid details.
More recently, Menino had trouble convincing Downtown Crossing property owners to pony up $500,000 in matching funds for street furniture and more frequent cleanups. But city officials are hopeful the new BID proposal will meet with approval from all parties this time around. ?The big difference is this time we have a comprehensive plan,? said Randi Lathrop, the Boston Redevelopment Authority?s deputy director of community planning.
Lathrop said the BRA already has reached out to the patrolmen?s association. But BPPA president Thomas Nee said he only received a brief, last-minute courtesy call Monday night about the plans. Nee said the association is willing to be involved in new BID discussions, but deemed previous legislation ?unacceptable.?
?There were no competitive bidding laws, nothing. It was outside all the current statutes,? said Nee, who said he remains concerned about any ?privatization of law enforcement services.?
?We don?t need security guards walking up and down public ways doing our job,? he said.
The city?s plans call for a new Downtown Crossing Partnership that would serve as an umbrella organization to set policy for the district. It would use BID funds to hire ?ambassadors? who would wear uniform jackets and serve as the city?s ?eyes and ears? there, assisting people in need and working closely with Boston Police, Lathrop said.
Millennium Partners Boston principal Tony Pangaro supports plans for a BID.
?Millennium has projects in BIDs in San Francisco and New York, and we?re very supportive of this one,? said Pangaro, whose company built the Ritz-Carlton Boston Common and Residences and will develop Hayward Place. ?It?s a way of targeting resources. You can focus and coordinate efforts in a much more concerted way with a BID.?
But other, smaller property owners privately voiced frustration with what they see as attempts to shift what should be city responsibilities onto private businesses and a new layer of ?bureaucracy? for the district. Other new organizations or groups would be formed to handle events and marketing and pedestrian-zone issues.
The recommendations also call for increased oversight and enforcement for pushcart retailers through a stepped up role by the Downtown Crossing Association, which was characterized as chronically underfunded. Rosemary Sansone, the association?s new president, said she assumed the role to bring the group to a ?new level? and work more closely with pushcart owners.
