Calling all community servants.
\nThere\u2019s an urgent need to “rekindle” an effort begun more than a year ago to reconstitute and revitalize a Business Improvement District (BID) for the Midway area.
\nThe area could use a new BID, which is a defined area within which businesses pay an additional tax (or levy) in order to fund projects within the district’s boundaries. The BID is often funded primarily through the levy but can also draw on other public and private funding streams.
\nTo survive, any new Midway BID must have broad merchant participation and representation. There are unquestionably numerous problems \u2014 homelessness and blight, redevelopment of the former Sports Arena come immediately to mind \u2014 which are crying out to be addressed.
\nAnd, it is a watershed time in the area as the Midway Community Planning Group (MCPG), with the aid of the city, is updating its community plan, Midway\u2019s blueprint for future development. Through the plan update process, the community will essentially be redefining what it is and, more important, what it really wants to be.
\nVictor Ravago, a hotelier who until recently was on the MCPG Board, had begun a drive to reactivate the BID. Unfortunately, he has been transferred out of the immediate area and will likely no longer be able to continue to spearhead the Midway BID-creation effort.
\nTherefore, someone needs to step forward and take Ravago\u2019s place.
\nReferring to the desirability of creating a new BID, and what it would mean, Melanie Nickel, MCPG chair, said: “About 10 years ago or so, the Midway business community agreed to start up a Business Improvement District. While it was in operation it did great things for the Midway area. It produced advertising to bring customers into the Midway retail areas. It planted street trees, did regular clean-up projects, and partnered with homeless organizations to make them and their clients into positive contributors to the community.”
\n“A new BID could do all that and more,” continued Nickel. “We need some people to step forward to help create a new BID. “They don’t have to do it alone; the city has a whole department just for helping establish and maintain BIDs.”
\nNoting that the former Midway BID website is “inactive and the e-mail attached to it is dead,” Nickel said she is willing to “try to work with volunteers to get a new BID group started.”\u00a0
\nOne thing\u2019s for certain: BIDs have proven track records nationwide, demonstrating that they can:
\n\u2022 Unify businesses to work toward a common goal, which often economically revitalizes business districts.
\n\u2022 Mitigate retail sales leakage by allowing the area to compete more effectively for regional market share through the generation of greater local marketing resources and strengths.
\n\u2022 Support area businesses through commercial recruitment, retention and promotion as well as through the sponsorship of “shop at home” and image-building campaigns.
\n\u2022 Create a strong unified voice to represent business interests to local government agencies.
\n\u2022 Fund other projects such as clean-up programs, decorations, parks and special events.
\n\u2022 Assist in leveraging public and private resources for program activities and development projects and other commercial revitalization efforts.
\nAnyone interested in doing a real community service in helping to shepherd through a new Midway BID should contact Melanie Nickel at melanien@stanfordalumni.org.
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Calling all community servants. There\u2019s an urgent need to “rekindle” an effort begun more than a year ago to reconstitute and revitalize a Business Improvement District (BID) for the Midway area. The area could use a new BID, which is a defined area within which businesses pay an additional tax (or levy) in order to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11561","_seopress_titles_title":"Midway area in need of a revitalized BID?","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11593,11552,11561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-no-images","category-opinion","category-peninsula-beacon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}