In a recent City Hall ceremony, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed a measure which created the Bayside Village Business Improvement District (BID).
After signing the measure on Tuesday, October 9 at a ceremony attended by local officials and Bayside business owners, Bloomberg said that the BID “will provide maintenance and sanitation services, security services, marketing and promotion of local businesses, holiday lighting, economic development, beautification and landscaping.”
BIDs are voluntarily formed community organizations that promote business development and improve the quality of life in neighborhoods across the city. They are overseen by the city’s Department of Small Business Services.
The Bayside Village BID will be supported by 254 businesses, located on Bell Boulevard, from Northern Boulevard to 35th Avenue and from 214th Place to 213th Street on 41st Avenue. The budget for the first year of operation is roughly $80,000.
Bloomberg, noting that this was the 14th BID formed during his administration, said, “The services provided to the community are essential to ensuring that small businesses, and the neighborhoods in which they operate, are given every opportunity to succeed.”
Research and planning for the BID took just over a year, from the time Bloomberg authorized preparation of a district plan on October 3, 2006. In the intervening year, the proposal was submitted for approval to affected property owners, Community Board 11, and submitted to both New York State and City environmental reviews.
Shoppers on Bell Boulevard may have recently noticed workers in jumpsuits, sweeping up cigarette butts and other detritus from the sidewalks along the thoroughfare. The BID provides a formal agency for local establishments to keep them working.
The BID’s first year budget allocates $29,000 for sanitation and over $15,000 for holiday decoration and marketing.
Properties on the designated streets are assessed dues of not more than $15 per foot of frontage, with corner properties charged a lower rate. There are six residences and a non-profit in the BID. By law, they are exempt from dues, as are government properties.
BIDs usually hire workers to supplement regular Department of Sanitation crews for sidewalk and gutter cleaning, to do graffiti removal, and shovel snow around bus stops and crosswalks.
