Private Governments or Public Policy Tools? The Law and Public Policy of New Jersey's Special Improvement Districts

Justice, Jonathan B.; Goldsmith, Robert S.

doi:10.1080/01900690500409005

Cited by 22 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…The BIDs in Georgia are the closest to the taxing district definition (their boards are elected and property owners in the districts are assessed), but local government organizations, not the BID management organizations, collect their assessments (Morçöl and Zimmermann 2008b). In New Jersey, most BID management organizations are incorporated as nonprofits and their boards are not elected (some BIDs in this state are managed by municipal commissions); local governments levy assessments for them (Justice and Goldsmith 2008). In Pennsylvania, under the older 1980 law (still in effect), BIDs are formed as public authorities and local governments appoint their board members, but their main revenue source is assessments, and at least one BID, the Center City District in Philadelphia, bills and collects its assessments (Kromer 2009, 64).…”

Section: Bids: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Business Improvement Districts: A New Governance Framework

Morçöl

Wolf

2010

Public Administration Review

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What is the current state of research on business improvement districts (BIDs)? What is an appropriate framework for analysis? What are key questions for advancing future BID research? BIDs can be understood best within a network governance framework. The research shows, first, a blurring of the line between the public and private spheres as a result of BIDs; second, BIDs are increasingly important actors in urban governance; third, BIDs engage in collaborative, conflictual, and co‐optative relations with local and state governments; and fourth, difficult accountability and management problems are created by their interdependent relationships with local governments. Future research needs to focus on understanding the role of BIDs in urban governance and assessing their impacts on metropolitan areas, as well as their inherently complicated public accountability and management challenges.

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Section: Bids: An Overviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Business Improvement Districts: A New Governance Framework

Morçöl

Wolf

2010

Public Administration Review

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“…According to a survey of American BIDs, 87% of BID revenues come from self‐assessments and not privatized city contracts (Mitchell 1999). Using data from case law and a state‐wide survey of New Jersey's BIDs, studies also demonstrate that BIDs are genuine public–private partnerships that ‘further public purposes in the course of advancing private interests’ (Justice and Goldsmith 2006, 132). Ultimately, as many academics have pointed out, BIDs are created under the authority of and subject to local government and cannot employ fiscal or other coercive authority except under the sufferance of the governing municipalities that maintain the authority to dissolve them (Briffault 1999; Justice and Goldsmith 2006, 132).…”

Section: Concerns and Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Using data from case law and a state‐wide survey of New Jersey's BIDs, studies also demonstrate that BIDs are genuine public–private partnerships that ‘further public purposes in the course of advancing private interests’ (Justice and Goldsmith 2006, 132). Ultimately, as many academics have pointed out, BIDs are created under the authority of and subject to local government and cannot employ fiscal or other coercive authority except under the sufferance of the governing municipalities that maintain the authority to dissolve them (Briffault 1999; Justice and Goldsmith 2006, 132). BIDs, as demonstrated by the reorganization of New York City's politically powerful Grand Central Partnership, have no greater potential for redistributing power and wealth than do a variety of redevelopment partnerships or urban governing regimes (Justice and Goldsmith 2006, 132).…”

Section: Concerns and Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, BID boards in New Jersey (Freehold Center Partnership and the Union Center Special Improvement District) have granted residents voting power by including residents in the governing structure ( Justice and Goldsmith 2006;Meek and Hubler 2006). Beyond the issue of board representation, proponents note that BIDs also generate policies that are helpful to BID residents such as the Alliance for Downtown New York's work in utilizing tax abatements to promote residential redevelopment of older office buildings and the Center City BID's work in Philadelphia that is aimed at improving city social welfare programs ( Justice and Goldsmith 2006). At the same time, those defending the democratic nature of BIDs also caution that some actively exclude people who are 'deemed undesirable' ( Justice and Goldsmith 2006, 131).…”

Section: Concerns and Debatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Business Improvement District Model: A Balanced Review of Contemporary Debates

Hoyt¹,

Gopal-Agge²

2007

Geography Compass

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This article presents an overview of the burgeoning literature on business improvement districts (BID) by highlighting its historical underpinnings, identifying the economic and political factors that explain its transnational proliferation, and demonstrating how the model varies within and across nations. It also provides a balanced review of the key debates associated with this relatively new urban revitalization strategy by asking the following questions: Are BIDs democratic? Are BIDs accountable? Do BIDs create wealth‐based inequalities in the delivery of public services? Do BIDs create spillover effects? Do BIDs over‐regulate public space?

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“…These contradictory observations about the significance of BIDs in urban governance can be also seen in the different conceptualizations of BIDs. Morçöl et al (2014) distinguish: (1) BIDs as tools of governmental policies, i.e., they are merely instruments of government actors, being charged with the implementation of one or more public policy goals (Justice & Goldsmith, 2008); (2) BIDs as private governments, i.e. their commercial interests and power rivals those of local governments because it is usually private organizations, such as chambers of commerce, that create and directly manage them (Baer & Feiock, 2005;Lavery, 1995);or (3) BIDs are actors in urban governance networks shaping collective action and determining public policy goals as one actor in a more complex polycentric system of governance (Morçöl & Wolf, 2010).…”

Section: City Levelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resource Orchestration as a Source of a Competitive Advantage for Cities

Berseck

2015

AMPROC

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-DeutschInmitten des aktuellen Urbanisierungstrends bietet diese Dissertation eine Antwort auf den Mere resources are frequently insufficient to generate competitiveness in our increasingly demanding world; urban administrators, policymakers and other practitioners concerned with the management of their place need capabilities to use resources efficiently while adapting to their changing environments. Therefore, I argue for the value of extending the resource-based theory -especially, its dynamic refinement, the theory of resource orchestration -to answer the question how places can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. I develop a fourstep process framework of strategically managing resources and developing capabilities that includes (a) structuring their resource portfolio, (b) bundling resources to capabilities, (c) leveraging capability configurations and (d) continuously synchronizing each activity.I try to give this model its specific urban shape by zooming into the city and empirically applying it to the internationally growing urban governance tool of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs). The first empirical study emphasizes one particularly important, placespecific resource, namely social capital, and examines the unique relationships between social capital and resource bundling based on archival, interview and direct observation data of 12BIDs in New York City. The findings suggest that each component of the resource bundling process mediates between social capital and the BID's capability to function as community development entity. Contents IVThe second empirical study focusses on capability leveraging and elaborates this resource orchestration step in the context of 15 BID-government relationships in the City of Hamburg.This chapter advances qualitative research to disentangle the actual processes of strategy development, coordination and implementation between public and private actors. It identifies different leveraging approaches and collaborative outcomes depending on the social capital configurations of the BID-government relationships. By focusing on the partnerships' networks of relationships, inherent interests and capabilities that enable (or inhibit) public and private actors to work together, the study makes an important contribution to the literature, theorizing the entire process of how public-private collaborations are strategically managed.Combined, this dissertation informs theory and practice on the strategic management of cities and BIDs. The focus shifts from viewing them as black box, through which certain inputs flow to become outputs, towards the development of capabilities for policymakers, administrators and practitioners that allow them to utilize resources efficiently and establish structures to work collaboratively. Hereby, I show and explain how places can affect their development trajectories through conscious managerial actions taken to increase their performance.

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Private Governments or Public Policy Tools? The Law and Public Policy of New Jersey's Special Improvement Districts

Cited by 22 publications

References 4 publications

Understanding Business Improvement Districts: A New Governance Framework

Understanding Business Improvement Districts: A New Governance Framework

The Business Improvement District Model: A Balanced Review of Contemporary Debates

Resource Orchestration as a Source of a Competitive Advantage for Cities

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