Why pay twice
To The Editor:
Re: “Chin and BID feel the heat at forum”
I’m afraid that the Soho Business Improvement District, which claims it will be a “Public-Private Partnership” will not be remotely public in any sense, or that it will benefit equally the people who own or rent space in its proposed venue, the Broadway Corridor. If chartered, it will, like similar entities, respond to nothing but the interests of its board. And that board, it is already clear, will be almost entirely made up of real estate interests.
Of the 21-member Steering Committee, 15 are members of brokerage and real estate management companies, and three of those are from Newmark, Knight, Frank, which is not only the largest commercial broker, but the owner of numerous buildings in the city.
The BID – according to a diagram of the proposed BID on its website – is supposed to include residential condo and co-op owners, residential tenants and community property owners. Not one of these — not even the Soho Alliance, which has long been the area’s primary community organization — has a single representative on the steering committee.
The purported necessity for a BID was the imminent termination of ACE’s cleanup services to the Broadway corridor. However, that termination is happening because the businesses on the corridor have refused to contribute to ACE to fund its operations. The question then is, why should the owners and tenants in the BID pay twice as much as ACE would have required to let a couple of high-salaried functionaries, who have not even consulted their interests, run their neighborhood?
Ingrid Wiegand
(I am an active member of the Soho community and its political and social organizations, and was a founding member of the Soho Artists Association which in 1968 and 69 negotiated with the City to establish the zoning and buildings requirements that made Soho possible.)
Veiled threats
To The Editor
Re: “Chin and BID feel the heat at forum”
I am a longtime Soho resident, and vise president of my co-op. I attended the meeting about the proposed BID, and was surprised to hear almost veiled threats from its proponents about how the neighborhood would deteriorate and be overrun by garbage if there wasn’t a BID to pay for ACE’s people, who do render a valuable service.
I found that angle to be preposterously heavy-handed. Garbage removal for commercial enterprises is the responsibility of the real estate and business interests who generate the garbage and profit from their location. The Department of Sanitation is responsible for picking up the residential garbage.
I worry about an encroachment of a BID, should one be established. Our co-op’s shareholders, many of whom have lived here for decades, view their apartments as their homes, not an investment product to flip. At least half of them are of modest means, and are choking under the relentless real estate tax and water tax increases of the last few years.
The BID seems like yet another outrageous move by business and real estate interests, who will always try to get someone else to foot the bill for something that primarily benefits them. Comparing Broadway in Soho to the 34th St. corridor or to Times Square is ludicrous.
Merle Kaufman
Tear up bill
To The Editor
Re “Chin and BID feel the heat at forum”
Councilmember Margaret Chin, tear up this bill of goods called the Soho BID, and work with, rather than against, your constituents. Let’s not create an anti-democratic private institution to do the work our public institutions are mandated to do. (Since when could the interests of real estate, commerce, condo owners, co-op owners, and residential renters be comfortably or fairly lumped together as in this BID?)
We have a Department of Sanitation; we have the First and Fifth Precincts; we have a Department of Consumer Affairs. Sure, many public institutions are faltering in their missions. But the Soho BID is not the answer. Work with your constituents and the city agencies to make our public institutions stronger, more efficient and more responsive to the needs of District One. Continue the supplemental sanitation services provided by ACE, the only element of the BID broadly conceded as needful, by taking up resident Sharon Livesey’s generous offer, which drew cheers at your forum: “I’d be willing to work with ACE to figure out how to better market their services and put shame on those that don’t support them.”
Whatever you do, Councilmember Chin, do not sell your constituents down this river called Broadway or the Soho BID.
Georgette Fleischer
Founder, Friends of Petrosino Square
Letters policy
Downtown Express welcomes letters to The Editor. They must include the writer’s first and last name, a phone number for confirmation purposes only, and any affiliation that relates directly to the letter’s subject matter. Letters should be less than 300 words. Downtown Express reserves the right to edit letters for space, clarity, civility or libel reasons. Letters should be e-mailed to news@DowntownExpress.com or can be mailed to 145 Sixth Ave., N.Y., N.Y. 10013.
