Reform The Bid, But Don’T Trash It

It’s summer in the city. At the cobblestoned corner of Wall and Main, a live band belts out pop music for a crowd of lunch-hour passers-by. Toddlers sit in the laps of moms and dads, eating free pizza, bouncing to the music. Onlookers, young and old, smile with a Friday kind of joy. Weekend’s coming. And our city is alive again. Everywhere you go downtown there are people on the sun-splashed streets. The noise of construction signals the birth of interesting new businesses, like the Montvale Building’s upscale pool hall at 1st and Monroe.

That’s the real world. And the new life is something to celebrate.

But in the world of politics, a bitter vendetta claws at the many people and organizations - including this newspaper’s owners - who continue to work and invest to revive our community.

The latest attack by the Spokane City Council’s majority targets an organization fundamental to downtown’s revival: The Business Improvement District.

Approximately 2,000 cities have these districts, including some of the healthiest cities in the Northwest: Boise, Seattle, Portland. The districts create a forum where a downtown’s many separate business and property owners, not otherwise connected to one another, can work together on common goals. The districts aim to attract customers and vitality. Spokane’s district helps make downtown clean and safe, markets local attractions and provides parking discounts at eight lots and garages. These things are done with money collected from the district’s businesses. Spokane’s district has 1,200 ratepayers and a governing board of 17 volunteers, representing businesses of all sizes and locations.

City Council Member Steve Eugster proposes to eliminate Spokane’s business improvement district. Tonight the council discusses his proposal, along with another proposal by Council Member Phyllis Holmes, who suggests the district be reformed, not destroyed.

Most likely the council will decide to convene a hearing. That might be beneficial - assuming the council’s goal is to strengthen the community.

Any organization can improve. Indeed, the volunteers who serve on the BID’s board would be among the first to agree the district can improve. After all, improvement is the essence of the board’s work. It tends needs of district businesses and property owners.

Are garbage cans full as a result of the crowds? Send the cleanup team through more frequently. Do outlying shops sense less value in the program or need more services? Collect ideas. Work it out. Can the district’s structure be enhanced, for example by requiring it be re-justified and re-established every several years? OK, discussion might lead to a better structure.

But merely to trash the organization would be needless, destructive, irrational and blatantly political. It is at best a misdirection of energy for the City Council to micromanage a successful business group while chaos spreads in city departments and City Council decisions steer the city budget toward the shoals of financial crisis.

The business district’s services have borne fruit in ways that are plain to see. Security ambassadors have made downtown safer, extending the reach of police and assisting visitors. Hookers and drug dealers have moved out, and urban renewal has moved in. Businesses are flourishing.

It’s summer in the city. Out in the real world, the public is enjoying the long-awaited warmth. As the business district makes downtown stronger, City Hall benefits from rising tax revenue - which it very much needs.