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BID's - Business Improvement Districts - A Subtle Coup by Progressives making your local elections insignificant.
10 Reasons to Oppose the BID (Business Improvement District):
1. Gentrification - part of a larger program of removing low income people to make way for upscale luxury business and whiter, more affluent people.
2. Forced displacement of panhandlers & homeless --the BID proposal still includes language about pushing panhandlers out of public space, legislation which was tabled in the council because of overwhelming community disapproval.
3. Rising rents & prices--opting in to the BID will raise property taxes by 40%, which will raise the rent of tenants & thus prices for customers all over downtown.
4. Privatized police --rent-a-cops or off-duty police patrols with little constitutional restraint or oversight--private police have a long history of civil & human rights abuses.
5. Waste of money--$35,000 of your tax money paid to developers while the homeless freeze to death for lack of food, shelter, and social services.
6. CLEAN Team "volunteer labor"--court order community service participants and work-release prisoners would be employed cleaning for businesses as opposed to true community service such as working for a shelter or serving for a soup kitchen.
7. Exploitation of homeless for free labor - It is strongly implied in the text of the BID plan that “homeless trainees” would serve as a free labor pool for
cleaning projects under the guise of a social service.
8. Creating a culture of snitches & informants--Both the CLEAN Team & "tour guides" planted through the city are instructed to be extra "eyes and ears"--obviously, they would be instructed to report crime by people whose
presence hurts the marketability of the town, such as the homeless, rather than, for example, crimes that might be committed by businness owners.
9. Privatizing public space – the BID would turn public space such as streets and sidewalk to a privately managed tourism oriented zone, complete with rent-a-cops and tour guides.
10. Loss of democracy - the BID transfers local government powers from elected officials to the BID Board of Directors, meaning a loss of democracy &
accountability.
Letter to the City Councilors About the BID
More about what's wrong with the BID
BOTTOM LINE - ONE - TWO YEAR TERM LIMITS MUST BE ESTABLISHED
TO REVIEW BID AND EITHER RENEW CHARTER OR DONT RENEW CHARTER
THEREBY HAVING TO OPTION OF SUNSETTING THE BID BASED ON THEIR PERFORMANCE AND CONDUCT.
TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LOCAL BID TODAY BEFORE ITS TOO LATE -
SUGGEST, RECOMMEND, THEN DEMAND TERM LIMITS
(MUST BE REVIEWED BY LOCAL TAXPAYERS AT PUBLIC BOARD MEETING)
ONE OR TWO YEARS MAXIMUM BETWEEN REVIEWS
OR SIMPLY
DEMAND BID MUST APPLY TO RENEW ITS CHARTER EVERY YEAR OR BE SUNSETTED
THIS WILL BRING THE POWER BACK TO THE PEOPLE AND AWAY FROM THIS QUASI - GOVERNMENT
TAKE MY ADVISE OR LOSE YOUR VOTING RIGHTS FOREVER!
--Once approved by the Council, we will not be easily rid of the BID. The dissolution
of the BID calls for the vote of 51% of the district's assesed value. Even if such a vote
was made, a BID that still owes debt must remain intact--other BIDs across the country
have actually intentionally incurred debt as a safeguard against being dissolved! Those who
opt into the BID will be locked into the contract in perpetuity unless they opt out after 30 days.
Even then, they will still be dramatically affected by the BID indirectly.
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