after the organization concluded that he had improperly granted contracts to a firm owned by a woman with whom he was having a relationship; AlbertIn a business improvement district, services such as marketing, street-cleaning and extra security are provided by a nonprofit corporation that is funded by an additional tax.
Stavropoulos said a lot of criticism of the BID has come from a small, disgruntled group of business and property owners, including some who dislike the concept of a BID no matter how it’s run. Some supporters accused the BID’s critics of exaggerating problems in the hopes of eliminating it and its supplemental tax.
Yet the anti-BID crowd draws a picture of an entrenched leadership that it says improperly attempted to rewrite the bylaws in ways that stifle dissent and tighten insiders’ control of the organization, at the same time that the neighborhood has lost a step to other quarters of the city.in the neighborhood last month have brought calls for additional policing, including a revival of the BID’s city-subsidized program that hires off-duty police officers for security at night.
But critics say BIDs can act as shadow governments, with little transparency and oversight, and often become dominated by the wealthiest landowners while discouraging municipalities from providing services such as adequate street-cleaning themselves.