Brooklyn's Progress
August/September 2007

BY JILL SHEEHY

After years of effort, a Court-Livingston-Schermerhorn Business Improvement District (CLS BID) was signed into law by Mayor Michael Bloomberg in June.

The newly formed BID will represent 195 properties within its boundaries of Joralemon Street to the north, Flatbush Avenue to the east, Atlantic Avenue to the south and Court Street to the west.

But it wasn’t without a little help from Downtown friends that the BID came together at all.

The CSL BID has been under the care of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership’s (DBP) Michael Burke, executive director of policy & strategic planning, from start to finish.

In addition, the DBP will now absorb the new BID into their auspices, which already includes the MetroTech BID, the Fulton Mall Improvement Association (FMA) and the BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music) LDC.

And rounding out the BID’s interim board of directors are several power players in the neighborhood, including Frances Schor of the Treeline Companies, Penda Aiken of Penda Aiken Associates and Paula Ingram of Ingram & Hebron Realty.

Ms. Ingram, who is the interim secretary of the BID, said it was a long time coming.

“I’ve been waiting for over 20 years for this BID to start,” she said. “I’m very excited.”

 “We’re looking to make the Downtown Brooklyn area the most fabulous place,” she said. “We’re going to see a completely different Livingston Street corridor.”

The BID will receive its $765,000 in funding in October, and in the meantime, they expect to see a lot of bureaucratic happenings, according to Mr. Burke. The interim officers will be in place until the Annual Meeting in May 2008.

“The Board of Directors is a very strong one, and all very enthusiastic,” he said. “We are all looking forward to getting this off the ground.”

A Clean Sweep
Ms. Ingram expects the first orders of business to do with cleaning up the streets, making them attractive to new business and tenants.
Services the BID hopes to get up and running are additional sanitation services, anti-graffiti work, landscaping services, security, and event some marketing. There is even talk of a façade improvement effort.

Ms. Ingram hopes to get the Doe Fund – a non-profit welfare organization that works with BIDs to keep streets clean – at a reduced rate to start work before their funding comes through and pay out-of-pocket until funding comes in October. She is waiting to hear from other businesses.
“I live in the neighborhood and my office is in the neighborhood,” said Ms. Ingram. “I have a very, very strong commitment to the Downtown area.”

Partnering
The DBP is now the umbrella organization for the Metrotech BID, the Fulton Mall Improvement Association, and the CSL BID.

The DBP does advocacy, development and planning for BIDs and can “bring together the services available to them,” according to Mr. Burke, whereas BIDs handle the daily maintenance of the area.

Downtown Brooklyn’s unique conglomerate is comparable to The Downtown Alliance in Manhattan, the organization that provides Lower Manhattan’s financial district with a physical and economic environment, advocates for businesses and property owners and promotes the area for companies, workers, residents and visitors. The Downtown Alliance manages the Downtown-Lower Manhattan Business Improvement District, serving an area roughly from City Hall to the Battery, from the East River to West Street, according to the Alliance’s Web site.