Fulton BID Gaining Momentum
With an end finally in sight for the infrastructure and repaving work that has plagued the already-down-on-its-luck stretch of Fulton Street in Clinton Hill, momentum is building for a new Business Improvement District to help improve the quality of life and retailing environment. There’s a meeting tonight at the Fort Greene Senior Citizens Council, 966…
With an end finally in sight for the infrastructure and repaving work that has plagued the already-down-on-its-luck stretch of Fulton Street in Clinton Hill, momentum is building for a new Business Improvement District to help improve the quality of life and retailing environment. There’s a meeting tonight at the Fort Greene Senior Citizens Council, 966 Fulton Street (between St. James Place and Grand Avenue) at 6:30 p.m. tonight hosted by Council Member Letitia James. Update: Thanks to cobblehller for providing this link to information on the proposed BID. Importantly, the site states that the BID is to cover the entire stretch of Fulton from Flatbush to Classon as well as some side streets.
filmmer: can you confirm that anything or everything stated on that flier is true?
here is some information from an anti-bid flyer i was given
What is the Fulton Street BID?
It is Fulton Street from Rockwell and Ashland Places to Classon Avenue. NYC and Pratt Area Community Council (PACC) decided to make this stretch into a BID to be able to collect a new tax from property owners, residential and commercial. Property owners will pass the tax on to tenants.
How much is the BID tax?
$1 a year for homeowners. The properties that make up a BID must be contiguous to be legal, and since there are no businesses on Fulton from South Elliott to Vanderbilt, the homes at Atlantic Commons on Fulton must be charged something: the $1 a year to the homeowners makes possible the heavy tax on the stores, which, for 2009, will be $80 for every 20 feet of frontage on Fulton. Every month. Corner businesses will be charged another $120. The Met Supermarket, for example, will pay about $500/month; Master Sabu Humble Martial Arts, $500/month; Sister’s Hardware $120/month, and so on. The stores will pass the tax on to their customers in higher prices.
Who will collect this money?
PACC.
What will PACC do with your money?
* Take a fee for themselves off the top.
* Appoint a District Manager at more than $50,000 a year, plus health insurance and vacation.
* Hire workers from the Doe Fund to sweep the sidewalks you have cleaned yourselves. The Doe sweeps will not stop the City from ticketing as usual.
* Hire an unarmed “guard†to stroll the street and drop in and out of stores a couple of times a week.
* Provide “improvements†and “enhancements†such as fancy garbage cans, flags, banners, holiday lights, etc. In 2009 the Fulton BID plans to collect $300,000 from you all and has the green light to install $3,000,000 of enhancements and improvements. Do the math. That leaves a $2,700,000 deficit. Who pays that? You’re right! YOU!
The BID tax can increase every year. You will have to pay. If you don’t, the City will put a lien on your property. In other words, the Fulton Street Business Improvement District can put you out of business!
Wasder: A rising tide also sinks a leaky boat.
Wasder–
I generally agree with you, but the Met is not okay now. The store is still filthy, and the produce, organic or otherwise, generally tastes like bongwater.
I think the skanky Met owners prefer the down and dirty aspects of the street–like another poster said, they don’t want competition.
ENY: If you knew the interesection I was referring to in my post @ 3:51, you would know there is only one bogeda even close to the location I mentioned.
I have never tried any product. Nice, sad attempt to change the topic.
YOU never mentioned how you know how this stretch of Fulton. You know why? Because you don’t. When are you going to admit you don’t know what you are talking about?
Give it a rest ENY.
Obviously, your “qualifications” are seriously lacking.
And good to see ROTW and cobllehiller keeping quiet. You morons don’t know anything either.
If there’s a dude with dreadlocks sitting outside the bodega, it’s selling drugs, right? I learned that in the official “white person’s guide to Brooklyn” packet that they hand to all of us gentrifiers …
11233, I’m still waiting to hear how you are able to determine which storefronts on Fulton Street sell drugs and which are simply crappy stores.
According to your rationale, because you saw some street people walk away from the police, that means “The only businesses that don’t want the bid are the ones who have nothing to gain from an improved retail environment, e.g., the cheezy bodegas that do a nice business selling drugs to the crackheads that “live” in the hotels near Fulton and Classon.” So according to you, the entire anti-BID sentiment on Fulton is attributable to the storefronts that sell crack. Uh-huh.
THEN you say “I frequented the corner bogeda I mentioned,” but actually you DIDN’T mention one specific bodega. Hmmmm. Also, if you DID frequent a crack-dealing, crappy bodega on Fulton Street, why didn’t you inform the police that drugs were being sold there or at least STOP “frequent[ing]” the place?
Sounds to me like you’ve been smoking some of the “product.”
11217–don’t know how long ago that was but the Met Foods is actually OK now. They have good selection of produce and they have really stepped up the availability of organic products. But really, I don’t mean to be argumentative about any of this. I want the BID to succeed but I must admit to being surprised by the resistance. and as I know these very decent people who run my deli I need to at least take their concerns into consideration.
11233–I guess they could be afraid of competition but really one would think that these businesses would understand the “rising tide raises all boats” concept. I must admit to being mystified.