Downtown Springfield property owners propose taxing themselves more, creating a Special Improvement District, to keep their business area cleaner, safer & more inviting.
They cite the idea as being similar to merchants at malls paying mall fees. This goes to the city however. I don't know how much I would trust those stewards. I guess the advantage, over just pooling their own assets privately, is that they would not have to invest in labor & equipment. Cleaning up crow crap was cited as one of the issues facing downtown businesses. I guess the city has power washing equipment the merchants don't want to rent? Pooling assets for the greater good sounds like a good idea but I hope these guys look into doing this privately before doing it publicly. Privately, they would likely be better able to control costs, act in a timely manner & target desired services.
They need to get a sizable majority of property owners to agree (& then the city) to make this happen.
Noose Son story here.
No comments:
Post a Comment