Special Business Improvement District Planned For West Harlem

A short walk along the stretch of Broadway between 135th and 175th Streets proves it to be an almost exclusively commercial thoroughfare. All sorts of small shops, from cafes to convenience stores, line the streets, and though they are interspersed with the occasional RadioShack or McDonalds, most are locally owned.

Some community groups and businesses now see an opportunity for the area to reach its full potential through the creation of a business improvement district. A BID is a commercial area designated by the city in which businesses pay a special real-estate tax in return for grants from the city for maintenance and development.

"I think that it would help the community," said Doris Innes, one of the owners of Jyraffe, a cafe on Amsterdam and 156th Street. "Everything goes upward when you have that kind of improvement."

The push for the creation of a BID began in 1999 but has only recently begun to gather momentum as the city government has become more receptive. Recently, community groups have released studies suggesting that a BID would benefit the area. But before the plan goes through it must be approved by the City Planning Commission, the City Council, and the Mayor.

Among those petitioning for the creation of the BID is the Community League of the Heights, a community advocacy organization. According to Yvonne Stennett, executive director of the League, the BID is crucial for the neighborhood in the face of expanding larger franchises.

"I think it's important for the sustainability of the small businesses that have historically been the strength of the neighborhood," she said. To arrive at her conclusion, Stennett has interviewed Washington Heights residents and supervised a land-use study.

Manhattan Community Board 12 has also been involved in the process. According to Martin Collins, chair of CB12, the board serves as "a voice and anchor for the people" of the community, helping to organize the various parties involved in the process. "You want to have consensus among all the principals involved," he said.

Collins also said that a BID would provide "housing, education, and sanitation" that would help small businesses, assisting with everything from utilities to Christmas lights.

Innes doesn't see sanitation and maintenance as critical problems in the area, but agrees that making the area friendlier to small businesses would be beneficial. "When you have small businesses opening up, there's sort of a ripple effect," she said.

The new BID, if created, would be one of several in upper Manhattan. A BID already exists further north in Washington Heights, as well as along much of 125th Street, where there is talk about extending it. The area under consideration along Broadway and Amsterdam is comparable to other BIDs in that it is in a high-traffic area home to many small, locally owned business.

But as the area's local businesses try to protect themselves against the encroachment of larger, outside institutions, Columbia's expansion into Manhattanville remains a concern.

"Of course there is an analogy [between the proposed BID and Manhattanville]," Stennett said. She explained that as the neighborhood improves, it will attract new businesses, with the potential to "create a totally different kind of environment"-one less friendly to locally owned businesses.

Stennett also alluded to what she sees as Columbia's long-term plan: to link its Morningside Heights campus with the medical school campus in Washington Heights. The area now under consideration lies exactly in-between.

Both Stennett and Collins stressed that flourishing local businesses make efforts toward development a necessity. For many, the creation of a BID appears the best way to do this. The neighborhood seems destined to change-the question is only how.