Meeting scheduled on Downtown District

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Meeting scheduled on Downtown District

Submitted by Rick on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 8:33am.

The Olympian says that the city council has scheduled a meeting to take input from the public on the idea of a downtown "parking and business improvement district":

The Olympia City Council scheduled the Oct. 18 public hearing after it started the process of forming a so-called "parking and business improvement area" Tuesday.
The decision doesn't form the district, but starts the process to create one.
"By starting the process, we will commit to a public hearing and then get into the decision-making after that," Mayor Mark Foutch explained.
The Olympia Downtown Association submitted a petition last month containing the signatures of supportive business owners who represent nearly 58 percent of the assessed value in the proposed district.
State law allows a city to initiate the process if property owners representing 60 percent of the proposed district's assessed value sign on or a city council passes a resolution.

The mission of the district has been somewhat unclear. Originally called the "business improvement district," it appeared to have many functions (discussed previously here). Beautification was to be one element, but then there was the parking issue. With the name change to "parking and business improvement area," it is becoming clear that an important function is to get downtown businesses to finance the research necessary to build a parking garage. Is it properly the responsibility of the businesses to finance city planning?

This is just a terrible artic

Submitted by Rob Richards on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 9:49am.

This is just a terrible article. Christian Hill is either too lazy or just doesn't care enough to get the whole story.

There are nearly 80 signatures from business owners against the BID. That's EIGHTY downtown businesses that are against it. These are small business owners that are afraid of being forced out of business. I'm sure as he reads this TFI is cracking his knuckles, ready to respond with force about "free markets being healthy". I ask you, how is people losing thier livlihood healthy? How is a service industry culture healthy?

There are things we CAN DO, right now, to keep taking proactive and progressive steps, and I just don't see the BID as being one of them.

Actually, I'm not a big fan o

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 11:40am.

Actually, I'm not a big fan of government being able to zone sections of private property and force private businesses into paying a certain stipend.

That's why I hate making assu

Submitted by Rob Richards on Wed, 09/28/2005 - 3:40pm.

That's why I hate making assumptions.

Eh, don't worry. We all do i

Submitted by The Fire Inside on Thu, 09/29/2005 - 12:45am.

Eh, don't worry. We all do it. Most of the time it's a helpful instinct, others not so much. I'm not a complete, "Private business, no government"-libertarian. In fact, many of my beliefs contradict the basic principle. I just look to try and keep government to the absolute minimum while recognizing that there are some cases where government has to be involved. Like this article. I don't like the idea of government forcing a business to pay a certain tax simply because they're in the specific zone for improvements which are, more or less (as I understand it), aesthetic. The businesses that specifically wish to have these improvements should simply take a percentage of their profits a year, set them aside, and eventually do what they wish with the money. Of course, this would probabbly result in a slight price increase for their product but I don't think government should be forcing a business to pay a tax for items they may not necessarily want.

I agree with you %100. I als

Submitted by Rob Richards on Thu, 09/29/2005 - 11:46am.

I agree with you %100.

I also feel that the BID promotes not a "free market", but a "selective free market", geared towards larger businesses, leaving small family owned shops behind.

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