Details

Business Improvement Districts in the United States

Private Government and Public Consequences

von: Abraham Unger
117,69 €
Verlag:	Palgrave Macmillan
Format:	PDF
Veröffentl.:	12.11.2016
ISBN/EAN:	9783319322940
Sprache:	englisch

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Beschreibungen

Titelbeschreibung

<div>This book examines how privatization has transformed cities, particularly through the role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the revitalization of America’s downtown. These public-private partnerships between property owners and municipal government have developed retail strips across the United States into lifestyle and commercial hubs. BIDs are non-profit community organizations with the public power to tax and spend on services in their districts, but they are unelected bodies often operating in the shadows of local government. They work as agents of economic development, but are they democratic? What can we learn from BIDs about the accountability of public-private partnerships, and how they impact our lives as citizens? Unger explores these questions of local democracy and urban political economy in this age of rampant privatization and the reinvention of neighborhoods.<br></div>

Inhaltsverzeichnis

<div>1. Privatization in the Neighborhood .- 2. The Structure of Bids: Public-Private Hybrids .- 3. The Real Lives of BIDs .- 4. How BIDs Behave: Publicness and Privateness in BID Organizational Life .- 5. DSBS and BIDs: Advocacy, Not Oversight .- 6. Epilogue.</div>

Autorenportrait

Abraham Unger is Assistant Professor of Government and Director of Urban Programs at Wagner College, USA, and Senior Research Fellow at the Carey Institute for Government Reform. Unger is a member of the Staten Island Borough President’s Strategic Policy Advisory Committee.

Back cover copy

This book examines how privatization has transformed cities, particularly through the role of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) in the revitalization of America’s downtown. These public-private partnerships between property owners and municipal government have developed retail strips across the United States into lifestyle and commercial hubs. BIDs are non-profit community organizations with the public power to tax and spend on services in their districts, but they are unelected bodies often operating in the shadows of local government. They work as agents of economic development, but are they democratic? What can we learn from BIDs about the accountability of public-private partnerships, and how they impact our lives as citizens? Unger explores these questions of local democracy and urban political economy in this age of rampant privatization and the reinvention of neighborhoods.<br>

Sonderbeitrag

One of the few book-length studies solely devoted to public-private partnerships involved in the remaking and gentrification of urban space Explores BID practices as they relate to democratic theory and debates about the privatization of government services Presents a detailed case study of BIDs and public-private partnerships in New York City

Unpublished endorsement

“Abraham Unger’s penetrating examination of business improvements districts provides a long overdue look at the theory and practice of growing reliance upon private-public partnerships in running American cities.  Probing how private partners of government actually behave once they take on governmental ambitions and purposes, he finds that their public spiritedness is often uneven and highly dependent on local leadership effort. It is a major contribution to our understanding of the new urban politics.” (Paul Kantor, Professor Emeritus, Political Science, Fordham University, USA)