Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking

Here in DC, we have a series of "Business Improvement Districts (BID)," which I confess I never really understood. At their most visible, they employ teams to clean up trash within the district and try to keep things generally tidy. Schaller's book explores the history of these districts (a relatively recent phenomenon in DC, although not elsewhere). Her research uncovers how BIDs give the impression of public service, but often remove decision-making from the public sphere and put it in the hands of landlords (who may or may not be the actual businessmen operating in the neighborhood). There is also a fascinating chapter on how different people characterize their neighborhoods, comparing long-time residents to newer residents, and so on. The book is a useful primer on this topic, and surely the lessons from DC are applicable elsewhere.