Good Evening Council,
Last year before you cast your votes to allow the BID process to begin, several of you gave clear directives to BID backers: Any plan moving forward required robust community engagement and the establishment of trust.
President Melendez, you said this body would not approve the BID legislation if that did not happen.
Councilmember Patterson, you gave US a directive as well. You said to stay engaged. To question everything. To look with a jaded eye. Which brings us to today.
What was pitched last year as a study to see “whether or not we wanted a BID” has become a full blown PR campaign to sell the community on one. Or some of us anyway, because despite their access to nearly 3 million dollars in public funding, the PDR has not informed the majority of city residents that the BID effort is even underway, let alone how this would change taxation and representation downtown.
Multiple community meetings promised have not been held. The events that have happened are filled with RDDC members and include questions designed to illicit responses that support their narrative.
This is not community engagement. It’s entrapment.
It is a clear conflict of interest for the RDDC/PDR to be responsible for educating the public and gathering feedback about the same legislation they stand to benefit from. It is simply not in their interest to be transparent.
Because once people learn that a private company, directed by a board of the biggest property owners will have control over public tax dollars and public space, they know it is not in the public’s interest to have a BID.
The RDP has not publicly updated their anticipated timeline since last March. The RDP is not sharing their plans. We don’t know if they are going to try to file anything with the clerk next month or six months from now.
But what we do know is, that once they do complete their plan and file it with the clerk, the legislative clock starts ticking. And that leaves the community with even less time to know what is happening and come to you with their concerns before the council votes.
This is not transparent, This is not building trust.
And this isn’t even the worst part…
Along with the over 1,000 No BID petition signatures we emailed you yesterday, we sent a copy of the Racial Equity Impact Assessment from the Washington DC The Council Office on Racial Equity which stated “Current law — which requires BID decisions to be made by property and business owners — does not create this more racially equitable BID model. As such, any new BIDs under the current BID model will only widen existing racial inequities, as documented by a body of academic research.”
Council, a BID is an economic development scheme to benefit wealthy landowners through replacement of our community. It is simply not in the public’s interest to have a BID.
Council, A wise man once said to me
Stay engaged. Question everything. Look with a jaded eye…
It was good advice.