Business Improvement Districts and the Contradictions of Placemaking

BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C.

Susanna F. Schaller

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780820355177
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: City Planning & Urban Development
• Index: Politics & International Relations

A critical examination of business improvement districts, their proliferation, and their consequences

The "livable city," the "creative city," and more recently the "pop-up city" have become pervasive monikers that identify a new type of urbanism that has sprung up globally, produced and managed by the business improvement district and known colloquially by its acronym, BID. With this case study, Susanna F. Schaller draws on more than fifteen years of research to present a direct, focused engagement with both the planning history that shaped Washington, D.C.'s landscape and the intricacies of everyday life, politics, and planning practice as they relate to BIDs. Schaller offers a critical unpacking of the BID ethos, which draws on the language of economic liberalism (individual choice, civic engagement, localism, and grassroots development), to portray itself as color blind, democratic, and equitable.

Schaller reveals the contradictions embedded in the BID model. For the last thirty years, BID advocates have engaged in effective and persuasive storytelling; as a result, many policy makers and planners perpetuate the BID narrative without examining the institution and the inequities it has wrought. Schaller sheds light on these oversights, thus fostering a critical discussion of BIDs and their collective influence on future urban landscapes.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction BID Urbanism in Washington, D.C.
• Chapter 1. Framing BID Urbanism and Placemaking
• Chapter 2. Urban Governance and Planning before BIDs
• Chapter 3. The Push for Bids
• Chapter 4. BID Urbanism Oils the Gentrification Machine
• Chapter 5. Situating Adams Morgan and Mount Pleasant
• Chapter 6. Neighborhood Identities Collide
• Chapter 7. BID Urbanism and the Politics of Exclusion
• Chapter 8. BIDs as Clubs
• Conclusion. BID Urbanism beyond D.C.
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index