By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
GREENWICH VILLAGE — A plan to create a SoHo Business Improvement District was withdrawn Thursday after residents raised concerns over who would pay for it and what good it would do.
Neighborhood business owners contended that organizing a BID would give the community leverage to get better sanitation services, increased security and marketing for the neighborhood. But many residents felt they would be paying dues to an organization that wouldn't benefit them directly.
"Residents wouldn't be making a dime," said Sean Sweeney, a member of Community Board 2 and the SoHo Alliance. "You lose by being taxed, you lose by not getting any of the benefits and you lose by having your quality of life get worse" by the BID attracting more tourists and shoppers.
The BID would divide buildings along Broadway into six categories and assess dues based on the amount of frontage on the street. According to the formula, commercial tenants would pay the bulk of the dues, with residents living in condos paying no more than $1.
"The real confusion on this BID had to do with how residents pay," said David Reck, a community board member at the full-board meeting Thursday.
Potentially, 13 Co-Op buildings would have a difficult time assessing how much to pay, Reck said.
Residents of the Co-Ops said the fee amounted to a tax that would fall on them if businesses without strong ties to the community failed to pay.
"A business improvement district in SoHo is redundant," said Ken Consagra, who lives in a Co-Op building at 532 Broadway. "I'm a little concerned to pay out of pocket for a BID."
BID supporters withdrew their application at the request of the Community Board so they could conduct a public education campaign to clear up the confusion.
Businesses said the BID was necessary.
"I lose clients because our community is crowded and our community isn't clean," said James Cavello, owner of the Westwood Gallery located at 568 Broadway.
Investing in the BID would bring about the kind of change that made SoHo such an attractive location in the 1980s after artists transformed what had been a derelict neighborhood, said Warren Leshen, who owns several buildings in SoHo.
"Right now we have the opportunity to spend our money to take care of ourselves," Leshen said.
