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Chinatown BID Plan Wins Unanimous Support From Community Board 3

By Patrick Hedlund | December 22, 2010 11:39am
Supporters of the proposed Chinatown BID stood up to be counted at a meeting of Community Board 3 Tuesday.
Supporters of the proposed Chinatown BID stood up to be counted at a meeting of Community Board 3 Tuesday.
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DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

By Patrick Hedlund

DNAinfo News Editor

LOWER EAST SIDE — Organizers behind a push to create a business improvement district in Chinatown cleared a major hurdle Tuesday when Community Board 3 voted overwhelmingly to support the proposal.

The thumbs-up from the full board marked the third and final approval for the BID on the community level, as Boards 1 and 2 previously voted to endorse the plan.

The proposal now heads to the City Planning Commission and will ultimately need support from the City Council to become a reality.

The BID seeks to fund additional sanitation services in Chinatown by charging property owners a fee for things like street cleaning, holiday lighting and overall aesthetic improvements.

Board 3 managed to work in three provisions to the plan as a condition for approving the BID, getting organizers from the Chinatown Partnership Local Development Corporation to agree to review the BID's support among property owners three years into the program, to agree to vote on providing BID staff with a "living wage" as defined by pending City Council legislation, and to remove parks from the BID map to eliminate questions over privatization of public space.

But the plan was not without controversy, as a group of BID opponents made a last-ditch attempt Tuesday to convince the board not to approve what they see as politically tied and an unnecessary tax on the community.

At one point, when the board asked advocates in attendance to stand in either support or opposition to the plan, those against the BID charged CB 3 with unfairly polling the crowd at a time when many small business owners could not attend the meeting.

Some shouted angrily in Chinese before storming out of the auditorium prior to the final vote, and at least one man was escorted out by security after loudly interrupting a public speaker.

Nonetheless, supporters of the BID, including City Councilwoman Margaret Chin, received the near-unanimous backing of the board, whose district covers the majority of the BID area.

"I can't tell you how satisfying it is to see that, despite the skeptics and doubters, this is the right thing to do," said Wellington Chen, executive director of Chinatown Partnership, adding that it's a "huge milestone" for Chinatown.

"It takes time to absorb and comprehend this self-help concept," he added of the community leaders who banded together to support the BID. "Last night was a moment of enlightenment."