For years, 5th Ave had little competition. There were no malls or big-box bargain stores. And there was little shopping by mail except for the Sears Catalog! But in the 1960's things started looking bad for 5th Ave. Families with middle class incomes began moving across the new Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island and New Jersey. The void they left behind was filled with New York’s poorest immigrants. Crime was on a steep rise and city services were dropping due to a smaller tax base. Vandalism during a citywide blackout seemed to signal a death knell for 5th Ave. The remaining middle class families opted for a drive to the mall or shopped by mail. Soon 5th Ave was littered with vacant stores and some property owners even converted their commercial space to apartments.
Fortunately, a group of merchants and civic leaders recognized the importance of 5th Ave and formed a merchants group. They helped stave off the decline of 5th Ave. But they were only fighting a “holding” action; they couldn’t turn the clock back. The problem was that too many merchants were afraid to invest in their own future. Buildings were becoming rundown, too many stores failed to reinvest in their operation and too many merchants were looking for a free ride. The merchants association spent too much time trying to collect dues or making repeat visits to their fellow merchants just to hear “I’ll write you a check next week.”
The answer was to create a Business Improvement District (BID). A BID is created by an act of law and each property owner pays a fair share. And that fair share is collected by the NYC Department of Finance - it is an official taxed assessment. But most importantly, each penny comes back to 5th Ave to be spent by the people who provided it. A BID makes certain that there is an equal sharing of the cost and the responsibility of keeping 5th Ave viable as a business district.
Dozens of local merchants, civic leaders and elected officials worked for years to create our BID. Sunset Park Restoration (a civic group) provided $50,000 worth of in-kind services to prepare the BID application and “walk” it through the city bureaucracy. And now, after over a decade of operation we see the success brought about by the vision of our 5th Ave merchants, property owners, elected officials and civic leaders.
A Brief History of 5th Avenue and the SPBID
