10
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, DEC. 16, 2018
there, and attracting more
tourists.
Leaders of community
group Alliance for Coney
Island on Dec. 5 hosted two
public meetings to present
their plan for the so-called
Business Improvement
District, or bid, which a rep
said will go a long way to
preserving and promoting
commerce throughout the
People’s Playground.
“We’re talking about
how to strengthen and communicate
the value of Coney
Island as a brand,” said
Alexandra Silversmith, the
Alliance’s director.
An initial subcommittee
of between 20 and 25 Coney
residents, businesspeople,
and property owners determined
the general area
served by the proposed bid,
which would include properties
along Mermaid Avenue,
others on parts of Surf,
Stillwell, and Neptune avenues,
and those along the
Reigelmann Boardwalk between
W. Fifth and W. 23rd
streets.
The subcommittee,
whose members Alliance
reps would not reveal at
the meeting this newspaper
attended, also put together
the bid’s projected
annual budget of $1.2 million,
a fi gure that together
with the district’s boundaries
the city calls the “ district
plan .” Funds for that
budget would be raised
through special annual
taxes — which the city calls
“assessments” — on buildings
and businesses within
the district, which would
go to pay for such services
as sidewalk cleaning, new
signage, and promotion of
shops there.
An elected, volunteer
board of directors consisting
of property owners,
business owners, and residents
would oversee the operations
of the bid, which
would run independently
under the jurisdiction of
the city’s Department of
Small Business Services.
The board’s members
would also set the revenuegenerating
taxes within
the district, which are determined
using a formula
based on the type of property,
its assessed value, and
its square footage, according
to Alliance reps, who
added that the taxes would
also pay the salaries of a
full-time staff that manages
the bid’s day-to-day
operations.
Of the bid’s projected
$1.2-million budget, 34 percent
is earmarked for staff
and general administration,
24 percent for tourism
and special events on
the avenues, 23 percent for
sanitation, fi ve percent for
security and public safety,
fi ve percent for marketing,
four percent for streetscape
and storefront management,
three percent for holiday
lights, and less than
one percent for workforce
development, according to
preliminary information
from reps, who said city
data shows that most of
those projected allocations
are more or less in line
with averages for bids with
annual budgets between $1
and $5 million.
Annual taxes levied on
businesses and buildings
in Coney’s amusement district
— which bid proponents
said would average
more than $6,700 per entity
— would foot nearly
75 percent of the organization’s
$1.2 yearly budget,
with taxes on Mermaid Avenue
properties — averaging
more than $1,600 per
entity each year — footing
about 16 percent, and taxes
on Neptune Avenue businesses
— averaging more
than $15,000 per entity
each year — footing about
13 percent.
The higher annual taxes
on Neptune Avenue properties
are due to the generally
larger average square
footage of businesses in
the area, which include Applebee’s
and the various
eateries inside the Coney
Island-Stillwell Avenue
subway station, according
to Silversmith.
Opponents of the proposed
bid argue they
shouldn’t have to shell out
more cash for some of its
services, such as cleaning
streets outside their shops,
which some say they do free
of charge themselves.
But advocates — including
those from the Alliance
— defended the idea
by highlighting that the
money goes back into the
pockets of entrepreneurs
through supplemental services,
such as street beautifi
cation, that they would
not receive otherwise.
Alliance leaders began
fl oating their idea for the
bid last June, after wrapping
a study with the city’s
small-business-services
agency on Coney’s commercial
needs, challenges, and
opportunities for growth,
which showed that nearly
12 percent of storefronts on
the neighborhood’s major
business corridors are vacant,
a fi gure nearly twice
the city’s average.
Supporters of the bid expect
its public-review process
— which includes going
before the local community
board, the City Planning
Commission, Council, and
Mayor DeBlasio — to take
about a year, during which
they promised to keep engaging
with entrepreneurs
to build more support for it,
Silversmith said.
BID
Continued from page 1
BID DEAL: A map showing the area that would be served by the proposed bid. Alliance for Coney Island
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Bolshoi Symphonic Orchestra of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Yurlov Capella Choir, Soloists
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