Business Improvement Districts - neues Instrument fur Containment und ausgrenzung? Erfahrungen aus Nordamerika und Grossbritainnien

In: Prokla: Zeitschrift für kritische Sozialwissenschaft, Band 37, Heft 4, S. 511-528

Abstract

Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) are territorial subdivisions of a city in which property owners or businesses decide to self-impose an additional tax meant for the promotion & development of the area through services such as garbage collection, street maintenance, & security patrols. They were created in North America since the late 1960s and, though they embody many of the powers & privileges of the state, bear none of the responsibilities & limitations of democratic government. Since the early 1990s BIDs found their way due to a fast policy transfer across the Atlantic: First to the UK & now finally to Germany. Here they are regarded either as an offer the local business community cannot afford to refuse (ie., some Chambers of Commerce) or as "civil society in action" (parts of the Green Party). Others regard them as questionable under constitutional law & as an instrument to privatize cities (the civil rights movement) or as "the next step towards further exclusion" of disadvantaged groups (ie., churches & homeless service providers). We analyze these claims & offer empirical evidence from North America & Britain & eventually assess the prospects for Germany. References. Adapted from the source document.