Minneapolis business can be healed

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It is clear Minneapolis is in trouble. Two Star Tribune stories in one day — "'Eye-opening' transit crime spike" and "We need action, we need help: a plea from Uptown" — show how dire the situation is.

There is a tool that over 1,000 U.S. cities use. New York has 74 of them. Los Angeles has 41. Milwaukee has 25. Minneapolis has one, only in its downtown.

This is the business improvement district, or BID.

What is a business improvement district? In 1967, a neighborhood commercial business district on Bloor Street in Toronto was trying to understand why shopping malls were doing better than they were. They came to three conclusions: 1) Shopping malls have someone in charge of the public space between the businesses, 2) shopping malls have coordinated safety programs and 3) shopping malls have coordinated advertising and promotions.

They set out to provide these things for themselves. They created a nonprofit controlled by the businesses to provide eyes on the streets — street ambassadors. The ambassadors are a physical presence, which is a deterrent to crime and makes the space safer. They cleaned and maintained the public space, making it feel safer and more inviting. And they sponsored coordinated marketing programs to bring more people into the commercial district, which in turn further improves safety.

The Bloor Street businesses asked the city to put in a taxing district so all businesses benefiting would pay for the cost of the BID. Businesses decide what services they want and how much they need to raise to pay for those services.

BIDs also commonly get financial help from the city, foundations, state or provincial governments, and by raising their own revenue.

A plethora of research shows that BIDs reduce crime and increase business growth. Yet Minneapolis is one of the few major cities that has not embraced the BID model. Instead, it has Special Service Districts (SSD) with taxing districts to pay Public Works to provide sidewalk snowplowing and street sweeping and nothing more. No eyes on the streets. No marketing. No crime prevention activities. None of the benefits of BIDs.

And maybe even more importantly, none of the benefits of organizing business leaders to identify what they need and provide a vehicle to advocate for those needs.

In a city that is drowning, it seems ludicrous to continue to ignore a proven strategy to reduce crime and grow businesses. Public Works needs to get out of the SSD business completely. The city's economic development department, CPED, needs to create business improvement districts throughout the city, giving business groups tools to fight crime, grow wealth, control public space and heal the community.