We, the undersigned, oppose the creation of a Business Improvement District (BID) in downtown New Bedford. We have an opportunity to learn from the experiences of other U.S. cities where BIDs have caused harm to communities and exacerbated existing inequalities.

• Whereas a majority of BIDs hire private security and/or designated city police officers to patrol public space, creating an environment of fear and surveillance for marginalized residents in spaces everyone has a right to use; and

• Whereas some BIDs finance the salaries of prosecutors and special courts to process “quality of life” violations that disproportionately impact poor, unhoused, LGBTQ, youth, BIPOC, indigenous, and other marginalized people; and

• Whereas BIDs create an additional tax burden on top of existing municipal, county, state, and federal taxes that property owners pass on to tenants, including small businesses and long time residents; and

• Whereas BIDs further empower the most powerful by creating a anti-democratic governance structure that concentrates decision-making power in the hands of the wealthiest property owners and real estate developers, enabling them to shape self-interested policies to the detriment of others, even those with token representation on the BID board; and

• Whereas BIDs represent an allegedly “business” (corporate) centering of society, despite the building blocks of our community being the people within the community, and trickle down approaches to economics have not been shown to work; and

• Whereas BIDs contract for services with third-parties that undercut union labor; and

• Whereas BIDs disrupt or co-opt existing grassroots initiatives in the arts, positioning themselves as curators and event organizers, and using artists to advance narrow commercial interests, while constraining artistic freedom of expression; and

• Whereas BIDs operate without meaningful public oversight, even in instances where city officials are supposed to review BID activities, thereby generating opportunities for corruption and self-dealing; and

• Whereas New City America Inc. and their representatives have not demonstrated a meaningful commitment to transparency, engaging with community input, or fostering collaboration within our community, , including perspectives critical of BIDs; and

• Whereas New Bedford already rejected previous proposals for a downtown BID; and

• Whereas New Bedford faces entrenched problems of racial and economic segregation, historically exacerbated by real estate interest and urban renewal projects, as evidenced by redlining (see Route 18), which have contributed to and exacerbated these challenges; and

• Whereas a downtown BID does not meaningfully address, and is likely to worsen, problems of racial and economic inequality in the New Bedford area;