The Clinton/Hell's Kitchen Land Use Committee met last night to hear a presentation from the Friends of Hudson River Park. The gist: Hudson River Park needs a lot of money. Not that this is news or anything. The proposed Business Improvement District (BID) or, as it's now being called, Neighborhood Improvement District is, apparently, the largest-scale BID (or NID) ever proposed, and would tax residential properties 7.5 cents per square foot (median assessment: $99) and commercial properties 15 cents per square foot ($499) in order to raise a Total Amended First Year Budget of $10,000,000, which is around one tenth of what the park actually needs for day-to-day operations/development/integrating the park with the community/other things. And once the park is finished (it's currently at 70%) it will be generating more money from its commercial entities except maybe it won't and maybe those entities will even lose money because who knows? Not us. Confused yet? So were we.
The discussion included exchanges like this one:
Committee Member: So it’s unclear what the incremental increase in the operating revenue of the commercial entities will be once the park is complete.
Second Committee Member: It’s actually a little bit more complicated than that.
This is how the sausage gets made, people! Really confusingly. And expensively. It's like a one hundred million dollar sausage or something. This is a strategy that has already failed to come to fruition for the High Line and Brooklyn Bridge Park. It certainly seems like a desperation move, but then again, that's more or less what it is. And who knows—it could even end up working out. Maybe? Crazier things have happened. The BID is currently in the "Outreach Phase" and, if everything goes according to plan, will be voted on early next year.
· Hudson River Park Coverage [Curbed]
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