Spring Break
Mayor wants clubs to pay
Carla Mancebo
Issue date: 3/14/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
San Jose plans to tap businesses for new fees to help address the city's budget deficit, Mayor Chuck Reed said in his first State of City address and budget message. In a 22-minute address dominated by fiscal themes, Reed vowed to raise revenues, improve municipal efficiency and limit expenditures.
Reed said the city will ask nightclubs to cover the cost of policing downtown's entertainment zone. It will also encourage businesses in retail zones to organize self-assessment districts to pay for improvements and services in those areas.
"Property owners can help," Reed said. "Many owners along Lincoln Avenue and downtown are willing to help pay for cleaner sidewalks and streets through a Property-Based Business Improvement District. We need to facilitate those efforts."
On Friday, the San Jose Downtown Association's board of directors voted to move ahead with a petition drive to implement an improvement district downtown. Property owners indicated their willingness - in responses to a downtown association survey - to pay extra fees for sidewalk scrubbing and "ambassadors" who would roam downtown streets providing directions and information to visitors, association president Art Bernstein said.
"The downtown association recognizes that in addition to our efforts to make downtown businesses successful, we also need additional efforts to make downtown attractive," Bernstein said.
Business operators in downtown San Jose's Business Improvement District already pay assessments to the city in that district, which was organized 20 years ago by local merchants and professionals, Bernstein said. The downtown association manages the district-funded activities, which include the Music in the Park free concert series and the holiday season outdoor ice rink.
A property-based business improvement district would require property owners rather than tenants to pay the extra fee.
The proposed district's boundaries would include a block of San Jose State University on Fourth Street. The university, however, will not be required to pay because it doesn't pay property tax, Bernstein said. Instead, the association would look to the university for "good neighbor" contributions to the planned improvement district.
Reed said the city will ask nightclubs to cover the cost of policing downtown's entertainment zone. It will also encourage businesses in retail zones to organize self-assessment districts to pay for improvements and services in those areas.
"Property owners can help," Reed said. "Many owners along Lincoln Avenue and downtown are willing to help pay for cleaner sidewalks and streets through a Property-Based Business Improvement District. We need to facilitate those efforts."
On Friday, the San Jose Downtown Association's board of directors voted to move ahead with a petition drive to implement an improvement district downtown. Property owners indicated their willingness - in responses to a downtown association survey - to pay extra fees for sidewalk scrubbing and "ambassadors" who would roam downtown streets providing directions and information to visitors, association president Art Bernstein said.
"The downtown association recognizes that in addition to our efforts to make downtown businesses successful, we also need additional efforts to make downtown attractive," Bernstein said.
Business operators in downtown San Jose's Business Improvement District already pay assessments to the city in that district, which was organized 20 years ago by local merchants and professionals, Bernstein said. The downtown association manages the district-funded activities, which include the Music in the Park free concert series and the holiday season outdoor ice rink.
A property-based business improvement district would require property owners rather than tenants to pay the extra fee.
The proposed district's boundaries would include a block of San Jose State University on Fourth Street. The university, however, will not be required to pay because it doesn't pay property tax, Bernstein said. Instead, the association would look to the university for "good neighbor" contributions to the planned improvement district.
Be the first to comment on this story