BIDding Adieu

With the Business Improvement District voted down 5-4, it will be interesting to see whether or not the downtown business owners were really doing all the independent cleanup they said they were doing.

Throughout the contentious re-BID, several downtown business owners insisted that in spite of the extra tax money they were forced to spend, storefront upkeep had fallen on them. The paid cleaning force — the yellow-shirted CADI folks — just weren’t up for the job, they said loudly, and the commission seemed to agree.

Now, with the downtown area short a more-or-less full-time cleaning crew, we’re about to see just how bad a job they really did. The proof, of course, will be on the sidewalks and along the curbs — the perfect experiment.

If things rapidly deteriorate and we’re all wading knee deep through random unattached junk that fills a modern city, then DDA chief and CADI advocate Margaret Woodward and her supports will be vindicated.

If, on the other hand, things continue to look the way they do now, Woodard and that big salary of hers might be headed to the curb, too.

As for security, which was one of other things the CADI crews were supposed to provide, Woodard pretty much admitted that everyone had been more or less left to fend for themselves when she suggested that a clean environment could foster a safe environment.

How much dirtier it can get is one thing, but there aren’t too many who would characterize the downtown area as a clean environment.You Might Also Like: