Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District: Little BID with big achievements - by Barbara Adler

Barbara Adler, Columbus Avenue BID

The Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District (BID) may be one of the city’s smallest geographically, but there’s no doubt it ranks at the top in achievements!  The last BID formed in 1999, this 501(c)(3) non-profit organization represents merchants and property owners along a gorgeous tree-lined corridor notable for its diverse range of retail, restaurants and mixed-use properties. Situated in one of the city’s signature landmark districts, the Columbus Avenue BID also includes the American Museum of Natural History, Theodore Roosevelt Park, The New-York Historical Society and the Rose Center for Earth and Space and, coming soon, the Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation. It’s a BID that represents a revered mixed-use corridor, as well as a world-renowned tourist destinations.

From day one, the BID has ably supported its businesses, cultural institutions and the community. Formed by a group of neighboring business and property owners to help solve problems resulting from three years of infrastructure work that devastated many of the stores and restaurants along the avenue, the BID immediately launched a beautification program and marketing campaign to bring back commerce and shoppers. I currently serve the BID as an executive director. I am a graphic designer and lifelong Upper West-Sider. I also designed a website and created a street map and guide to let the world know Columbus Ave. was open for business again! Then the BID began a series of street upgrades, planting trees and flowers along the corridor, removing graffiti and, overall, beautifying the area in numerous ways. In addition, the BID organized walking tours for hotel concierges to encourage tourism and created historic walking tours for both the community and visitors. Traffic came back quickly.

In 2007, the Columbus Ave. BID introduced New Taste of the Upper West to bolster area restaurants and businesses. Now in its ninth year, this innovative culinary-focused fund-raiser and marketing event attracts more than 3,000 guests annually. Held under a grand block-long tent for two consecutive nights in late spring, it stays fresh with changing themes and entertainment that have included aerialists, big bands, star-studded entertainment, cutting-edge restaurants and more. Each year, approximately 90 neighborhood restaurants partake in the festivities, including casual dining favorites, such as Jacob’s Pickles, Meatball Shop and Momofuko Milk Bar; and such temples of haute cuisine as Boulud Sud, Jean-Georges and the Leopard at des Artistes. The BID makes every effort to include restaurants that are new to the area, as well as the anxiously-awaited, soon-to-open ones.

Since inception, New Taste of the Upper West Side (www.NewTasteUWS.com) has raised money to benefit a host of worthy organizations such as Citymeals-on-Wheels, Wellness in the Schools operational funds at the O’Shea School Complex, as well as PS 9 and Theodore Roosevelt Park. Two years ago, as part of the BID’s Neighborhood Streetscape Beautification Project, proceeds from the events were allocated to a Sustainable Streetscape on Columbus Ave. between West 76^th and 77^th Sts., one of the first in New York City and the very first to have a bioswale for recycling waste water.

This past spring, the BID donated 19 pedal-operated Big Belly Solar Trash Compactors to eradicate rats in Theodore Roosevelt Park. The rodent population had become a problem after quarterly rat poison treatments were discontinued to protect the local hawk population and dogs using Teddy’s Run on the campus. The funds to purchase these energy-efficient and environmental compactors were raised through yet another innovative BID fundraiser, Soirée in the Park, held for two consecutive years in the Park, just inside the museum’s Columbus Ave. entrance. Thanks to the BID’s efforts, Theodore Roosevelt Park is the first in the city to be ringed by the solar-powered compactors - which have already made a huge difference in reducing the rat population.

What makes the Columbus Ave. BID so unique is its tremendous and ongoing accomplishments, despite being one of the city’s smallest BIDs – with a budget commensurate with its size. Beyond creating an environment in which businesses continue to flourish, year after year, it still has the aura of a grassroots community-focused non-profit.  All of which make it a perfect amalgamation of business and culture and the kind of organization that truly represents the Upper West Side.

Barbara Adler is the executive director of the Columbus Avenue Business Improvement District, Manhattan, N.Y.