Research Note: 2008 Book On Business Improvement Districts

Jerry Mitchell, Business Improvement Districts and the Shape of American Cities (Albany: State University Press, 2008).

Jonathan B. Justice wrote well of this book.  His review provides a summary of the book’s contents. Justice mentions that the book provides an “encyclopedic review of the literature” on business improvement districts (BIDs; p. 554).

One especially interesting point that he made is that “there is evidence that BIDs can increase property values (Ellen, Schwartz, and Voicu 2007) [and] decrease crime (Brooks 2008).”  That said, “there is yet little empirical evidence demonstrating BIDs’ economic effectiveness” (p. 554).

Justice himself is the co-author of a forthcoming article on BIDs.

Source: Jonathan B. Justice, “Public Places and Quasi-Private Administration,” Public Administration Review, vol. 69, no. 3, pp. 553-556.