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Fight Over North Park Bar Spills Into the Streets
I have also been following this issue for a long time. Liz is not in charge of the BID. She acts at the direction of the Board of Directors, which is composed of local merchants who volunteer their time. The dedicated efforts of the North Park Main Street BID have resulted in a Renaissance in the commercial district around University Avenue and along 30th street. Just look at the quality restaurants in the BID, which did not exist even a decade ago. Business Improvement Districts do not tax anyone. North Park Main Street is a non-profit management corporation which contracts with the City of San Diego to administer the BID. All assessments (which are not a tax or fee) collected from the business owners is fully returned to the benefit of the commercial district as determined by the Board of Directors. The BOD meetings are open to the public, and anyone may attend and express their opinion. The Maintenance Assessment District is a different group with a different agenda. The MAD collects on the property tax assessment from all property owners in the Greater North Park area, which is huge. Currently, the MAD expenses are limited to those activities which are in the engineer's report, and that is very restrictive. There is a need to update the MAD since the neighborhood has changed in the past decade, but the engineer's report does not allow for changes without a new ballot. The efforts to ballot a revised MAD failed, since it was not possible to get all the property owners in the Greater North Park area to agree on what to do. The purpose of an additional property assessment district, which is currently being proposed as North Park Clean and Safe, is to make it possible for the current problems (like at Blue Foot, True North and other bars) to be resolved. The Clean and Safe assessment district, if it is passed, will be paid almost entirely by the commercial property owners (80%) and a small amount by residential property owners (20%), in contrast to what Founder says. The goal is to require the commercial property owners to contribute to the efforts which will clean up the impact of these new patrons and make it safe for all residents to live and work in North Park. If you like the situation now, do not support the proposed Clean and Safe assessment district. Without the commercial property owners paying to clean up the district, nothing will change. If you think things can be better than you should support the proposal to add an assessment district which will benefit all of us.— March 15, 2011 2:57 p.m.