Friday, July 23, 2004
Within a business improvement district (BID), special tax assessments fund inprovements. Mobile, AL is conssidering establishing a BID, so they looked to Birmingham for guidance. Here's a good article on how a BID works in Birmingham. Read more.
The International Downtown Association reports that small communities with populations ranging from up to 25,000 have BID budgets ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. Cities of up to 80,000 people have average budgets of $100,000 to $125,000 with large urban budgets reaching into the millions.
Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
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Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Birmingham's business improvement district
