Thread by @kellycheatle

Months ago, while we were tracing down rumors of arts funding being given to the RDDC, we learned about their plan to create a Business Improvement District in Downtown Rochester, NY #roc 🧵

It sounds innocuous right? A "Business Improvement District"? Kind of like FHA loans and the GI Bill. Sounds good but when they started, they didn't help everyone. (first saw @shane_wiegand at @540wmain's Gentrification Conference )

They provided the opportunities to create wealth to only the white population. While eventually the civil rights movement pushed them to include everyone, decades of a head start, and decades of disinvestment has led us to the major disparities in wealth we have today.

(My apologies if you already live or know this story, but I grew up in a very privileged bubble and didn't.)

Redlining is part of the history of our community. It was a codified policy that invested in select sections of town. Worse than ignoring others, it intentionally excluded them because (spoiler: #racism) urmc.rochester.edu/news/story/leg…

So when houses in redlined neighborhoods needed repair, wanted upgrades, or even to borrow against equity for opportunity or emergency, Black and immigrant families were denied access to capital because of who they were and where they lived.

(BTW, you really need to watch that presentation you'll learn things like how in the 1950's in Monroe County 80% of all people of color lived in the third and seventh wards. More than 1,6000 units had either no bathroom or a shared bathroom. 1950s is not that long ago)

People in power did other things, like building infrastructure through neighborhoods. The inner loop wasn't just a way to get around town quickly by car, it was to build a moat around down town to keep us separated.

I remember hearing warnings when I first arrived in the Rochester to go to RIT in the mid 90's to not to go past a train bridge because "that's not a good section of town" I didn't question it then.

So why are we questioning a B.I.D. here in Rochester? How could this be a bad thing? BUSINESS! ooh everyone loves talking about economic development. IMPROVEMENT! ooh that sounds good too! DISTRICT - meh, that's just paperwork, we don't need to pay attention to that?

SPOILER ALERT: We absolutely must pay attention to that.

At a time in our history where our #Democracy is fighting a corporate takeover, BIDs are the local battlefield.

At a time in our history where it's easy to identify overt #whitesupremacy because its got whole TV channels and merch, we cannot afford to miss the systemic policies that maintain it.

We have to change our policies that create boards to make decisions on spending priorities for the community that don't represent the entire community. That allow the same people or their colleagues to sit on multiple boards that approve one another's findings.

Maybe if individual folks didn't sit at so many of these different decision making tables, there'd be more room at these tables for different individuals to make decisions? That's a tongue twister for #representationmatters

I'm glad that for the (month?) this legislation request to prepare a BID plan is paused. I'm glad that @News_8 and @byamalelhelw actually let the public know that this is happening.

And I'm really glad that Rochester City Council has been listening to community concerns. But the thing is, policies like these get slipped in under the radar all of the time. Big Money knows this. They take advantage and foster our complacency w/"well you can't fight city hall"

Maybe we don't have to fight City Hall? Maybe we fight for them? We fight for them to maintain the power we entrust in them to work on our behalf. We fight to make sure they represent the entire community's interests.

And we show them why they shouldn't allow a BID a pass to tax properties downtown by a privatized entity that does not have the accountability they have to live up to. A privatized entity that does not represent the entire community that this city belongs to.

We've got a bunch of really wonderful community allies who are spending hours upon hours of unpaid labor to share what we learn @ BIDs. Just ask yourself why? Why don't you know what a BID is? Why was there an attempt to slip this major change to city governance without notice?

"There will be plenty of opportunity for feedback from the community" is bullshit. It's #CYA. It's designed to create a facade of acceptance, and worse- it's likely designed to gather intelligence on who would likely be against it to figure out how to get around them.

So if you hear folks try to discount what we say, or worse who we are, consider the messenger.
Who benefits from this policy?
Who is getting paid to push for this policy?
Who has a direct line codified by NYS law to create this policy?

And then think about
Who could be hurt or excluded by this policy?
Who has had to dig through NYS law to even find out what this policy can do?

And if that's too much to think about at the moment, that's ok. Just ask

"Why are we even doing this?"

If they don't have a solid answer to you for that, this far into their efforts, that's a red flag.

And if they do have an answer, is a BID the best solution? What other options are there and why weren't they selected.

Ok, I write a lot. I'm sorry. Up til yesterday no one had picked up the story, despite the efforts of many. If you're concerned, you can help by signing our petition and reading more about what we've found: nobidroc.com

#loveyouroc Ω

BTW. Just a suggestion, but the RDDC should read their own documents and recommit to their prior commitment to ending systematic racism.
rochesterdowntown.com/wp-content/upl…

And I genuinely hope that the new leader of the RDDC gets the opportunity to go back to the drawing board, have some time to learn for herself about Rochester and it's needs and seeds for economic development on her own terms. Let's pause for her to start fresh.