To the editor,
Shame on Margaret Chin whose support of the BID is indefensible and an insult to the community.
The SoHo BID represents a few powerful real estate companies, that’s it.
The work it proposes to do and tax everyone for should be done by the large stores as a matter of good business and plain common sense. If you are doing millions of dollars in business a year, cleaning the sidewalk in front of your store should be pretty much standard practice.
Margaret Chin’s explanations couldn’t pass the common sense test of kindergarteners.
One dollar per year to co-op and condo residents? And what about year 2013 and 2014 and 2015? Ever hear of the ‘nose of the camel’? Enshrined in law, these fees will skyrocket.
A ‘reduced budget’ of $550,000? And what about year 2013 and 2014 and 2015? Guess what, the budget won’t go down.
This BID is a bizarre combination of everything republicans and democrats hate—a special interest group with no true local representation, seizing control and forcing taxes on the residents to pay the expenses of expanding their privately owned businesses.
Finally something everyone can agree on—NO SOHO BID.
Ethan Ellenberg
