A proposal to create a Northside Business Improvement District in Williamsburg is entering a critical phase, as organizers begin mailing ballots to property owners and businesses whose support will determine whether the district moves forward.
The proposed district would cover a large portion of Williamsburg’s north side, stretching from North 15th Street to Grant Street and from Bedford Avenue to the East River. If approved, it would fund additional neighborhood services — including daily sanitation crews, graffiti removal, street beautification and community programming — through an assessment on local property owners.
Supporters say the proposal is a response to years of rapid neighborhood development that has outpaced city services.
“About 20 years ago, the Greenpoint-Williamsburg waterfront was rezoned, and since then we’ve seen a phenomenal amount of new development, new businesses and new activity in the neighborhood,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler, who represents the district and sits on the BID’s steering committee. “Williamsburg is a destination for people from all over the city and beyond, and our infrastructure just hasn’t kept pace.”
Restler added that the area’s density — from residents to tourists to nightlife visitors — makes it unusual among neighborhoods without a BID.
“I don’t think there is another community in all of New York City that has the same density in terms of businesses, residents and visitors as the north side that lacks a business improvement district,” he said. “So we need these supplemental services to keep our neighborhood clean and green and dynamic.”
A long planning process
The proposal has been in development for several years. Organizers formed a steering committee in 2023 with the city’s Department of Small Business Services, which oversees BID formations.
Katie Denny-Horowitz, executive director of the North Brooklyn Parks Alliance and a member of the steering committee, said the process started with a broad community needs assessment.
“We spent a fair amount of time ultimately getting almost a thousand residents to respond to the survey,” Denny-Horowitz said. “That gave us information about what the people who live here, the stakeholders, feel are the priorities and what they would want this BID to do if it were formed.”
In the survey results, sanitation emerged as the community’s top concern.
“What we’re seeing on the ground — and what we heard from the community through our needs assessment — is that sanitation is their number one concern in the area,” she said. “You have overflowing trash containers, sidewalks that are not well-maintained, and our parks department is deeply underfunded.”
Supporters say the BID will help fill those gaps through a public-private partnership model used across the city. Brooklyn currently has 23 BIDS, including the recently formed district in Coney Island.
“The BID model is one that the city has really adopted since the 1970s,” Denny-Horowitz said. “Almost 80 neighborhoods across the five boroughs have adopted this model as a way to provide additional services in their own neighborhood.”
What residents might notice first
If the district is approved, organizers say the most immediate changes would focus on street cleanliness.
“The first order of business is cleaning up the streets,” Restler said. “Unfortunately, there’s just too much garbage across the streets of our neighborhood.”
Under the proposal, sanitation workers would operate seven days a week.
“There would be a dedicated team in the neighborhood seven days a week picking up garbage and thoroughly cleaning the streets,” Restler added. “That reduces the presence of rats and improves our collective quality of life.”
Other proposed services include sidewalk power washing, graffiti removal, holiday lighting, landscaping and tree planting, public art installations and neighborhood events.
Denny-Horowitz said the goal is to improve daily life for both residents and businesses.
“When you have a neighborhood that’s rapidly growing as Williamsburg is, it deserves the quality of life that the residents there deserve,” she said. “Right now we’re walking down our sidewalks and they’re covered in trash or ice. Having a BID could really help address that day-to-day experience.”
How the BID would be funded
Like other improvement districts, the Northside BID would be funded through tax assessments on property owners within the district boundaries. Commercial property owners would pay more than residential owners, and the assessments would be calculated through a unique formula based on factors like lot size and assessed value. Residents can see their calculated tax assessment on the Northside BID’s website.
But organizers emphasize that the money would remain in the neighborhood.
“Every single penny raised from neighborhood small businesses, waterfront condos and commercial property owners is invested back into the BID,” Restler said. “One hundred percent of the new assessment goes back into our community.”
A board of directors composed of property owners, business representatives and residents would oversee how the funds are spent.
The steering committee also developed a formula to determine how much different properties would contribute, with larger commercial properties expected to pay more than small businesses.
“We ask the largest commercial property owners — the owners of hotels, big supermarkets and office buildings — to contribute the most,” Restler continued. “We ask waterfront condos to contribute their fair share and small businesses to contribute their fair share so that all of us together can make the north side an even better neighborhood.”
Responding to criticism
Critics have raised concerns that the BID could contribute to the privatization of public spaces in Williamsburg — a criticism commonly leveled at improvement districts.
Groups like the Berry St. Alliance have been vocal in this effort, claiming that “BIDS centralize decision-making power in the hands of large property owners and large corporations, overshadowing the concerns and needs of residents, small landlords and small business owners while increasing the cost of rent for everyone.”
“We already have an organization in place to manage taxation and land use, it’s called the City Council. Residents of our community entrust their power to the City Council to act on their behalf. City Council should not hand over that power and responsibility to a private company, a.k.a. BIDs!”
Restler rejected that characterization.
“The notion of the privatization of the neighborhood is misleading and inaccurate,” he said. “Business improvement districts are a proven model that really works.”
He pointed to several BIDs within his council district — including those along Atlantic Avenue and in Downtown Brooklyn — that he said have improved the quality of life by organizing events, advocating for small businesses, and maintaining public spaces.
“These are community organizations that make our neighborhoods even better places to live,” he said.
The balloting phase
The campaign is now entering the formal support phase. Ballots are being mailed to property owners and businesses within the proposed district. Organizers must gather enough support before the proposal can move to public hearings and, eventually, to the City Council for approval.
Denny-Horowitz said outreach will intensify in the coming months.
“We’re tabling all over the neighborhood, going door to door and trying to get neighbors to host meetings with their neighbors,” she said. “A lot of this is word of mouth.”
A volunteer group, “Friends of the Northside BID,” is helping to spread information and encourage participation.
“We really want to encourage everybody who gets a ballot to vote yes and send it back right away,” Restler said.
If approved, the district would represent one of the largest and most comprehensive BIDs in Brooklyn, covering both commercial corridors and residential streets.
“This is a model that I’m deeply invested in as a way to supplement city services and significantly improve our collective quality of life,” Restler said.
