When it comes to the difference a Business Improvement District can make, Darryl Holter, chairman of the Figueroa Corridor Partnership, cites the time he took UCLA students on a field trip to where the Fashion District’s boundary ends at Ninth and Hill streets, L.A. Downtown News reports.
Darryl Holter, chairman of the Figueroa Corridor Partnership, a business improvement district that began nine years ago. Photo by Gary Leonard.
“One side of the street was littered with trash, stores were boarded up, there was a man sleeping on the ground, another man was [urinating],” he said. “On the other side of the street, there was a trash receptacle, the block was clean and every storefront was open for business.”
The Fashion District BID responsible for that clean-up effort was the first property owner-based BID in Downtown. Nine others have followed.
In 1998, the Figueroa Corridor Partnership and the Downtown Center BID – the area’s largest – were established, coalescing around “clean and safe” programs where security guards patrol the area and janitorial crews sweep the streets.
