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Return of the Callowhill Neighbohood Improvement District today in Council
Get ready: City Council will hear more debate on the controversial Callowhill Neighborhood Improvement District today.
Return of the Callowhill Neighbohood Improvement District today in Council
Philadelphia City Council's Rules Committee will hold a hearing today on a bill proposed by Councilman Frank DiCicco that would create a "neighborhood improvement district" in the Callowhill / Chinatown North neighborhood.
Everyone in the District would be required to pay, in addition to their regular real estate taxes, an additional 7% property tax assessment to the NID, which money would be spent on neighborhood improvements.
The idea is quite controversial: it was first suggested by Center City District's Paul Levy as a way to establish a fund with which to help maintain the proposed elevated park on the now-defunct Reading Viaduct. Although the bill has now been amended to remove language referring the park (which not everyone in the neighborhood considers a priority), many residents — many, but not all, Asian — say the bill places an undue burden residents and businesses.
They also feel that the NID is being pushed by one specific group in the neighborhood — mostly condo-dwelling newcomers to the area — and that their voice won't be represented in the NID leadership.
(Read more about the debate in my article for City Paper ("Seeing Green," 9-15-2011) and in my profile of Center City District CEO Paul Levy ("The King of Center City," 10-6-2011).)
If the bill passes today, neighbors still opposed to it will have to collect the signatures of more than half the residents of the district or whose properties represent more than half of the total assessed value to overturn the bill.
Which makes this proposal a little bit unusual: It is, essentially, a real estate hike imposed on a specific neighborhood by a single Council member with the support of an unknown number of residents and the clear opposition of a sizeable portion of the neighborhood.
At the bill's last hearing, a few weeks ago,neighborhood activist John Yuen announced the he and others had already collected signatures objecting to the NID from 53% of the neighborhood. That day, DiCicco also introduced an amendment cutting out a portion of the neighborhood that contains a large housing development comprised of low-income and senior Asians (see above).
That move might been seen as accommodating: Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation executive director John Chin had mentioned that particular area as an example of the hardship the NID would impose on the Asian community.
But it could also bee seen as tactical: In eliminating the small square, DiCicco surely eliminated some percentage of the opposition.
DiCicco, Levy, and neighbors who support the NID point out that other areas have created business districts: Old City, South Street, Center City, University City.
But this would be the first residential improvement district in the city; and while the neighborhoods mentioned above have obvious attractions that make them special destinations, it's not clear that the Callowhill neighborhood is totally comparable to them.
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