Shorewood citizens hear quite a bit about the Shorewood BID, but in talking to many residents, I have found that they really don't know exactly what the BID is, how it is funded, or what it does. This is understandable, as the BID Tax does not apply to most Shorewood residents.
In short, the BID district is a Taxing Body, that only taxes Commercial Property owners in Shorewood. If you own a Residential property, you do not pay the BID tax. If you own Commercial property (or mixed used), you pay hundreds or thousands of dollars per year to the BID tax.
The purpose of the BID is purportedly to "help" Shorewood businesses.
In this blog, I have already listed many of the reasons I believe that the BID in Shorewood is not needed, and how it actually hurts Shorewood business. Adding to those reasons is a look at the BID sponsored events for 2007 --- and how they do Nothing for the average Shorewood business --- at best --- and actually Hurt Shorewood Business --- at worst.
One of the big events that BID sponsors is the Shorewood Criterium (bicycle race) that is planned for July 19th. For this event, the race course is closed most of the day with no parking allowed (much of Oakland Avenue). This is obviously bad for the businesses on Oakland, as their customers have nowhere to park. As the race time approaches, traffic is totally closed for an even larger area of Oakland, to facilitate tents and displays, etc.
There are a few businesses which may see a small increase in their business, such as coffee shops --- but by and large, it is a lost business day for most businesses on the race route.
Perhaps if the Criterium brought a lot of folks from other communities to Shorewood, for the novelty of seeing a bike race, there could be some benefit to the exposure. But the Criterium is run virtually everywhere ! There is no need for folks from other communities to come see ours --- they have their own. Except for spectators who may follow the bike circuit (which from my observations couldn't be too large), the race isn't attracting "new" prospective shoppers to Shorewood.
Listed here are the dates of the Criterium in the various nearby communities, surrounding our date in July:
July 9th Menasha
July 10th Manitowoc
July 11th East Troy
July 12th Burlington
July 13th Hales Corners
July 14th Shorewood
July 15th Milwaukee - Schlitz Park
July 16th Waukesha
July 18th Hartford
July 19th Milwaukee - Lakefront
July 20th DePere
July 21st Sheboygan
July 22nd Kenosha
July 23rd Milwaukee - Downer Ave
July 24th Whitefish Bay
Obviously, this is not a unique event which showcases Shorewood.
Another event that BID sponsors is the Art and Craft Fair on the lawn of the Shorewood High School. After last years Art and Craft Fair I did an informal poll of business owners situated nearby the high school, as to whether this event helped their business. To the contrary, they told me that they noticed a drop in business, as folks who might drop in to browse and buy something, where at the Art Fair instead.
Also, the Art Fair was composed primarily of business people from "Outside of Shorewood" --- our BID money was enhancing businesses from other areas, in competition with our Shorewood based businesses !
In all fairness, at least two of the planned events, the Artwalk on April 7th and the Holiday shopwalk on December 1st basically have the right idea of getting actual potential shoppers out in front of the shops.
On the other hand, the small business group that we had before the BID, sponsored the same kind of events, for an annual dues cost of about $70 --- while the BID is spending tens of thousands of dollars to achieve the same result. And although every commercial property is paying the BID tax, these walks are focused on North Oakland and East Capitol --- so the businesses in other areas are paying in --- but getting nothing out.
I believe it is time to do some serious reconsideration of the entire BID. We don't need an additional tax on business in Shorewood --- especially with ill-conceived events that do more to hurt, than they do to help, the very businesses paying the BID Tax.
