Waikiki
cleanup tax
focus of forum

The plan would
allow businesses to receive
additional services

By Russ Lynch
Star-Bulletin

For the second year in a row, the Waikiki Improvement Association will devote its annual luncheon meeting to discussing whether Waikiki should become a "business improvement district."

This time, Times Square in New York City is the focus. That district's success in getting rid of most of the pornographic shows, keeping the streets clean and providing well-informed and courteous civilian patrols to help people has been widely recognized as a change for the better.

The key, proponents say, was the establishment of a BID -- business improvement district -- in which all businesses pay a special tax but in return can contract as a group for services the city can't provide.

The Dec. 1 WIA meeting at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, starting at 11:30 a.m., will feature Gretchen Dykstra, founding president six years ago of the Times Square BID.

Last year, Ruth Scott, chief executive officer of the Alliance for Portland Progress, the BID for the central city area of Portland, Ore., spoke to the Waikiki group.

The BID system, which started in 1970 in San Diego, works this way:

The local government, which in Waikiki's case would be the City Council, votes to create a BID and taxes every business in it, in addition to whatever local taxes they are paying.

A nonprofit association is formed that takes the tax money and contracts privately for services over and above what the local government can provide.

Rick Egged, WIA president, said the most noticeable service is cleaning the place and keeping it clean. Uniformed guides help people.

In some cities, a private police force, working with local law enforcement, keeps an eye out for undesirable activities.

Some BIDs recruit street people, rehabilitate them and put them to work keeping clean the areas where they used to live.

"We form our own organization of the people who are assessed (the businesses) and they get to decide who they want to contract and how much they want to spend," Egged said.

The first budget would have to be approved by the City Council, which started the assessment process, he said.

After that, the BID would have direct access to the money and could make its own decisions.

As in Portland, New York and about 1,000 other locations, the BID operations would not replace anything provided by government for regular property or income taxes. The services would be extra and the idea, according to proponents, is that customers would enjoy comfortable shopping and entertainment so much that the money they spend would more than compensate the businesses.

"You're essentially using the taxing ability of the city but it's a business-driven effort," Egged said.

The WIA, for now, has no consensus about how much the BID tax should be or how it would be assessed.

It could be based on the amount of street frontage a business has, assessed property values or other factors.

The amount, too, would be something the businesses themselves would decide.

Meanwhile, the WIA has adopted the idea as its policy and is listening to outside experts.

The cost for the meeting and lunch is $25. Call 921-6637 to make reservations.