Why the 2012 BID failed

The current business improvement district is not Asheville’s first attempt to launch an organization that would improve conditions downtown, Evar Hecht, co-owner of handcrafted leather store Shining Rock Goods on Wall Street, tells Xpress. In fact, he and his wife and business partner Rebecca Hecht supported a BID initiative in 2012.

“Downtown just needed a little attention [then],” Hecht says, adding that stakeholders, including downtown businesses and residents, were focused primarily on increasing police presence downtown.

“Just the sight of the police will deter a lot of the stuff that we have issues with now,” Hecht says.

“It was a pretty small effort by a handful of people to try to create [the BID],” says Mayor Esther Manheimer, who was vice mayor then. “There wasn’t a steering committee; there wasn’t community engagement.”

The lack of community engagement fueled confusion about the BID, Manheimer remembers.

“There was some pretty vocal opposition, but it was hard to know, is this widespread or is it just a handful of people,” Manheimer says. “It was hard to wrap your arms around [it].”

The Council voted to create the boundaries of the BID, but never voted for a tax or anything further to implement it, Manheimer continues.

“That initial BID was approved by the City Council; it just was never funded,” says Kit Cramer, Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce president and CEO. “What killed the first [BID], in my opinion, was that the city was trying to exert control over how the BID would operate.”