PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Fordham BID Launched

By ANDREAS SCHNEIDER

Mounds of garbage sat atop trash cans at the intersection of the Grand Concourse and East 192nd Street recently and papers and fast food containers littered the ground surrounding the overflowing receptacles.

It’s just this kind of mess that the new Fordham Road BID was formed to eradicate. And, in fact, trash cans were empty at the heart of the district just one block away, at the much busier intersection of the Concourse and East Fordham Road.

Sanitation workers in red jumpsuits patrolled Fordham Road, emptying full containers and placing the full bags neatly on the sidewalk for garbage trucks to haul away. The workers, from Atlantic Maintenance, have been on the streets since Aug. 1. Their company recently signed a one-year contract with the Fordham Road BID, its first.

Mayor Bloomberg and a collection of legislators, local business owners and community leaders announced the long awaited formation of the BID during a press conference on July 26. BIDs collect funds from local property owners and reinvest them in the business community in the form of services, such as the contract with Atlantic Maintenance, graffiti removal, security and special promotions.

“This BID will elevate this area from not just being one of the best places to shop in the Bronx, but to being one of the best places to shop in New York City,” Bloomberg said in a speech at the press conference, culminating a 20-year effort by local business owners and community development groups to bring a BID to Fordham Road.

Officials and local businesses have high hopes for the district, which is New York City’s third largest commercial corridor. It has more than 275 businesses, which generate approximately $500 million in annual revenue, according to the Department of Small Business Services.

“This is an environmental renaissance for Fordham Road,” said Shelly Sherman, a BID executive board member and manager of KidsWorld on Fordham Road.

Mayor Bloomberg agreed, saying the BID will finally allow Fordham Road to live up to its potential. “The people who live and work here have thought that it was capable of so much more,” Bloomberg said.

The BID’s first year budget is $500,000, which will be spent on sanitation, security and marketing. The BID is working on a number of projects but has yet to announce any concrete plans for the near future, according to the office of executive director Wilma Alonso.

Councilman Joel Rivera, Department of Small Business Services Commissioner Robert Walsh, and representatives from Fordham University and Monroe College also applauded the July announcement. Alonso summed up their sentiments after the press conference.

“I have been working on Fordham Road since 1995,” she said. “Now, 10 years later, we finally have a BID—and it’s great!”

Back to News Index Page