A BID for Burnside Avenue

Davidson Community Center, working with Mount Hope Housing Company and others, is hoping to establish a Business Improvement District, or BID, on Burnside Avenue.

On April 2, Bronx elected officials, community organizations, and local residents, will gather for a "Taste of the BID" event to announce the beginnings of a campaign to bring on board 116 area business owners. The Atlantic Development Group will hold a steam blasting/graffiti removal/sidewalk washing exhibition - a demonstration of what local merchants could expect with a fully functioning BID. The event begins at 10 a.m. in front of Foot Locker (on Burnside between Jerome and Walton).

According to a provisional press release, the BID will revitalize the shopping district. "As with other commercial strips in the Bronx, the Target Area has too many 99 cent/discount stores, no major national chain, (only fast food national chains)," the release said. "Residents of the Target Area complain of the lack of variety in goods and services which prompts them to shop in other locations in the Bronx or other boroughs in the city." More about BIDs here and here. There are currently six BIDs in the Bronx. In the west Bronx there's Fordham Road and Jerome-Gun Hill.

Photo taken from the Burnside Avenue subway station at Jerome Avenue, looking west.

The BID aside, change is already coming to Burnside Avenue. Morris Heights Health Center is building a new center on an abandoned lot on the corner of Harrison Avenue. St. Barnabas Hospital is in the process of demolishing the former Elks Lodge at Burnside and the Grand Concourse, and building a 10-story outpatient facility. East of the Concourse, near Valentine Avenue, the Atlantic Development Group is building affordable housing. (Atlantic were/are in the running to develop the Kingsbridge Armory but have possibly/probably lost out to another developer.)

UPDATE: The event is being held April 2, NOT March 26 (as was published earlier today. Apologies for the confusion)