Comstock's magazine 0818 - August 2018 | Page 69

SPECIAL PROMOTIONAL SECTION HOMEGROWN HEROES BY RUSSELL NICHOLS You might think of them as your friend- ly neighborhood superheroes. They fight crime, clean streets, paint walls and find homes for people who have none. These are the business owners and residents who assemble to fill in a city’s blighted holes, pockets that public officials typically can’t afford to patch up. So if the city can’t pay, where do the funds come from? Enter the property business improve- ment district. This state-enabled legis- lation, passed in 1994, makes a way for property owners to pay an assessment and use that revenue for services and programs, such as security, maintenance, signage, lighting, special events and other amenities to reinvigorate a given area. The August 2018 | comstocksmag.com 69