An Industry That's Always Thinking About Neighborhoods Like Ours

The first business improvement district (BID) was formed in Toronto, Canada in 1970. The first BID in the United States was established in 1981 in New Orleans. This marked the beginning of the BID model spreading across the United States, where property owners within a defined area agree to pay a proportional assessment to fund improvements and services beyond those provided by a city. As such, the place management industry is just 55 years old.  I feel incredibly blessed to have found a connection to the industry nearly 20 years ago, and earned the responsibility of solving problems and making investments that are intended to make places.  

Last week, I spent 72 hours in a place that has never topped my list of places to live, work, or visit. There were neighborhoods between the airport and my hotel in Downtown Cleveland that felt like they were part of a time capsule. Cleveland feels like the furthest east you can go and still be considered part of the Midwest, and much of the suburban area felt like a place that awaited a resurgence of industry. Or perhaps it was just that it stood in contrast to the dense urban sprawl of Los Angeles. I'm likely biased by profession and the downtowns I've chosen to live in, but emerging from suburbia into Downtown Cleveland felt like a real sense of arrival within a place that is special and cared for by design. 

If you were modeling a 21st century downtown, you might make space for centers of finance and industry, grand government buildings, perfect preservation of architecturally and culturally significant sites, an appropriately scaled historic theater district, higher education and medical institutions, noticeable residential enclaves, and professional sports venues for three major U.S. sports all within walking distance.  Walking downtown early in the morning before the start of the International Downtown Association's board retreat, I came across vaguely familiar faces – the members of Downtown Cleveland Inc.'s safety and clean teams, up early doing the same work that our team does in the Social District.  

Stuck inside a hotel meeting room for the next two days I shared space, vision, strategy, and tactics with the leaders of place management organizations from places foreign and domestic, exciting and mundane. The UK, Japan, Canada, and United States were all well represented among the 30 plus members of the board and staff gathered to plan for the industry's future. And what continues to be striking is that nearly every issue we're dealing with here in downtown Los Angeles is something nearly everyone is dealing with in other urban centers. The perception of how safe and economically attractive we are matters to our stakeholders as much as where we rank if you were to stack us up against each other and decidedly declare which are the most vibrant and secure places to be. We shared strategies and how we use data to tell the world our stories and why our places are worthy of investment.  

The inextricable issues of homelessness and affordable housing, tariffs and the economic environment, transitioning of office-based industries to the future of AI driven businesses, climate disasters and municipal deficits – were all discussed as prevailing issues for us to address collectively in our next strategic plan. As an association we are tasked with making sure that Los Angeles can efficiently and expeditiously learn from the successes of Cleveland, and vice versa, inclusive of Montreal, Kajima, Aukland, Cape Town and elsewhere around the globe where ideas are being piloted and perfected. How we prepare for mega events like the Olympics, and respond to unexpected challenges like wildfires, will inform peer cities for years to come.    

After a few days of high-level discussion and some debates among colleagues I consider to be the best and the brightest, I returned to Los Angeles midweek, restored by fellowship and motivated by my competitive nature, eager to continue to chip away at our challenges and invest in our potential. Like anyone returning home early in the morning after a cross-country flight, when I exited the 110 and crossed Figueroa into the Social District, I was hit with the combination of relief and exhaustion – both energized by our new bright yellow garbage cans and the white façade of a new Javier's and dejected by the persistent condition of Oceanwide.  But my Uber driver's comment, “must be cool to live here,” was a reminder of my own sentiment arriving 3 days prior in Downtown Cleveland. You know when you've emerged from sprawl or suburbia and arrived some place different and special. I'm happy to live here, but even prouder to work in an industry that's always thinking about how we can improve neighborhoods like ours.