CITYWATCH Whose interest is the Downtown Improvement District representing? BY JOHN ZORABEDIAN

Image is everything. That’s the impetus behind the launch in February of the Providence Downtown Improvement District (DID). Cleaner, safer streets lead to more tourism, more activity, and more dollars for the local economy, or so the theory goes.

With a budget of $1.12 million, the DID is a "supplement" to city services, says Frank LaTorre, the organization’s director of public space. "A lot of people still don’t get the difference between city government and what DID does," LaTorre says. "Municipal resources are stretched so thin. Municipal government works hard at what it does. [DID is] bringing it to another level. It’s much more about feeling, a feeling of welcome."

The effort hasn’t come without some brickbats about the partial privatization of what are theoretically municipal services; Businesses within the downtown district are assessed a "fee" of four percent of their property taxes to pay for aesthetic improvements and the 19 yellow-clothed workers who clean up trash, remove graffiti and handbills, and alert city police to illegal activity.

The removal of flyers has also irked those, like AS220 artistic director Burt Crenca, who call them a critical form of underground and grassroots communication. "I’m not gonna advocate for graffiti, but I will for postering," says Crenca, who is urging the DID to establish kiosks for handbills. "It’s a critical and affordable tool for communicating. It tells a lot about the community and the neighborhood." (LaTorre says he is working on providing kiosks that include walking maps of downtown. "I have that as a project," he says.)

Although cleanliness and safety may well be worthy goals, the concentration of development and real estate interests on the DID’s board of directors (including downtown property owners Arnold "Buff" Chace, Evan Granoff, Joseph R. Paolino Sr., and Stanley Weiss) could cause some to question just whose interests are being promoted. Regardless, some key Thayer Street business owners are petitioning the city to create a business improvement district on the East Side.

With signatures from more than 60 percent of commercial property owners, by property value, the city council can move ahead with plans to implement the district and assess a fee on all commercial property owners within it. "If a few key business owners want it, it happens," says Ward One City Councilor David Segal, whose ward includes part of the envisioned district. The proposal was slated to go before the city council’s ordinance committee on Tuesday, November 1.

Although Segal’s impression of the DID is that "most people downtown are happy with it," he wants to ensure "real representatives" of small business on the board of the Thayer Street Improvement District (TSID). When it comes to the proposal, "There’s a lot of conversations to be had," he says.