“The Future of Rochester is Everyone’s Business”

Friends and Neighbors,

The decision to suspend the BID formation process is the result of sustained community pushback. A coalition of ordinary residents, small businesses, community organizations, and artists came together to oppose RDDC’s push to turn Downtown Rochester into a Business Improvement District that would benefit the largest developers and property owners.

Over the last two years an increasing number of people recognized that RDDC’s BID is anti-democratic, unjust, and would further increase inequality in our community. We are proud of the work done by dozens of unpaid organizers and hundreds of volunteers over the last two years to educate and engage our neighbors. We thank our coalition for their steadfast and expanding support for a more just and more equitable future for our city. We are stronger for this struggle.

BIDs are a mechanism for further empowering the powerful. While the BID proposal may be going away (for now), political and economic power remains concentrated in the hands of a few. The future of Rochester is everyone’s business.

Our elected representatives have an opportunity to invest in people-centered, democratically-accountable initiatives that prioritize equity and the needs of the many, instead of the desires of the few.

Democracy thrives when the community is at the heart of planning and decision-making, not as an afterthought, but as the foundation. It is time to come together and stand up for the future our community deserves, where equity isn’t a missed goal in another report a decade from now, but the north star that guides our decision making.

Stop the BID
Ceasefire Now
Support the Vacancy Study
Pause Unfair Reassessments

In Solidarity,
The BID Education Committee