Low BID-ding Outside Manhattan

Cary Goodman’s office always looks closed.

A roll-down gate blocks the storefront entrance to his one-room headquarters for the 161st Street Business Improvement District. Instead, visitors wind through his building’s main lobby and through a few windowless rooms to reach his office.

At the Kingsbridge BID, on Broadway and West 236th Street, a visitor on a weekday in November had to navigate around a black SUV parked on the sidewalk by the auto-repair shop next door. The Southern Boulevard BID, which services about 150 businesses, does not worry about blocked entrances: It doesn’t have an office.

“That’s how poor we are,” says Medina Sadiq, that BID’s director. “We can’t afford an office.”

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DISTRICT LINES: Click above for an interactive map showing disparities in funding of BIDs around the city.