Reimagining Cities-Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop

management organizations invest in improving and managing parks, overseeing parking management, and contributing to other capital and operating enhancements. 78 A place management Executive Director can be thought of as a “mayor” of the WalkUP—responsible for managing many of the services that a mayor typically oversees, while coordinating with various city departments, including the actual city mayor’s office. Most place management funding is directed toward enhanced services, over and above the service levels of the city. City governments generally welcome these operational funding sources from third parties. When capital investment is needed, cities are open to providing these funds through their two-year capital budget cycles, generally funded by long-term municipal debt. Some states, like Pennsylvania, provide limited bonding capacity for organizations like BIDs, and there has been movement at the federal level, especially within the Department of Transportation, for place management organizations to apply for federal capital programs. However, the sweet

spot is for place management organizations to fund operations while the city provides occasional capital investment. An example of this is the partnership between the Downtown DC BID (Washington, DC) and the city government to reconstruct (city) and manage (BID) the five-acre Franklin Square Park. The city obtained the land from the federal government and provided the capital investment, while the BID operates the park through a special assessment of property owners. There are also private sector place management organizations, sponsored by a dominant real estate developer or asset manager. This model, which is not part of this research, tends to be in suburban areas with recently developed WalkUPs and fewer landowners. In cities, where land ownership is often divided among hundreds of owners, there is a need for those owners to formally come together in a place management organization to provide leadership and enhanced services.

Place management organizations are vital to urban governance, as they are closest

78 Inclusivity is outside of the scope for this report, but Cushman & Wakefield has explored the social value of cities via its Inclusive Cities Barometer .

Reimagining Cities: Disrupting the Urban Doom Loop 55