A Few Thoughts on the HDBID Move

By Eric Richardson
Published: Tuesday, July 03, 2007, at 08:38AM

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — I was in Atlanta over the weekend, and found it interesting to read right here on the site that Russell Brown would be heading up the Historic Downtown BID (HDBID). It's great news for Russell, who now will be getting some compensation for all the time he puts into trying to improve Downtown. I'm sure he'll do a great job in the role.

On hearing the news, two angles stuck out to me. First, this move offers HDBID a chance to finally get its act together and become a factor in the community. Second, for good or for bad, this move changes Russell's role as President of the Downtown Neighborhood Council.

To date HDBID has been a complete non-factor for the residents and businesses moving to the Historic Core. The organization has run with no staff and has done little outreach. The meeting dates on the BID's website are over a year out of date.

The only time the group had previously been mentioned on this site was in September of last year, when the City Council approved an alley closure the BID was to pay for. Nine months later and the closure has never happened.

Hopefully this move means that the BID is finally prepared step up and become a part of the Downtown process.

Russell was elected President of DLANC last October and has done an amazing job in that role. While I have no doubt that he will continue to do so, this move still acts to change his role on the council. Last week DLANC's Board was led by a resident. This week (or whenever Russ actually starts) it's led by someone whose job it is to promote business interests. That change isn't necessarily cause for alarm, but it is something that needs to be understood.

Comments

Don Garza writes:

Russell Brown is still a resident.
Hal Bastian is a resident and is now the leader of the economic part of the Downtown Business Improvement District. So does that mean he can not represent himself or others as a resident of downtown.

I think Russell can walk the line and represent the residents and the business interests. Right now , I believe that both sides have been ignored . With Russell Brown a Historic Core Resident and now heading the Downtown Historic BID , just maybe he can bridge those two groups together.

Let's see how this works. I believe in him. His style has been not heavy handed on the Neighborhood Council. He has allowed the different committees to have leaders that use initiative and is not afraid to share or even allow others to attain the credit for their work. Even I am working on things that normally others would have never allowed me to do out of fear for delegating .

I want to see how he does in promoting downtown's historic core and it's residents. Developing relationships is his style and we need those relationships between the residents and the business community to thrive. Then maybe we can get some work done , like getting rid of those drug dealers between werdin place and Main Street on 5th street.

# on Jul.03.2007 AT 09:35 AM

Dana Gabbard writes:

Wearing multiple hats can be complicated at times. Mr. Brown sounds like someone who understands the sort of caution that this calls for.

# on Jul.03.2007 AT 11:00 AM

downtown toilet writes:

i like mr. brown.

# on Jul.03.2007 AT 12:20 PM

Benjamin Pezzillo writes:

It's a great match. Will everything which is good for DLANC also be good for the HDBID or vice versa? Probably not.

But is Russ the type of person who can function across lines, build bridges and find 'win-win' solutions, absolutely.

# on Jul.03.2007 AT 02:39 PM