City council approves major expansion of Long Island City BID, doubling its coverage area

The proposed expansion of the Long Island City BID. Photo: Long Island City Partnership

Sept. 16, 2024 By Shane O’Brien

The New York City Council has approved the expansion of the Long Island City Business Improvement District (BID) following a 48-1 vote.

The expansion more than doubles the number of block faces covered by the BID, jumping from 73 block faces to 156.

The council’s decision comes at the end of a three-year process and expands the Long Island City BID across Sunnyside Yards to the east as far as 35th Street and 47th Avenue. The decision also expands the BID as far as 37th Avenue and Northern Boulevard to the north and as far as Queens Plaza South and Vernon Boulevard to the west.

Laura Rothrock, President of the LIC BID, said the BID will now cover 25 miles of street frontage, making it the largest BID in the city by geographical area.

Rothrock believes that the expansion will be made official by Jan. 1, 2025, after it is signed into law by Mayor Eric Adams and State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

She said the expansion will provide essential services and enhancements to newly incorporated areas, including street cleaning, beautification projects, and promotional activities aimed at stimulating economic growth.

Rothrock said the BID will provide horticultural services such as weeding and erecting hanging baskets. It will also operate sanitation teams that sweep the sidewalks and ensure that garbage cans are not overflowing.

“When you’re walking on a street that’s in the BID now and then if you veer just one block away, you can really see the difference of garbage piling up, overgrown weeds, and graffiti,” Rothrock said. “So the expansion will mean a more cohesive and beautified district.”

The LIC Bid, established in 2005 to address the rapid growth of Long Island City and the evolving needs of the neighborhood, has grown significantly over the past 20 years, undergoing an original expansion in 2017 to include all of the main corridors in Long Island City. Managed by Long Island City Partnership (LICP), the BID provides supplementary sanitation and visitor services within the district as well as carrying out community development and beautification projects.

The latest expansion is in response to growing foot traffic on additional streets throughout the neighborhood, Rothrock said, which simultaneously increases activity and the need for services.

She said the BID has been preparing for the expansion for the past three years, speaking directly with business owners in the expansion areas about their needs and the issues they face on a daily basis. She added that she is confident that the BID will be able to cope with such a significant growth in size.

“We’ve done a lot of work as far as understanding our budget and the services that are needed,” Rothrock said. “That was really what this three-year process has been – doing a lot of outreach and getting a sense of what the needs were and what resources we would need to address those.”

Rothrock said the expansion of the BID will ultimately lead to more foot traffic in the areas covered by the expansion, stating that people are less likely to walk down a street if they see that it is covered in trash or graffiti.

“It might not even be something that’s a conscious decision that people make, but people are less likely to go down streets that don’t feel like they’re being taken care of. So the bid will enhance that and invite more foot traffic.”

She said the BID will encourage people to visit their local businesses while additionally providing a welcoming environment for new businesses to open in Long Island City.