Adapted from Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' in GoLocal24.com:
plan to help maintain the 17-acre Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, in downtown Boston, may be an example for upkeep of other public parks. Since property owners near the Greenway obviously benefit more than most people from this amenity, they’ve agreed to pay $1 million a year in a voluntary tax on the big buildings along the Greenway via aBusiness Improvement District that would defray the bulk ofyearly maintenance. The idea is to let the state reduce its spending on the park to $750,000 a year by 2020 from the current $2 million.
User taxes, including highway tolls, are very fair. You benefit. You pay.
India Point Park, in Providence, is an example of where similar arrangements could be made to better maintain public spaces and save on local and state government spending. Certainly the Downtown Providence Improvement District has done fine work in making “Downcity’’ a lot more presentable than it was a couple of decades ago.
