Economic Development:
Jerome-Gun Hill BID
(Click here for map)

   Managed by MPC, the Jerome-
  Gun Hill Business Improvement
  District (BID) gives support to
  over 200 businesses within its
  catchment area, which runs along
 Jerome Avenue between
  Mosholu Parkway and East Gun
  Hill Road and East Gun Hill
  Road between Jerome and
  Webster avenues. Small family-
  run operations and national chain
  stores alike rely on the BID for
  updates on regulations and
  guidance in dealing with borough
  and citywide agencies. The BID
  also collaborates with owners of
  vacant property, suggesting new businesses that would offer a needed service or product currently absent from the neighborhood, thus enriching the area’s retail mix.

Recently, the Jerome-Gun Hill BID has begun to focus more of its resources on promotions for the district as a whole. Area merchants, who frequently do not have the budget to do much individual advertising, benefit from efforts that include ads in the Norwood News and the Daily News, seasonal Cablevision commercials, holiday raffles, promotional BID souvenirs and a street festival that draws approximately 20,000 visitors annually. Each year, MPC and the BID distribute 10,000 copies of a comprehensive map to area stores and points of interest, a publication which won the U.S. Congress’s 31st Annual Map Design Competition.

The BID works constantly to keep the area inviting to shoppers through rigorous sanitation, aesthetic improvement and security services. Thanks to a seven-days-a-week cleaning schedule, the BID received scores of 100% for both sidewalk and street cleanliness on the Mayor’s Office of Operations Sanitation Scorecard for the past year. Through its collaborations with Partners in Grime and the 52nd Precinct, the BID works to remove graffiti from outer walls as quickly as the next day and to catch would-be vandals in the act. Also through partnership with the NYPD, the BID has installed a string of security cameras along Jerome Avenue and is extending this project to Gun Hill Road. The BID’s high-tech security camera system monitors and records business rooftops/storefronts and is connected to the BID main office and the local 52nd precinct.

The BID Storefront Renovation Program provides matching grants of up to $5,000 to help local merchants improve the external look of their business including gates, canopies, security cameras and lighting, and in the process, improve the overall aesthetic quality of the district.

With these and many more programs, the Jerome-Gun Hill BID contributes a vital thread to the fabric of life in Norwood and Bedford Park: a safe, enjoyable, accessible shopping zone that keeps residents buying in the neighborhood and, consequently, keeps local merchants in operation.

Click here for map
 

  Copyright© 2006-10 Mosholu Preservation Corporation.