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To register for this module, or to check enrollment availability, please click here or scroll to the bottom of the page.
101:10C: BDM 101: Business District Management: Foundations of the Profession
Based on the New Jersey Managed Districts Association (NJMDA) Business Districts Management Professional Certification Project
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| This online module presents an opportune setting for delving into the theoretical underpinnings of managed business districts (MBDs) as formal public-private partnerships the synthesize public entrepreneurship with social capital. BIDs originated in Toronto, Canada area during the 1970s, proliferated first throughout Canada, the United States, and then in other countries. These districts continue to evolve and are now known by many names such as: business improvement districts, special improvement districts, downtown improvement districts, community improvement districts, central improvement districts, Main Street programs and others. This introductory class investigates the operational evolution of managed business districts, focusing upon the central role of the professional business district manager as a manager of a public-private partnership. | | Instructors: |
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Dr. Seth Grossman
E-mail: cpsgrossman@aol.com
Work phone: 973-493-4251 ext.
| | Overview of the Course: |
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This module offers a comprehensive introduction not just to the theory and practice of managed business districts but it highlights the profession of district management as an unexplored public administration innovation. Managed business districts (MBD) refer collectively to the variously named publicly sanctioned entities with self-imposed obligatory or voluntary special assessments, self-determined public service provision and that occupy a legally designated area. The innovatory characteristics of MBDs, arise as state and local legislatively enabled self-governing entities that at times blur traditional distinctions between public and private organizations. Consequently, governance raises critical questions of democratic representation, accountability, transparency, and responsiveness. While the other learning modules investigate these touchstones of public administration in greater detail, this introductory course reviews the impact of these standards on managed business districts and thereby lays the foundation for the emerging profession of district management. Establishment of that profession compels a combined application of public entrepreneurship and public service together with the recognition, development, and channeling of social capital.
Whether legally formed as a municipal commission, quasi-governmental (quango), non-profit or another entity, the district management organization, under the leadership of its manager, oversees the day-to-day operation of the designated district and the public-private partnership it represents, formulates its budget, and strategically plans for its future. The introductory class provides access to the groundwork that fortifies a district manager’s ability to engage stakeholders, spearhead strategic planning, collect and interpret citizen-centered data and employ performance management and evaluative systems as diagnostic tools all of which are more specifically treated in subsequent modules of the certification program.
This introductory course examines:
- Both state and municipal enabling legislation from a variety of jurisdictions throughout the United States;
- Organizational design, culture, and identity of the management organization;
- The interdependence of public entrepreneurship, social capital development, and business development. It explores the complexities of:
- Public-private partnerships;
- Citizen-driven governance;
- The professional balance of citizen participation, community development, business management, and public service. In practice, sub-local governance--by managed business districts--creates competing concerns requiring that district managers remain at the helm of the organization yet coalesce divergent stakeholder interests and multisector technologies to achieve district goals and objectives. This module presents a less traveled avenue of professional development that insightfully places the respective roles of the district manager, municipal officials, business owners, property owners, citizens, and relevant service providers in context to facilitate efficient community and economic development and to generate effective public service.
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This course aims to:
- Define a public-private partnership theory of professional business district management grounded in law, public administration, public entrepreneurship and social capital.
- Provide students with readings, on-line instruction, discussion and assignments that explore the perspectives, needs, and expectations of business district managers, municipal officials and other stakeholders.
- Increase knowledge about how contemporary governance and public policy emerge from social capital flowing through community and commercial collaborations like BIDs.
- Guides students to re-think public administration standards of accountability, representation, transparency, and responsiveness, and to reflect upon these standards for MBD-specific application in an emerging era of public-private partnership management.
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Students must be able to:
- Understand the legal role and structure of MBDs in general and the unique position and impact of the professional district manager as public-private partnership manager.
- Understand the intention of a jurisdiction’s enabling legislation that supports the profession and to apply the MBD formation.
- Articulate the convergence of legal, economic, administrative structure; and revitalization and community development strategies on district management governance in metropolitan and suburban areas.
- Develop local multi-sectoral strategic partnerships and collaborations and discern the factors at stake in coordinating an organization that emerges from collaborative agreements with, for example, the municipality, economic development corporations, community development corporations and groups, chambers of commerce, and business associations.
- Identify aims of public entrepreneurship and social capital and apply them to co-existing citizen-driven governance and commercial cooperation in the face of a competitive urban (or suburban) political economy.
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