Business Improvement Areas and Social Services: Negotiating Space in a Revitalizing Neighbourhood

• In Event: Policies, Threat, and Communities

Abstract

Faced with limited funds to fuel inner-city revitalization, municipal governments in Canada have handed over some responsibilities to Business Improvement Areas (hereafter BIAs) to manage downtown space. Despite an abundance of literature arguing BIAs limit the democratic nature of public space and exclude various marginalized groups, little research examines how BIAs manage urban space with a concentration of social welfare services within their jurisdiction. Although promotional BIA documents typically advertise neighbourhood diversity and social cohesion, interviews with BIA members, social service workers, and publicly available reports/documents reveal dialectical tensions in the definition of ‘community’. Within the present case study we show how the BIA must work to balance definitions of “community” that emphasize community needs for economic development with needs for welfare and social supports. Overall, this paper rethinks the practice of NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) within the context of BIA-community relations.

Authors

• Daniel Kudla, University of Guelph

• Michael Courey, Western University