If you thought that East Tosa already has a business improvement district, I wouldn’t blame you. After all, I thought the same thing until recently when I learned that there is an effort to create one for the stretch of West North Avenue from North 60th Street to Wauwatosa Avenue (76th Street).
That stretch is lined with a wide variety of businesses, from the well-known and well-established – like Rocket Baby, Cranky Al’s, the Rosebud Cinema Drafthouse, BelAir Cantina, Ted’s Ice Cream & Restaurant, Walters on North, Il Mito, etc. – to many others, including newer businesses like the recently opened Well-Red Damsel romance bookshop and Pipsqueak Wine.
There are also auto repair shops, architectural practices, cafes, restaurants, barber shops, flower shops, dry cleaners, craft beer, computer repair businesses, wellness studios and much more.
“There have been iterations of a group,” explains former alderman and East Tosa resident Bobby Pantuso, who owns 4Jay Films and is one of those leading the BID effort. “There was the North Avenue Business Alliance.
“Then the East Tosa Association was after that,” interjects Anna Jarecki, who owns Nourish Skin and Sugar Studio at 6230 W. North Ave., and is another part of the team.
“Neither were actually bids, though,” Pantuso continues. “They were all voluntary contribution, volunteer-run, and each iteration ended up fizzling out when it didn't become a BID. And this is our effort to become a BID.
What is a BID?
A business improvement district is a specifically designated area in which property owners are assessed a tax to help underwrite improvements (such as streetscaping or lighting, etc.) and pay for services (like advertising and promotion, for example) and events.
They’re also a way to build community, collaboration and cooperation among business owners that can help spark broader community engagement, too.
A BID typically has a board made up of members and a paid executive director.
There are BIDs in neighborhoods around the area, including – among others – in Tosa Village, the Third Ward, the East Side and Shorewood.
Why a BID now?
When the previous attempts at BIDs in East Tosa failed, they took a number of popular events down with them, including Chillin’ on the Avenue and an annual bike race.
“Things really started to fizzle,” says Pantuso. “It was because it was volunteer-run. No one wanted to step up and do it.”
Despite the fact that there were some really dedicated volunteers, like Meg Miller and others, with 106 commercial properties in the proposed BID, surrounded by dense residential housing, relying on volunteers can be difficult.
Jarecki, who had volunteered on some of those previous projects, had considered trying again with a volunteer-run group to create an organization that would help her and other business owners on the east end of the North Avenue business district feel more connected to those in the center and further west.
“I got together with some of the other business owners and we talked about doing a volunteer-run thing,” she recalls, “and I was like, ‘listen, now that I'm a mom and a business owner, I know I don’t have the same amount of time to volunteer as I did years ago.
“Volunteerism is not as big as it used to be 15 years ago. So we definitely need something in place where someone is paid to do social media, all that kind of stuff that would be impossible for someone to do on a volunteer basis.”
Thus, using the previous efforts of Miller at East Tosa Association as a basis, Jarecki got together with like-minded folks like Pantuso and started the move toward a BID.
How it works
Using a guideline of $1.50 per assessed value with a minimum of $550 and a max of $5,000 per year, they crafted a model annual budget of $140,404 that includes funding for a part-time BID director; as well as streetscape upgrades like planters, lighting and signage; marketing expenses like a website, promotional materials, ads and a marketing coordinator; and event-related costs like insurance, permits and programming.
The biggest obstacle to getting the City of Wauwatosa to create a BID is potential opposition from property owners. It is they who are assessed the tax, though often that tax is simply added to the rent of the commercial space they own so that the business owners actually foot the bill.
“It's about a conversation between the business owner and the property owner to say, ‘okay, (business owner), you're all for this,” says Pantuso. “Tell your property owner, yes, you're going to attach this to my rent, $100 a month or whatever it ends up being. I'm perfectly fine with paying it.”
“But if you have a property owner that doesn't understand that and all they see is their tax bills going up and they don't see the benefits of it ... a savvy property owner that has worked in other business improvement districts would get the value of it. It boosts the value of the property.”
Transparency and communication are key, says Jarecki.
“We are trying to be very transparent,” she says. “(We have) a website that's a slideshow of how this can benefit you and how it will benefit not just a retail shop. I'm a service based business owner. A BID isn't just Easter egg hunts and events, right? Because, honestly, that's not going to help my business. It's not going to help the print shop.
“But this is how it can help us with traffic slowing, how it can help us with beautification, it can help us all feel like we're part of North Avenue.”
Next steps
The BID proposal will go first to the City of Wauwatosa’s planning commission at its Sept. 8 meeting (6 p.m., City Hall) and if it makes it through that, property owners will get a mailing explaining the plan, and, Pantuso explains, they will have about six weeks to object.
“At the end of October, if everything's in order, then the council has a meeting and they adopt it,” says Pantuso, “and Jan. 1 we can pay an executive director and we've got this pool of money that can go toward the BID.”
“The thing with Wauwatosa is that we're landlocked,” says Jarecki. “We don't have a lot of space to build new cool things. We don't have water to bring people here. So we have to figure out ways to get people here.
“We have a beautiful street and we have these beautiful murals, but could we go a little bit further and have a mural walk and more murals and that kind of stuff. So that's really what we would like. It's not just about the festivals or those little things. We would like to do this on a level that it's going to change the face of North Avenue for Wauwatosa in a really, really good way for a really long time.”
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press. A fifth collects Urban Spelunking articles about breweries and maltsters.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has been heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
