Running head: BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICTS IN SENSE OF COMMUNITY Elements of Cohesion: The Role of Business Improvement Districts in Sense of Community

The current research examines the relationship between sense of community and business improvement districts (BIDs) in urban neighborhoods. Study 1 employed the method of imagined scenarios to distinguish sense of community ratings between hypothetical neighborhoods with and without BIDs. This study found that participants in the imagined BID neighborhood scenario reported higher sense of community than those in the imagined non-BID neighborhood scenario. In Study 2, residents of two neighborhoods in Brooklyn, New York, one with a BID and one without a BID, were surveyed on their neighborhood experience and sense of community. This study found no difference in sense of community between neighborhoods. The overall findings suggest that resources of BIDs, held in isolation, can relate to sense of community, but in a neighborhood with many additional characteristics, such as susceptibility to social change or natural disaster, the presence of a BID does not necessarily contribute directly to sense of community