Mobilising Urban Policies: The Policy Transfer of US Business Improvement

changing fortunes of downtown Phila-delphia and other American cities, he argues, are no coincidence. Instead, they are the result of the rapid proliferation of Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) across the US during the 1990s onwards. By 2004, over 429 BIDs had emerged in a variety of downtown, inner-city, suburban and rural business districts in the US (Hoyt, 2004). From Levy’s Center City District to the downtown BID in Madison, Wisconsin, BIDs across the US share a common essence. That is, they are publicly sanctioned yet privately directed organisations that supplement publi