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The Berkeley City Council will consider a proposal Nov. 18 to form a BID (Business Improvement District) on Solano Avenue in Berkeley. 

If the Council approves the proposal, one submitted by the Solano Avenue Association (SAA), merchants doing business on the Berkeley end of the avenue, and one block north and south, will be forced to join the BID—whether they like it or not. 

BIDs were originally developed for business districts that are “economically disadvantaged,” “underutilized,” or “unable to attract customers due to inadequate facilities, services, and activities…” (State of California Streets and Highway Code, Section 36501). Clearly none of these conditions exist on Solano Avenue—not in Berkeley nor Albany. 

Yet this is the third time in as many years the SAA has attempted to form a BID on Solano, though this year, they have limited its scope to Berkeley. Why? Because there is overwhelming opposition to a BID among businesses in Albany.  

If the Berkeley City Council endorses the SAA’s latest proposal, every business on Solano Avenue in Berkeley will be not only be required to join the BID, they will also be forced to pay an assessment on their business license, and forbidden from withdrawing from it. 

Why would anyone advocate such a proposal? At a meeting of the SAA last spring, that organization’s executive director explained: “I’m tired of having to collect dues and give everyone else a free ride,” she said.  

Things would definitely change in that regard if a BID is established on Solano. For one thing, the SAA would become the BID.  

The Albany Chamber of Commerce opposes a BID anywhere on Solano Avenue (two-thirds of which is in Albany). Why? We believe individuals and small businesses have the right to free association, and to join organizations by choice. If an organization like the SAA, or our Chamber, is doing good work, businesses can become dues paying members. However, if they are not, then a business owner can opt not to join, or stop paying dues. That is what keeps us honest. 

The process of forming a BID is also decisively undemocratic: there is no election, no vote, nor even a poll of the businesses involved. The SAA argues that though companies are not allowed to vote “yes” or “no” on the BID proposal, they can “vote” to prevent one.  

Yet only a rejection by over 50 percent of the businesses on Solano would stop a BID from being established there. What’s more, BID bylaws award larger firms substantially more votes than small ones, squeezing out family-owned businesses and defying the principle of “one person, one vote.”  

We urge that before the Berkeley City Council moves to establish a BID on Solano, that an election be held among businesses there -- an election where every business would have one vote. We believe that is the democratic way to decide this issue. 

James Carter is the executive director of the Albany Chamber of Commerce.