What we hear on the street, and the answer.

NIDMA stands for Neighborhood Improvement District Management Association, which is what the non-profit that would be formed as a result of this legislation would be. Many people are referring to City of Pittsburgh Council Legislation #2026-0518 as "NIDMA."

This is not a city tax. Every single dollar stays right here on East Carson Street. The money goes directly into fixing up our blocks, to bring back regional shoppers and boost our property values.

Everyone pays their fair share. Making the fee mandatory means every commercial property owner who stands to profit from this effort contributes equally to the cost. There are no free rides.

• A predictable budget is needed to hire workers. You cannot run a professional operation, sign contracts for daily street cleaning, or plan year-round neighborhood events on unpredictable donations that might dry up next month.
• Many additional funding sources want to see stability which a non-profit like the one proposed in this legislation would provide.

No. This law strictly bans using this money for normal city services. The city must sign a contract promising to keep up its regular trash and police lines.

The city doesn't have the money to provide what the South Side needs. Since the 1970s, Pittsburgh has lost a large portion of its population and tax base, leaving far less money to maintain services across 90 different neighborhoods.

Your tax dollars can only cover some standard services. The city will never have the money to scrape graffiti off private storefront walls, power-wash individual entryways, or fund a team to market open retail space and plan events that bring foot traffic into the South Side.

• Every dollar collected goes directly into a separate, private bank account managed entirely by a local nonprofit group, not the city treasury.
• The money is overseen by a board of directors that includes commercial property owners and business owners from the district.
• The city is legally forbidden from using it. By law, the city government cannot take these funds or redirect them to fill holes in the general budget.
• Strict audits keep the spending honest. The organization is legally required to undergo regular financial audits and publish public reports.

• Safety is only part of the equation. Keeping the street safe matters enormously, but police officers cannot clean up daily litter, wash entryways, pull weeds, or hang seasonal decorations.
• Safety alone will not fill empty storefronts. Police presence cannot run marketing campaigns, host street events, or work with brokers to recruit new tenants into empty spaces.
• A busy street is a safer street. Funding events, holiday lighting and storefront activation draws steady daytime foot traffic, and more regular customers on the sidewalks naturally discourages crime.

• A cleaner and better promoted business district attracts more shoppers. When the economy is tough, we need to do everything we can to bring in foot traffic. We must give customers a reason to shop here instead of somewhere else.
• The fee is a small, predictable cost. The monthly cost is small compared to the immediate, expensive damage that unaddressed graffiti, broken glass or piled-up trash does to your property value.
• Doing nothing costs you more. If the district falls behind and looks run-down, we lose more customers, storefronts sit vacant longer, and property values drop.
• The organization and efforts funded by this legislation lasts for five years. Commercial property owners in the district can then decide to end it or renew it.

We understand the pain of those tax hikes. That is exactly why we must act. We cannot afford to let vacancies rise while our fixed property costs go up. We have to protect our investments from dropping in value.

Pass-throughs can happen. But a cleaner, safer district with a real daytime economy directly increases a commercial tenant's daily sales. Spending the pooled money on services like planning events and creating promotions helps retail tenants generate far more revenue than the passed-through cost, which averages under $60 a month for most small storefronts.

Four specific criteria shaped it:

• Zoning district alignment. The core footprint follows the city's official East Carson Street Local Neighborhood Commercial (LNC) zoning district map.
• The main historic commercial corridor. The boundary spans the primary retail and storefront stretch of the South Side, from 10th Street to 28th Street.
• Targeted side-street expansions. It includes blocks immediately off the main strip — around Bedford Square, parts of South 14th Street, and sections of 10th Street — to capture contiguous business pockets.
• Property-type screening. The outline was fine-tuned to include commercial businesses and residential income properties, while weaving around and excluding single-family owner-occupied homes and fully tax-exempt properties.

• They benefit from the efforts of this legislation. The services and programs provided by the non-profit are for commercial properties in the entire district boundary.
• A healthier district helps everyone compete. More daytime workers and shoppers in the area helps commercial properties off East Carson Street and in the district attract tenants and customers.

Under Ordinance File #2026-0518, commercial property owners in the district pay into the fund only if your property operates as a commercial rental business or a mixed-use building. Owner-occupied single-family homes are exempt.

A residential rental is run as an income-generating business. Unlike an owner-occupied house, it directly benefits from higher neighborhood demand and property value growth.

Local property and business owners located in the East Carson Street Improvement District can be nominated to the board of directors. To learn more, go to Leadership on this website.

If you own a commercial property or operate a business inside the official boundaries of the district, and you are an active stakeholder, you can be nominated during the organization's selection process, as set out in the nonprofit's bylaws, which are public.

The board of directors will hire and oversee professional staff to operate the nonprofit providing programs and services to the district.

We lose $500,000 in dedicated funding for services and programs that commercial property and business owners have asked for, leaving the South Side with the bare minimum of city services while our property values risk falling further behind competing neighborhoods.