Mental Health Needs of Our Downtown Ambassadors

A 2024 Top Issues Council Report Brief — As downtown conditions have become more challenging for on-the-ground ambassadors, this brief describes how organizations are investing in supporting mental health for these critical employees and downtown stewards.  IDA would like to thank Block by Block for their generous support of the Ambassador Council.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members! 

The State of DEI – and the External and Internal Decisions Impacting UPMOs

A 2024 Top Issues Council Report Brief — DEI initiatives at UPMOs have faced numerous push and pull factors in recent years, and this brief examines how to navigate competing priorities to foster DEI practices in their own unique environments. The brief also proposes a blueprint for action to achieve DEI goals.  IDA would like to thank Uncommon Bridges for their generous support of the Inclusive UPMOs Council. 

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members! 

Empowering Urban Management Through AI: Enhancing Efficiency and Engagement

A 2024 Top Issues Council Report Brief — AI has begun to transform our lives, including the day-to-day work at UPMOs. This brief explores AI’s potential to enhance productivity, boost innovation and expand the capacity of these high-performing organizations. IDA would like to thank Downtown Decorations for their generous support of the AI for UPMOs Council. 

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members! 

Downtown Investment: Adapting to a Post-Pandemic Environment

A 2024 Top Issues Council Report Brief — Advocating for downtown investment has faced severe shocks from the pandemic, particularly in the office and retail sectors. This brief offers examples of how the role of UPMOs has changed (or not) to best empower stakeholders to make informed and strategic decisions that enhance the downtown economy and larger community. 

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members! 

Balancing Innovation and Authenticity: Integrating AI in Place Marketing

A 2024 Top Issues Council Report Brief — AI’s evolution continues to offer more sophisticated resources for marketers, but human insight remains crucial to shaping this output and infusing it with authenticity.  This brief advocates a balanced approach in which AI complements—but cannot replace—human creativity.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

2023 Staffing & Salary Survey

A 2023 IDA Dashboard — IDA’s biennial Staffing and Salary Survey is the most comprehensive benchmark on staffing and compensation trends in the U.S. and Canadian urban place management industry. The 2023 edition updates the dashboard platform first presented in 2021 with customizable results and organizational KPIs. The dashboard includes data on top executive compensation, staff salaries for 25 common positions, organizational budget and other demographic characteristics. Dynamic filters allow you to compare your district to peers in your region and across North America, and customize downloadable Excel and PowerPoint summaries of all the data. Also included, by popular demand, a board-friendly PDF Executive Summary.

Purchase premium access from the IDA webstore. Please note, this publication is available for purchase by individuals only (not organizations) in order for you to receive your personalized dashboard login.

The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities: 2023 Summary

An IDA Study Calculating the Value of Downtown —  A strong downtown is critical for a successful city and region. This study articulates the inherent value a downtown provides to the greater city, highlighting a downtown’s unique and impactful contributions while accounting for 150+ key data points based on economy, inclusion, vibrancy, identity and resilience. This executive summary presents the latest summary data points across the three tiers of Emerging, Growing and Established from across 49 downtowns and urban districts. 

Download the 2023 Summary here.

Download the 2019 Third Edition full report (free) from the IDA webstore.

P.U.M.A.’s Global Trends Report 2023

The 2023 edition of P.U.M.A.’s Global Trends Report highlights opportunities and challenges arising from converging shifts in demographics, lifestyles, and disruptive forces that are rapidly shaping our cities. This year, new trends explore how the forces of polarization, public health, inequality, and the future of work are impacting the shape of cities and the role of downtowns.

Download the report for free from the IDA webstore.

CBD Impact Analysis

Nearly all of the City and County of San Francisco’s 15 Community Benefit Districts/BIDs have expanded, renewed, or been started in the past ten years. This impact analysis highlights the collective value of CBDs/BIDs throughout the city, especially through the challenging conditions of the pandemic and beyond. This report was prepared for the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development by Urban Place Consulting Group Inc. with support from IDA.

Download the report for free from the IDA webstore.

Building on Recovery for Urban Place Management

Activity and vibrancy are returning to our urban cores. This report outlines actions that urban place management organization can take to ensure downtowns, city centers and urban districts recover more strongly. Explore top priorities for COVID recovery and strategies that UPMOs can undertake to build on recovery efforts. Watch urban thought leaders discuss COVID-19 recovery strategies for downtowns [video].

Download the report for free from the IDA webstore.

COVID-19 Impacts on the Urban Place Management Industry

An IDA Benchmarking Report — The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a major disruption to urban centers and city life. IDA surveyed hundreds of members to learn more about how place management organizations responded to this international crisis and identify the larger implications for our organizations and places. The report aims to quantify the overall impacts of the pandemic on our member organizations and the places they serve.

Purchase the report from the IDA webstore.

Bold Placemaking

A 2022 Top Issues Council Report Brief — The shock of the pandemic dramatically changed traditional placemaking – not only how we do it but who we do it for, and what it means for the public spaces where work takes place. From directly funding business support programs to reshaping physical spaces for social purposes and economic recovery, this creative and transformative work to create vibrant, active and inclusive places is how we define bold placemaking. This report brief provides examples of how UPMOs and placemakers are expanding their role in economic development and reclaiming public spaces for the people.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Achieving and Maintaining a Diverse Retail Mix

A 2017 Top Issues Council Report — This report will help urban district managers understand where and how revitalization is happening and how to encourage retail diversity. Urban place management organizations are uniquely suited to champion the diversity of their district’s retail offerings, while both affirming the authenticity of the place and focusing the market demand. True diversity means crossover appeal, that a “diverse” retail mix is not just one that contains businesses specifically (and exclusively) catering to the individual subcultures within the catchment, but also, feature concepts that can draw from the full range of them and, in so doing, reflect the larger role of the urban place as a “crossroads” for its community.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

From Traditional to Trailblazing: The Journey of the Ambassador

A 2023 Top Issues Council Report Brief — Learn how UPMOs are responding to the evolving role of the ambassador as job responsibilities have expanded, work culture has changed and new technologies have become more critical to improving operations and responding to changing community needs. IDA would like to thank Block by Block for their generous support of the Ambassador Council.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Activating Public Spaces: A Guidebook for Urban Districts

A 2016 Top Issues Council Report — This is an in-depth guidebook for urban place managers who are programming public spaces, transforming them into an activated amenity for the community. The guidebook dives into the various regulatory, design, funding, and maintenance challenges for both temporary and permanent placemaking initiatives.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Adjusting to the Changing Parking Landscape: How to Best Position Your District for Success

A 2018 Top Issues Council Report — The IDA Parking Top Issues Council report addresses the broad menu of parking challenges downtowns face as they function today and plan for the future. The reader will be able to better understand competing priorities related to parking, identify items to consider when addressing common parking issues, and find inspiration from best practices across the U.S. This report highlights three detailed case studies from downtown Tempe, downtown Boulder, and Old Pasadena, and offers lessons learned from real-life scenarios to provide takeaways that readers can apply to their own downtowns.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

A Path Towards Better Bicycle Infrastructure: A Guidebook for Urban Place Management Organizations

A 2017 Top Issues Council Report — Urban place management organizations, such as business improvement districts, can play an important and effective role in improving conditions for bicycling, thus improving conditions of safety and walkability. This report describes three general areas in which these organizations can contribute to make significant improvements for bicycling: informing and educating community stakeholders and local government officials; advocating for improvements and partnering with other organizations; and encouraging and incentivizing bicycling through the development of programs and collaboration with local government, businesses and community partners.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

A Practical Guide to Great Urban Parks: How to Benefit from and Finance your Urban Park

A 2017 Top Issues Council Report — This publication is a resource guide for both current and potential park stakeholders (government partners, public-sector partners, and private-sector partners) to advance collaboration and capacity building within the management of an urban park to maximize benefits, while equitably and intelligently sharing costs and responsibilities. The results: A dynamic, thriving space that is accessible to all. This report defines a great urban park, how it works, and how it is funded. The report is divided into four sections: Inputs, Activities, Outputs and Impacts, and Case Studies.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Attracting Commercial Development: Tools and Case Studies

A 2016 Top Issues Council Report — Attracting commercial development to an urban core relies on a multitude of factors to be successful. This report includes examples from across the globe to show the diversity of economic development tools and successful attraction of commercial development, including chapters on the evolution of commercial development in urban centers, millennials, technology and retail, the role of the built and natural environment, and planning, regulations and incentives.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Creative Placemaking: A Guide for Business Districts to Work with Local Artists

Creative placemaking is a key ingredient in the recipe for successful revitalization efforts. This toolkit, designed through a partnership between IDA and Springboard for the Arts, is specifically geared towards improvement districts, offers guidance on engagement with local artists to best enhance the experience and vitality of a place. The guide provides a step-by-step process for getting started on a placemaking initiative, designing the project and finding artists, and project management. It also features six projects funded by Springboard for the Arts and includes templates for agreements with project collaborators.

Download the free report in the IDA webstore.

Downtown Districts at the Table: Planning for Safety and Security

A 2017 Top Issues Council Report — This guide was developed as a tool for strategic safety planning for urban place management organizations. The council studied the latest crime trends districts face, examined how a district management organization’s role in emergency response and crime prevention has grown, and explored how technology is revolutionizing communication between law enforcement agencies and the business community. Several case studies and best practices from across North America are shared throughout this publication.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Evolving Homeless Services

A 2022 Top Issues Council Report Brief — People experiencing chronic homelessness face the highest barriers to care and services, and are more likely to be the source of disruptions and escalating behavior. It’s incumbent upon UPMOs to humanize these individuals and make clear that they represent the most vulnerable members of our communities and the people most likely to die on our streets. This report explains the importance of supporting homeless services to increase individual and public health and safety. It also offers examples and resources to help place managers launch or enhance homeless services in their communities. 

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

From Dumpsters to Biergartens: Case Studies in Alley Activations

A 2017 Top Issues Council Report — Alleys and other “in-between” infrastructure have long been overlooked but when activated, can change the way we engage with our city. Urban place management organizations have the tools to implement a variety of tactical initiatives such as public art installations, temporary parklets, murals, street and sidewalk decoration and plantings that help strengthen a visitor’s sense of place. This report examines seven infrastructure projects spearheaded by urban place management organizations in North America and Australia.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

High-Performing Urban District CEOs

This report explores the leadership skills required to run a dynamic, successful place management organization. The study is the result of in-depth interviews with 50 current and former leaders within the downtown and urban district management industry from the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean and South Africa. The study highlights urban district CEOs as diverse, adaptive, skilled and savvy leaders in their communities, and will become a critical guide for career development and hiring of industry leaders.

Purchase the report in the IDA webstore.

Homelessness in Urban Districts: Principles & Implications for Place Managers

A 2017 Top Issues Council Report — The need for new, comprehensive approaches in addressing the issue of homelessness has risen to the forefront of conversations in urban centers across the world. While the policy approaches are not simple, the Council advocates for a declaration of four principles for urban place management organizations to use, which inspire engaged and active urban centers: Housing First, Partnerships, Stakeholder Balance, and Data, Programs and Policies.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Housing Attainability: How UPMOs Can Support A Diversity of Housing in Their Districts

A 2019 Top Issues Council Report — Every community needs housing options that meet a diversity of incomes and lifestyles. The Housing Attainability Top Issues Council report demonstrates how urban place management organizations of all sizes and resource levels can play a role in encouraging more housing at a variety of price points and of varying styles.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

How We Do Economic Development: Best Practices and Trends for Place Management Organization

A 2018 Top Issues Council Report — Downtowns, as areas of rapid growth, have become key tools in the economic development arsenal. Downtowns are the places where entrepreneurs and businesses want to work. This document chronicles the intersection of downtown management and economic development. Today, economic development has become a staple program of downtown organizations, and the variety of approaches to downtown economic development is immense, reflecting differences in downtowns and their communities. This report discusses best practices and trends in economic development for place management organizations.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Inclusive Entrepreneurship

A 2022 Top Issues Council Report Brief — Supporting a healthy, vibrant, and diverse tenant mix requires additional, targeted strategies for recruiting, cultivating, and retaining local small businesses. A focus on clearing paths to property ownership and wealth generation for underrepresented groups helps close a significant economic gap for the entire center city. Providing opportunities for a greater portion of the population ultimately benefits everyone. This report explores successful methods UPMOs have used to support inclusive entrepreneurship by improving capital readiness, easing access to commercial spaces, and developing programs for business retention and sustainability.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Inclusive Places: Prioritizing Inclusion and Equity in the Urban Place Management Field

A 2018 Top Issues Council Report — Despite a remarkable urban revival over the past few decades, wealth and income disparities have widened inexorably in city centers, including both within and between metropolitan regions. Some place managers are asking themselves if their work has unintentionally fostered increasingly homogenized and exclusive urban districts that may be unwelcoming. This report explores the challenges and opportunities in prioritizing inclusion and equity in the urban place management field. It provides toolkits on assessing inclusion in public spaces, downtown districts, and placemaking, which are designed to help UPMOs to incorporate a more inclusive approach into their programming. The report also presents several case studies on inclusive place management programs across the country.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Living Downtown: The New Residential Paradigm

A 2016 Top Issues Council Report — This report explores the importance of downtown residential activity, reviews efforts to attract housing development into downtowns and discusses many of the elements of accommodating downtown residents once they are there.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Maintaining Authenticity of Place

A 2016 Top Issues Council Report — This report defines the various elements that contribute to the authenticity of a place to benefit the daily work of city builders, planners, place managers and community leaders. The authors present a ten-point authenticity checklist to be a roadmap for place managers who seek to increase their community’s authenticity, with the acknowledgment that each community’s path may be different and that there is no one method for authenticity.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Middle Housing: Playing a New Game

A 2023 Top Issues Council Report Brief — Make the case for how updating local housing policies and zoning codes to allow for more varieties of housing, especially middle housing, can deliver big benefits for a downtown and urban district’s economic viability.  

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Municipal Partnerships: A Toolkit for Municipal & Urban Place Management Organization Relationships

A 2019 Top Issues Council Report — The Municipal Partnerships Top Issues Council examined the fundamental nature of working relationships between UPMOs and governments to identify the best practices for producing the most beneficial and enterprising partnerships. The report is a useful toolkit for understanding the scope and breadth of these relationships, including case studies and sample agreements from organizations around the globe.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Nighttime Economy: A Guidebook for Emerging, Growing and Established Nighttime Districts

A 2018 Top Issues Council Report — After decades of decline and flight from center city districts and neighborhoods in North America, many of these cities’ central cores are enjoying a modern-day renaissance. This report provides a guide for emerging, growing and established nighttime districts to regularly reference as they face and address challenges to supporting a nighttime economy, including considerations for place management organizations on nighttime economy infrastructure, mitigating social and community safety threats, activating and engaging the nighttime economy community, and assessing the quality of life in diverse nighttime districts.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Parking & Mobility

A 2022 Top Issues Council Report Brief — Parking and mobility demand will continue to evolve in unforeseen ways, but fundamental tools and best practices for mobility in vibrant downtowns and city centers will still focus on greater accessibility through the promotion of multimodal options, creation of well-maintained and activated public realms, and reductions in car volumes and parking demand. This report brief provides updated guidance on, best practices for and resources in mobility and parking including curbside management, mobility hubs, land use and transportation policies, managed and paid parking impacts on businesses, and parking management tools.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Partnerships for Urban Place Management

A 2016 Top Issues Council Report — This report explores how place management organizations use public-private partnerships (P3) to play a vital role in the transformation of their communities and serves as a guide for these place management organizations to strategically and pragmatically shape such partnerships for the benefit of their downtowns and neighborhoods.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Place Branding: Best Practices and Strategies to Brand and Market Your District

A 2018 Top Issues Council Report — Each downtown and urban district is unique and offers different experiences. More than just a logo, tagline or marketing campaign, place branding identifies and distills a district down to its core identity and sense of place. The IDA Place Branding Top Issues Council has developed this report as a guide for urban districts to evaluate different tools and approaches for their own place branding efforts. Learn best practices and strategies to brand and market your district.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Prioritizing Pedestrian Improvements

A 2016 Top Issues Council Report — This report analyzes the results of an IDA member survey that touched on four key areas as they relate to pedestrian experience: education; engineering and planning; enforcement; and technology, and addresses the important role that urban place management organizations play when it comes to increasing walkability and enhancing the pedestrian experience.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Public Safety Initiatives

A 2022 Report Brief — Clean and safe has long played a central role in place management, but public safety has taken on increasing importance amidst the protracted return to work, increases in homelessness and efforts to square law-enforcement practices with demands for social justice. This report brief shows how UMPOs across the U.S. and Canada have responded to these challenges, incorporating dozens of interviews to offer examples and inspiration for other place management professionals facing similar challenges in their own districts.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Scalable Innovations in Placemaking

A 2023 Top Issues Council Report Brief — Find inspiration for planning for placemaking, no matter the size and scale of your district and UPMO. This report brief focuses on creating small-scale installations, using technology to identify needs and develop programming (such as with AR), and spurring placemaking from the private-sector.

Download the report brief in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Sustainability & Urban Place Management

A 2021 Top Issues Council Report — Urban places contribute in significant ways to the larger environmental footprint, creating both an opportunity and an imperative for working toward sustainability. This report makes the business case for urban place management organizations to invest in sustainability and resilience measures by highlighting the economic, environmental and social benefits that the organizations and their communities can achieve through these practices.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Urban Mobility: The Role of Urban Place Management Organizations in Prioritizing Connectivity

A 2018 Top Issues Council Report — Urban place management organizations can have a positive impact on urban mobility in their communities in a variety of different ways, from direct involvement to policy advocacy. The Council looks at public transportation, the growing demand for bike infrastructure, and the emergence of technology-driven changes to how people traverse urban places in the 21st century. This report provides suggestions and case studies meant to demonstrate the role UPMOs can play in the context of urban mobility.

Download the report in the IDA webstore. Free for IDA members!

Quantifying the Value of Canadian Downtowns: A Research Toolkit

This toolkit is a groundbreaking effort to provide a downtown data standard, a common set of data and processes that will help Canadian place management organizations, such as BIAs/BIDs, establish and sustain evaluation and compare progress among downtowns. While this toolkit is geared towards Canadian downtowns, it also is of value for urban districts outside of Canada who are looking to move toward data standardization and data best practices. In the toolkit, organizations will find directions and insights on collecting, organizing, storing, and presenting downtown-specific data to make the case for continued investment and support.

Purchase the report in the IDA webstore.

ABCs for Creating BIDs

This report is designed to help downtown organizations, property and business owners, local government officials and downtown advocates explore the formation of a BID by examining how a BID works and outlining a five-step process for creating a BID. This report is authored by M. Bradley Segal.

Download the free report in the IDA webstore.

Downtown Rebirth Report

“Downtown Rebirth” features an analysis of downtowns and employment centers in America’s 150 largest cities for jobs, documenting for the first time the number of people who work and live in and around 231 diversified employment centers and providing information about job density, city form, and the percentage of Americans who are choosing these live-work environments.

Download the free report in the IDA webstore.