For those hoping Belltown will one day join a special downtown tax bracket known as the Metropolitan Improvement District ("Perception vs. Reality," RC, Nov. 26, 2008), your wait just got longer: Tim Burgess, chair of public safety for the Seattle City Council, says the idea is on hold until at least January.
The move, which was vetoed years ago in Belltown, would raise property taxes on businesses and residents in the area to pay for MID bicycle "ambassadors" and maintenance crews that move the homeless along in most of the downtown retail core.
Burgess had planned to introduce legislation early this year to extend the MID to Belltown but says he's still working on how best to go about it