Oct. 8,
2009
CHAPPAQUA - When describing Daniel
Biederman, words like "pioneer" and
"visionary" are casually thrown about by
people who should know.
Everyone - from academicians to businessmen
to city officials - hails the Chappaqua
resident as one of the early pioneers of the
concept of the modern business improvement
districts, or BIDs.
As co-founder of Manhattan's Grand Central
Partnership, the Bryant Park Restoration
Corporation and the 34th Street Partnership,
Biederman is credited with turning around
neighborhoods by working with city officials
and property owners. He currently serves as
president of the latter two.
By transforming the once drug-infested and
crime-ridden Bryant Park into an urban
oasis, or by making the area around the
Grand Central Terminal a lot safer and
chewing gum-free, Biederman has perhaps
earned the title The New York Times once
bestowed on him: the "Mayor of Midtown."
His most recent effort - through his private
consultancy firm, Biederman Redevelopment
Ventures - is in New Jersey, where he is
co-producing three outdoor Fall Movie
Festivals. The screenings on three
consecutive Thursdays - Sept. 24, Oct. 1 and
Thursday - on Halsey Street in downtown
Newark are part of the city's efforts to
make it more business-friendly and vibrant.
"Dan is an urban pioneer, a gifted
orchestrator and a talented doer," said
Stefan Pryor, Newark's deputy mayor for
economic and housing development and
chairman of the Brick City Development
Corporation, the city's economic development
arm.
Biederman, a Scarsdale native, is a
Princeton and Harvard Business School
alumnus. He was elected chairman of the
Midtown Manhattan Community Board in 1979,
at the age of 26, and decided early on to
focus his career on projects involving
public-private partnerships.
"I always felt you couldn't be as effective
from inside the system, and that it could
get frustrating. Your ideas are not your own
anymore," said Biederman, 56, a bespectacled
man with a tall, athletic build and an
earnest demeanor.
So in 1979, when the Rockefeller family,
major donors to the New York Public Library
- which abuts Bryant Park - decided to fix
the park, it formed the Bryant Park
Restoration Corporation.
The family created a fund and roped in
Andrew Heiskell, then-chairman of Time Inc.,
and the New York Public Library, along with
Biederman, who had created a reputation as a
downtown manager.
Biederman's parents - his father was a
textile executive - however, were not amused
by the odd choice of a workplace. "Who works
in a park?" they wanted to know.
Thankfully, Biederman's then-girlfriend and
now his wife, Susan Duke Biederman, a
fine-arts attorney, saw the nonprofit as a
vehicle to launch a successful career and
had some sage advise.
"She said: 'These are powerful people, and
if you fix it, it can't be bad for your
career,' " recounted Biederman, sitting on
the porch of his charming 1938-built white
clapboard Colonial off a quiet street in
Chappaqua.
His wife continues her role of the trusted
adviser and is often part of focus groups.
"Her suggestions are very important to us,"
he insisted.
The $18 million transformation - most of it
privately raised - included redesigning the
park, putting in a private security force
and private maintenance. It took more than
five years, but Biederman's eye for detail,
from hanging baskets to giant planters to
stylish trash cans, transformed the eyesore
of a park into a city gem. And people took
notice.
In 1988, business owners decided to create a
BID around Grand Central Terminal and in
1992 at 34th Street - the area that includes
Pennsylvania Station, the Empire State
Building and Madison Square Garden - with
Biederman heading all three until 1998.
Peter Malkin, who represents property owners
in two midtown BIDs and whose family owns
the Empire State Building Co., said
Biederman recognized the importance of
security and physical conditions in public
spaces.
"The quality of life in Manhattan has
improved tremendously because of Dan's work.
He is the initiator of the idea of the BID
and is responsible for remaking the entire
midtown," said Malkin, a founding chairman
of the Grand Central Partnership and 34th
Street Partnership.
In 1991, the Biedermans moved to Chappaqua,
where he serves on the hamlet's Downtown
Steering Committee.
"I've made a few suggestions," he said.
"Downtown Chappaqua could use better
lighting."
The couple have two children: a son, Robert,
23, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, and a
daughter, Brooke, 17, a senior at Horace
Greeley.
Biederman, who recently received Manhattan
Institute's first Lifetime Achievement Award
for Social Entrepreneurship, has expanded
his vision beyond New York as a private
consultant. He has advised clients from
Pittsburgh to Dallas to Miami. His ideas
also took him to London in the late '90s,
when he testified before the House of
Commons on a BID around Paddington Station.
"Dan is a pioneer in the development of the
BID and what role the private sector can
play in maintaining an orderly and safe
atmosphere," said George Kelling, a
professor at the School of Criminal Justice
at Rutgers University. "Cities are places
where strangers meet for commerce, education
and entertainment. They work well when
behavior is predictable."
Kelling said the rehabilitation of Bryant
Park and the formation of other BIDs were a
precursor to New York's drop in crime in the
1990s.
"Dan is a real entrepreneur in the realm of
civic engagement," said Adrian Benepe, the
New York City parks commissioner. "Bryant
Park went from being a symbol of urban
decline to an international model of how a
small park can become an economic magnet for
businesses. He's brought in so many
innovations, including reading rooms in the
park, beautiful horticulture and outdoor
movies."
Of course, not all of the innovations have
gone according to plan, said Benepe, who has
known Biederman for nearly two decades.
A few years ago, Biederman brought in a
falconer with trained birds of prey to scare
away pigeons, which had been flocking to the
park in large numbers.
The plan misfired when a hawk attacked a pet
Chihuahua, which it apparently took for a
rat.
"He hadn't run that idea by us," Benepe
said, laughing.
