At a March 24 San Jose Neighborhood and Business Development, Redevelopment Agency meeting, Ruiz discovered that Willow Glen's downtown business district is excluded from redevelopment money because it does not meet the city's criteria.

San Jose Director of Neighborhood and Business Districts Richard Keit said that the redevelopment agency "adopts" parts of the city deemed "economically or physically blighted" to revitalize.

These current areas include Japantown, Story Road, The Alameda, West San Carlos Street and East Santa Clara Street.

Once these areas reach a specific level of improvement, they learn to sustain themselves by becoming Business Improvement Districts (BID) or Property Based Improvement Districts (PBID).

In downtown Willow Glen, a BID district that covers Lincoln Avenue from Minnesota to Coe avenues, merchants pay an annual fee with their business license.

According to Ruiz, the cost is $120 for nonretail, $240 for retail and $500 for banks. This equates to about $55,000 per year. But Ruiz said, "That only targets three specific items: cleanliness, beautification and safety."

And she added that the holiday decorations and promotions take up half of the BID monies. So the business association is exploring other options such as the Property Based Improvement District concept.

"We are only in the fact-finding phase, " she said. "We want to do something, but we aren't sure what will work for us."

Keit said that PBIDs are a "newer phenomenon," but are a way to provide a larger and more stable source of revenue.

Ruiz said, "We need to find ways to raise the revenue to provide services the city won't."

When the city cleaned the streets for six months in 2003, Ruiz said, customers and merchants became accustomed to it and wanted to keep that level of service going. But there was not enough funding due to city budget cuts.

She is concerned that if downtown Lincoln Avenue isn't kept clean, customers and merchants won't be happy and it could affect business in the area.