Marc Levy Cambridge has funding to study a Porter Square business improvement district and to give tax incentives to fill empty storefronts.

A study of creating a business improvement district in Porter Square was approved Monday by Cambridge’s City Council after approval of a grant from the Massachusetts Downtown Initiative for up to $30,000 in consultant services.

Despite the name, the study will look not just at Porter, but along all of North Massachusetts Avenue: from Cambridge Common, just north of Harvard Square, to the Alewife Brook Parkway in North Cambridge. Under state guidelines, Bids must be around 70 percent commercial use, which helps determine the area covered, said Pardis Saffari, director of economic opportunity and development for the city. A majority of property own

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