San Jose Downtown Property Owners' Association

The Association's operation commenced on january 21, 2008. The purpose of the Association is to improve Downtown San Jose with enhanced services including:(a) clean teams that will sweep, scrub, power wash sidewalks, remove litter and graffiti, and increase the frequency of trash removal and maintenance of public spaces within downtown.the overall cleaning program has been consistent since the implementation of services. The enhanced cleaning program operates seven days a week, combining the use of mechanized equipment and cleaning by hand. Sidewalk sweeping and portering services take place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Pressure washing is divided into two shifts (4am-12:30pm, 12pm-8:30pm), which covers seven days per week. The district provided 8,229 hours of pressure washing in fy 2022-23, which equals an average 15 8 hours of pressure washing per week. The overall cleaning program includes enhanced pbid services and "baseline" services. The city had been providing services in the district prior to the commencement of the pbid. Baseline services account for 26 percent of the total cleaning budget, which is equivalent to providing basic portering services monday through friday along the transit mall and repertory plaza and three days of portering in sofa and San pedro square. Additional portering hours throughout the district, including evening and weekends, are part of the enhanced services provided by the pbid.groundwerx provided service to 104 public litter cans (plc) along the vta transit mall by closely monitoring the overflow. At a minimum, the plcs are emptied once a day, but many are frequently emptied more often. Pan and broom cleaners also wipe down each plc and paint them as needed throughout the year. A full time painter was added to the team in january 2023 as part of the expansion in services dictated by renewal.graffiti clean up continues to be one of groundwerx 's primary services. Groundwerx removes most tags within 48 hours. Offensive tags are prioritized and are often abated within 24 hours. In addition to graffiti tags, groundwerx removes stickers and handbills that are attached to public spaces and street fixtures. A small portion of district graffiti is forwarded to the city contractor or private Property owners.see below for the total output for various components of the cleaning program over fiscal year 2022-2023:pan/broom 16,987 hrspan/broom: debris removal 361,200 lbshot spot cleaning/calls for service 5,493pressure washing 8,229 hrstrash collected (trash cans emptied) 191,050all-terrain litter vacuum: debris removal 88,575 hrsgraffiti cleaned by groundwerx 27,851

(c) image enhancement and cosmetic improvements to visually improve Downtown. Tree maintenance to maintain the street trees and palms within the Downtown San Jose property-based business improvement district ("pbid") boundary.streetscape beautification and image enhancements, also referred to as street life projects, comprise the third component of the core pbid services. The pbid continues to provide general maintenance of the pbid's previous installations. The streetlife scope includes greening initiatives such as landscaping services, planting and maintaining seasonal hanging baskets, and urban canopy maintenance and plantings. It also includes partnership projects such as the sofa pocket park and streetscape enhancements in the form of decorative lighting, murals, artcrosswalks, and volunteer activations.mural program- this year, Downtown San Jose saw the installation of many murals both smalland large-scale. There was one large-scale mural, entitled "malama 'aina" in the native hawaaian, which translates as "to care for the land" by taylor reinhold on local restaurant, pono Hawaiian grill, located at 86 n market street. The mural honors the asian american pacific islander community in San jose.other, smaller-scale public art projects include 3 smaller volunteer murals, which engaged a local artist at each site to generate the overall design and then invited community members to help paint portions of the murals with the guidance of the artist.san pedro squared - moment at San pedro squared celebrated its five-year anniversary in may 2023. The project involves four micro-retail units and San Jose's longest parklet (100 feet). The entire project converted five on-street parking and 12 garage spaces into active places for people.moment by the numbers- number of businesses participating: 5 in fy 22-23 (21 total since opening)- average gross sales per month: $31,448.73- jobs created: 12 (not including owner-operators)

(b) information and safety ambassadors to provide information on Downtown activities and establishments, prevent crime and work productively with social service providers.groundwerx ambassadors reinforce the image of a friendly Downtown by offering visible assistance to Downtown employees, visitors and residents. Ambassadors perform a variety of tasks, such as providing information to visitors, escorting pedestrians and employees to their vehicles ( or other destinations in the district) and reporting graffiti and other messes to the appropriate party. Ambassadors also report instances of vandalism and Property damage to Property owners and work with local social service agencies to provide referrals. Ambassadors have been called upon more frequently to interact with Downtown's unsheltered population, including coordinated outreach with the social impact team.the ambassador program incorporates mobile and foot patrols seven days a week. Ambassadors begin their routes at 6 a.m. and provide services until 8 p.m. during the week, with extended hours to 10 p.m. on weekends. Ambassadors are frequently the first point of contact with many individuals in Downtown's homeless population. Ambassadors are trained on the nuances of Downtown San Jose and carry helpful information such as walking maps, bus and light rail schedules, special event flyers and other collateral. They are equipped with handheld devices with internet access, which allows them to access information at any time. Reporting incidents and Property conditions are also made easier and more effective by this technology. Ambassadors also play an important role in identifying potentially troublesome situations and contacting the appropriate authorities. Ambassadors make business contacts on a regular basis as part of the enhanced services of the pbid. These informal "check-ins" allow ambassadors to convey information to business and Property owners such as resource referrals and Property condition reports. This type of interaction also enhances the visibility of ambassadors and helps promote a friendly Downtown. The "sitting/lying" statistic reflects ambassador efforts in making Downtown more friendly for the general public. The presence of ambassadors can discourage vagrancy and loitering. Ambassadors work with the social impact team to assist the Downtown homeless population who are interested in obtaining services.see below for a statistical summary of the ambassador program for fiscal year 2022-2023:ambassador hours 11,992 hrsdirections given 3,363business contacts 3,154sitting/lying (loitering) 2,362personal safety escorts 36bike patrol hours 128 hrs

The pbid's business development services are focused on helping recruit and retain district businesses. During the year, 620 small businesses, brokers, developers and similar stakeholders were assisted with the city permitting process, available office or retail spaces, pricing, incentives, referrals, and other issues related to the Downtown business environment.the theme of our work this year has been "outreach." We continued to provide location assistance, permit assistance but also added a renewed focus on helping members apply for the city of San Jose's storefront grant program and educating members about Downtown events and encouraging the use of the groundwerx everywhere app to report messes. Working closely with the office of economic development, sjda was part of a federal eda grant that helped us pay for an additional business resiliency coordinator working full time on outreach, support business resiliency and mentoring the neighboring Association in the alum rock frame area.the pbid enhanced security program completed its seventh year of service in fy 22-23. These off-duty sjpd officers continued their focus in addressing quality-of-life issues in the Downtown area. The program is scheduled to provide 50 hours of weekly coverage, and has been fully staffed since april 2018. Typical program hours are monday and thursday from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. and tuesday, wednesday and friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.