April 2024

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

President

Austin Metoyer

Downtown Long Beach Alliance


Vice President

Chloe Shipp

San Jose Downtown Association


2nd Vice President

Suzanne Holley

Downtown Center BID (LA)


Secretary

Andrew Robinson

The East Cut


Treasurer

John Caner

Downtown Berkeley Association


Immediate Past President

Rena Masten Leddy, LPM

Urban Place Consulting Group

 

Membership Chair

Kathy Hemmenway

Walnut Creek Downtown

 

Legislative Chair

Liz Lorand Williams

Downtown Sacramento Partnership


Marketing Chair

Mackenzie Carter, LPM

The Hollywood Partnership

 


At-Large Directors

Josh Coyne

Downtown San Diego Partnership


Savlan Hauser

Jack London District Oakland

 

Christian Martin

SOMA West CBD


Jameson Parker

Midtown Association Sacramento


Anthony Rodriguez

LA Fashion District


Marisa Rodriguez

Union Square Alliance


Andrew Thomas

Downtown Santa Monica, Inc. 

 

Brian Wallace

Playhouse Village Association

IN THE NEWS


LA Zoning Reforms Could Yield Up to 250,000 New Homes

Planetizen

A draft plan would speed up permitting for residential projects with an affordability component and make more buildings eligible for adaptive reuse.

READ MORE


Planting a tree just got $100 cheaper for property owners in a California water district

Smart Cities Dive

While the program encourages planting trees in the place of turf lawns, “not all trees are created equal,” the water district’s resource specialist said.

READ MORE


California Developers Opt for Privately Funded Affordable Housing

Planetizen

Housing advocates worry that, without government guardrails, buildings may not remain affordable or well-maintained in the long term.

READ MORE


Eviction Prevention Program Sees Success in San Jose

Planetizen

Fighting a continued rise in homelessness in the region, a county program is successfully helping families avoid eviction.

READ MORE


Why Transit Reliability is Difficult in Midsized Cities

Streetsblog USA

A lot of mid-sized cities struggle to keep the buses and trains running on time — or even know when they're way off schedule. Advocates in Baltimore are exploring why, and how to fix it.

READ MORE


Biden administration steps in on Caltrans’ highway expansion in Fresno

Fresnoland

In America’s most polluted air basin, EPA set to take a fresh look at air quality impacts of warehouse-focused highway expansion.

READ MORE


California turns to artificial intelligence to make roadways safer

CBS Sacramento

A push is underway in California to use artificial intelligence (AI) to keep people safer on state roads.

READ MORE


Climate news to watch in 2024

Yale Climate Connections

The world made major progress on climate change in 2023. Here’s what could come next.

READ MORE

Do you have your ear to the ground when it comes to the latest downtown news in your region? To submit news to be considered for inclusion in the newsletter, please contact us.

Letter from President of the Board, Austin Metoyer

In this pivotal moment for downtown revitalization, I’m thrilled that our State Representatives have embraced the need to focus on downtown recovery. At the start of the legislative calendar, Assemblymember Matt Haney established the Downtown Recovery Select Committee with the backing of California State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas. This committee presents a critical opportunity to address the challenges facing our urban cores post-pandemic.


The aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has left our downtowns grappling with various challenges, such as vacant storefronts, remote and hybrid work, and public safety issues. Assemblymember Haney's proposed legislative solutions offer a beacon of hope for a vibrant recovery, including tax incentives to incentivize in-person work and streamlined permitting for repurposing vacant office spaces into housing.


Because of the leadership of the CDA Board and Legislative Committee, I’m thrilled to announce that CDA will host our inaugural lobby day on Capitol Hill in Sacramento on Monday, April 8. This landmark event will empower CDA members to directly engage with our state representatives and Select Committee on Downtown Recovery members. As we know, place management professionals can provide firsthand testimony and insights into our downtown communities' issues and opportunities.


The following are the CDA Committee opportunities:


Program / West Coast Urban District Forum (WCUDF) Committee

This committee members will define, create, and implement valuable programming for the entire membership. In addition, along with IDA/CDA and the host city, Committee members will define the theme for the WCUDF conference and create content for the conference. This committee meets regularly between July and March.


Membership Committee

This committee ensures that member benefits are fulfilled, and manages membership dues and administration. In addition, committee members assist with new member outreach, membership campaigns, and membership programming.


Legislative Committee

This committee works, with guidance from CDA’s government affairs professional, to determine the policy agenda for CDA. The committee reviews each year’s proposed bills and identifies the ones that the CDA Board considers. Every member of this committee must commit to contributing double their organization’s membership dues. For example, if your organization's CDA dues is $500, and you sit on the legislative committee, you agree to contribute an additional $500. The committee meets a minimum of 2x per month from January through September.  


DEI Taskforce:

This taskforce was developed to help guide CDA's response to racial reconciliation during 2020 and 2021. The task force has developed programming to push the conversation forward on the intersection of place management organizations and diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. 


Committee Member Requirements:

  • Must be a CDA Member in good standing.
  • We encourage all levels of staff as committee members, but only one staff person per organization can sit on each committee.
  • Each committee meets approximately once a month; however, both WCUDF and Legislative have schedules based on their own timelines.
  • In an effort to maintain committee balance, each committee seeks its best effort to include representation from the various regions within the state.


If you are interested, please send an email by March 11, 2023, to Austinm@dlba.org. In the email, please include your interest in which committee and why you are interested.  

Government Affairs Report by Jason Bryant

CDA Prioritizes Key Bill the Legislature

Kicks into High Gear  


With the California Downtown Association’s policy priorities coming into focus on the heels of the West Coast Urban District Forum in San Diego last month – one of the organization’s top priorities is now seeing action in the Legislature.  


CDA’s 2023 advocacy program was successful thanks to passage of AB 1217 (Gabriel, 2023) which helped restaurants and bars continue to recover by allowing service to outdoor dining opportunities on a statewide level.  This bill was based off valuable local programs such as the City of San Francisco’s “Shared Spaces” program, San Jose’s “Al Fresco” plan, Sacramento’s “Farm to Fork Al Fresco”, Long Beach’s “Open Streets Initiative”, San Diego’s “Slow Streets Program”, and Los Angeles’s “L.A. Al Fresco Program” to expand outdoor dining opportunities statewide. 


These local programs have been a tremendous success — and have proven to be incredibly valuable for so many community restaurants throughout the state. 


This year CDA is pleased to be supporting SB 969 (Wiener, D-San Francisco) which would allow jurisdictions to create designated outdoor “entertainment zones” that would enable brick-and-mortar bars and restaurants to sell takeout alcoholic beverages to patrons for consumption during street fairs, outdoor festivals, and other cultural events. 


Even as downtowns emerge the pandemic, bars and restaurants continue to struggle from reduced patronage and slow business. To drive traffic to these onsite brick and mortar businesses, some fairs and festivals are now foregoing traditional vendor-driven alcohol sales. The creation of “entertainment zones” would be an effort to extend the areas where brick and mortar shops can sell alcoholic beverages and in turn bolster their businesses and support an increase in patronage for those restaurants and bars.


“Entertainment zones” will enhance the experience and business opportunities of customers and sellers at existing events while creating the opportunity for novel and exciting activations that will draw out clientele and foster community. Cities will be able to choose to tailor “entertainment zones” to the individual needs of each locale and event.


The CDA looks forward to seeing SB 969 (Wiener, D-San Francisco) advance this session. Senator Wiener requested that individual BIDs support this bill to demonstrate statewide enthusiasm for this concept.  


CALL TO ACTION: If you are interested in supporting the bill, please contact CDA’s legislative chair Liz Lorand Williams at: llorandwilliams@downtownsac.org



Join Us for CDA Lobby Day in Sacramento!

As a member of the California Downtown Association, you are cordially invited to join us for our first-ever Lobby Day at the California State Capitol on Monday, April 8, 2024.


This is a great opportunity for you to connect with your place management colleagues from across the state and to collectively make our voices heard on the issues that matter most to our organizations, stakeholders, and public spaces.


For those interested in participating, please RSVP to Tabitha Angel, at tabitha@rivermanage.com. The last day to register is Monday, April 1, 2024.

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CDA District Digest Copyright 2024

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