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Special Edition
Street Conditions Update
September 201
8
*Please scroll through to the end to see all important information.
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Mayor Breed walks Civic Center with City department heads
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A meeting with the Mayor
Dear CBD Stakeholder,
Our CBD met with Mayor London Breed and Police Chief Bill Scott last week to discuss cleanliness and safety issues gravely affecting our District and much of downtown San Francisco.
As you may know, the Mayor -- within her first two months in office -- has already conducted a number of spontaneous walking inspections of our District and its transit stations. She did not alert Public Works crews or SFPD of her inspections to ensure they would not make quick improvements before her arrival. She wanted to see first-hand what most people see playing out on our sidewalks and in our transit stations day-in and day-out.
Other CBDs, including Mid Market, Tenderloin, Union Square and Yerba Buena attended the meeting as well; as did representatives from SF Travel, the Hotel Council, the Association of Realtors and BOMA. This constituency has been meeting for several months with key City leaders in a concerted effort to understand many issues, including: 1) how City funds are being spent to improve clean and safe issues, 2) how City agencies are, or are not, working together toward improvements and 3) how the Mayor will hold City agencies accountable for making positive changes.
- Mayor Breed stated that going forward City agencies, as well as grantees receiving funds for clean, safe and social service work, would continue to be held responsible for reporting their performance outcomes; but also, that the City would become much more clear in stating its expectations for desired outcomes to Department heads and grantees.
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Mayor Breed and Chief Scott both felt the addition of more Pit Stop sidewalk restroom facilities and safe injection sites would improve sidewalk conditions by moving open urination/defecation and drug use indoors and out of the public right-of-way. Chief Scott felt the new resources would certainly be helpful, but that the City still faces an uphill battle with the volume of need.
- When asked what the City was doing to improve care options for the high number of mentally ill individuals living on the street, City staff responded that more treatment beds were being identified both in San Francisco and beyond to help meet the demand.
- In response to concerns that City departments often operate in silos, not communicating, coordinating or supporting each other, the Mayor noted her weekly meetings that include staff from multiple City agencies and she described the City's new centralized database One System where vulnerable and at-risk individuals will be registered and more easily managed so they are not lost in the shuffle between multiple City agencies and various non-profit social services agencies providing support. The Mayor also touted the success of the Healthy Streets Initiative which serves as an access point for the One System and streamlined supportive services.
- The Mayor and Chief Scott praised the work of CBD Ambassadors and co-responder Safety Teams and offered to investigate the availability of City funding that would enable CBDs to hire more Ambassadors and deploy more Safety Teams.
Below are the City's recent commitments to the clean and safe initiative as part of the recently approved
$11 billion two-year budget targeting homelessness, housing, street
cleanliness and public safety:
- $13 million for more comprehensive street cleaning
- $725,000 to expand the City's Fix-It Team
- $6 million for a dedicated Street Medicine Team
- 250 new police officers with a focus on increased foot patrols
- $1.7 million to implement Department of Justice policing reforms
- $1.5 million for Fire Department Medical Response Team
- $4.4 million to fund a Navigation Center for Transitional Age Youth
- $2 million for two new Access Points where people in need can connect with services
The CCCBD will meet with Mayor Breed and the Police Chief again in the coming weeks to discuss progress and how to sustain improvements to street safety and cleanliness.
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SF Travel
Clean & Safe Coalition
CCCBD is a member of the SF Travel Clean & Safe Coalition.
The Coalition, led by SF Travel's Cassandra Costello, has been meeting regularly with high-level City staff including: the Mayor, the Mayor's Office of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, Public Works, SFPD, the Department of Public Health and others; to discuss clean and safe issues. The committee met recently with Judge Terry Jackson to discuss San Francisco's perceived inability to successfully prosecute illegal behavior.
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CleanSafe365
CCCBD is a participating member of
CleanSafe365. Diverse members, led by the Hotel Council's Kevin Carroll, are businesses, merchant groups, civic organizations, community benefit districts and property owners committed to finding and supporting sustainable solutions
for keeping San Francisco clean and safe 365 days a year.
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CCCBD Clean Team
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Clean Team
CCCBD's Clean Team continues to addresses cleaning issues 7am-7pm, 7 days per week. The crews continue to make a tremendous difference despite the overwhelming cleaning and safety issues. They are typically the first on the scene to evaluate what solutions are needed. If they are unable to resolve an issue they bring in DPW and/or SFPD to achieve a prompt resolution. Thanks to these hard-working individuals we have someone to call -- and someone who will respond.
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CCCBD Ambassadors
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Day & Evening Ambassadors
CCCBD's Ambassadors work 7 days a week alongside City agency partners such as the Police Department and the Department of Public Health to improve the quality of life in the community's public open spaces for residents, employees and visitors. Ambassadors also work on select evenings from 6:00 pm-11:00 pm near arts venues, to enhance the pedestrian experience before and after evening performances and events.
CCCBD also staffs a Garage Greeter at the entrance to the Civic Center Garage to help guide garage patrons.
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CCCBD Playground Security |
Civic Center Plaza
Playground
Security
CCCBD provides additional security to ensure the Hellen Diller Family Foundation playgrounds and equipment stay safe for users and free of damage and vandalism.
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CCCBD pressure washing
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Pressure Washing &
Public Works Coordination
CCCBD interfaces with Public Works on a daily basis to ensure they are upholding their responsibility to clean District streets and gutters.
CCCBD pressure washes in Zone 3 of the District.
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SFPD Officers at September's
1st Sunday Block Party
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SFPD Coordination
CCCBD interfaces with the San Francisco Police Department on a daily basis. SFPD has been instrumental in protecting CCCBD's field staff as they attempt to do their job in the midst of dense and often dangerous anti-social behavior. SFPD has increased foot beats in the District and there is now a fixed post Officer in Civic Center Plaza. In
addition to enforcing public safety laws, officers are saving numerous people from drug overdoses on District sidewalks and making sure CCCBD-sponsored events in the District are well-staffed.
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Mayor Breed and
Fix-It Team head Sandra Zuniga
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Fix-It Team Coordination
CCCBD works directly with the Mayor's Fix-It Team -- a strategic task force that interfaces with public and private sector partners to solve difficult cleaning and public safety issues as quickly and efficiently as possible.
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CCCBD landscape maintenance |
Tidy Tree Basins
Keeping tree basins free of weeds and level to the sidewalk prevents them from turning into tripping hazards and trash cans. CCCBD makes them cleaner, and safer for pedestrians -- especially those who are vision and mobility impaired.
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Syringe disposal at the Main Library
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Needle Numbers Decreasing
CCCBD is seeing more effort on behalf of City agencies and the private sector to help keep discarded syringes off District sidewalks. Two crews in addition to CCCBD's Clean Team include the Hunters Point Family Stewards and the Downtown Streets Team. Large disposal containers placed throughout the District are also helping. In July CCCBD collected 750 needles -- down from 1,000 in June.
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Bigbelly Trash Cans are Coming
World renowned, tamper-proof Bigbelly trash receptacles are coming to the District in select locations. BigBelly cans are leased for a minimum of three years; the cost for one can for three years is $8,000. The CCCBD will roll out its first five cans this fall thanks to funding from the Mayor's Fix-It Team. CCCBD will soon embark on a fundraising campaign to add even more cans in 2019.
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P
roposed BART directional signage
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Civic Center Station
Pedestrian Wayfinding
In response to CCCBD's demand that BART make Civic Center Station safer and easier to navigate for riders traveling to and from the District, new wayfinding and directional signage will be installed this Fall. The pilot program, being vetted by District stakeholders -- largely from the performing arts venues -- is intended to help mitigate the impacts of recent station entrance closures, future entrance closures and the loss of vital escalators. Some street-level directional signage will also be installed. CCCBD will share details on the entire program once design is complete.
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To request CCCBD services contact the
DISPATCH OFFICE
7 a.m. - 7 p.m. | 7 days per week
415-781-4700
During non-CBD hours call
:
311 or Police Non-Emergency 415-553-0123
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KEEP CCCBD SERVICES GOING!
If you own property in the District your support is needed for Renewal.
Petitions to approve CCCBD's Renewal including more services
and more coverage area will be mailed late Fall 2018.
To attend Renewal planning meetings or to join the
Renewal Steering Committee
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To sponsor more CCCBD clean and safe services
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