March 2010
1. Officer
Craig Dobson recognized for outstanding service
2. Downtown Clean and Safe receives award for
graffiti removal
3. Clean & Safe Security
4. Clean & Safe Maintenance Program
5. West Side Community Court program updates
6. Sidewalk Ambassadors
7. Portland Perks
8. Business Census and Survey
9. Fashion's Night Out
10. Big Belly Solar Trash Compactors
1.
Officer Craig Dobson recognized for outstanding service
 Portland
Police Officer Craig Dobson was recognized for his outstanding
service to the Clean & Safe Program at the Portland Downtown
Services, Inc. Board of Directors Meeting on March 18. Craig
served at Central Precinct as a Clean & Safe police bicycle
officer for five years, the longest tenure for any police
officer in the program, and was recently promoted to Police
Sergeant at East Precinct. His past and present Commander,
Mike Reese, introduced Craig to the board and observed that
he was one of the hardest working officers in the Police Bureau.
During the time Craig was attached to Clean & Safe, he made
an amazing 2,214 custody arrests and excluded 917 individuals
from parks and parking structures in the Downtown Business
Improvement District. Congratulations Craig, we will miss
you and your dedicated service. Job well done!
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2.
Downtown Clean and Safe receives award for graffiti removal
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Michele Martin of Ashforth Pacific (right), the current
BID chair, accepts the graffiti award from Portland
City Commissioner Amanda Fritz (left)
at the Graffiti Summit.
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The Downtown
Business Improvement District’s (BID) Clean and Safe Program
has received the City of Portland's Graffiti Abatement All-Star
Award. Portland City Commissioner Amanda Fritz hosted the
annual Graffiti Abatement Summit on March 18 at the Kennedy
School. The award is presented to a person or an organization
that takes extra steps in combating graffiti. Graffiti removal
is an integral part of a thriving downtown and Downtown Clean
& Safe has become a national model. The businesses in the
BID spend over half a million dollars a year on cleaning and
maintenance. Last year, over 25,000 graffiti tags were removed
in the BID.
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3.
Clean & Safe Security
During
February, Clean & Safe police officers patrolling on bicycles
made 58 arrests for livability crimes and violations in the
Business Improvement District (BID). There has been an early
influx of road warrior youth arriving and committing crimes
in the downtown core, so Clean & Safe security and police
officers are coordinating their response with the Mounted
Patrol and Police Street Crimes Unit to address these individuals
regularly.
On February
9, at SW Third and Pine St., a Clean & Safe officer reported
that more than 20 street youth had placed a couch on the sidewalk
and were hereafter "claiming" SW Third Avenue as their home
turf. After receiving additional complaints from local residents
and visitors, Central Precinct conducted a detail with their
Street Crimes Unit and five subjects were arrested for various
drug crimes including distribution of controlled substances.
Since that time activity at this location has been dramatically
reduced.
The Clean
& Safe program, police, Office of Neighborhood Involvement,
the Neighborhood District Attorney and downtown businesses
joined in this effort by letting it be known that this behavior
will not be tolerated. This targeted effort is an example
of the coordination that is behind the scenes in the Clean
& Safe program that daily affects citizen safety and livability
in the BID.
Oregon
Guide Dogs for The Blind recently opened a satellite office
downtown at S.W. Third and Yamhill streets. Recently, a dog
trainer was walking in the downtown core with her Guide Dog
when a street youth's dog pulled off its leash and attacked
the Guide Dog. The trainer was able to pull the dog away and
avert any significant injury. The negative affect on the Guide
Dog and its handler was significant, and it would have been
much worse if the Guide Dog had a blind traveler handling
it.
Clean
& Safe police officers were able to track the dog owner down
and the police took appropriate action to ensure this would
not occur again. At least four police officers, a mail carrier
and two Guide Dogs have been attacked or threatened in the
past year by dogs owned by street youth. As a result, on February
18 Clean & Safe, Portland Police, District Attorney, Guide
Dogs, and Multnomah County Animal Control met to develop a
strategy for aggressive dogs.
With reports
of more aggression towards people and other animals coming
in, solutions are needed immediately. Changes in police radio
procedure for calls regarding service animals, missions conducted
with Multnomah County Animal Control officers, and establishing
a protocol for police being able to cite and seize aggressive
dogs are steps that are being taken to mitigate this problem.
Clean
& Safe security patrols made over 12,000 citizen contacts
in February. These include:
- 3,455
business assists and referrals
- 6,100
pedestrian contacts
- 58
arrests
- 101
exclusions
- 71
enforcement problem solving activities
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4.
Clean & Safe Maintenance Program
Clean
& Safe welcomed the Chinese New Year on February 12 and assisted
with this tradition by helping clean inside the Chinese Garden
and then doing a complete sweep down of the entire surrounding
block. Thanks to the cleaners, who were very energetic about
helping despite the inclement weather that day.
Cleaning
Statistics for February:
- 1,626
graffiti tags removed
- 1,549
bags of trash
- 592
citizen cleaning responses
- 664
needles and items of drug paraphernalia
- 1,308
restroom inspections and cleaning
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5.
West Side Community Court program
updates
Neighborhood
Based District Attorney Update: The Neighborhood District
Attorney assistant reviewed 192 cases in February, issued
187cases and declined five.
West
Side Community Court statistics:
- 115
defendants were ordered to community service
- 69
defendants were in compliance
- 120
defendants working toward completion
- 8 defendants
unsuccessful and facing additional court sanctions.
- 9 jail
days saved by the program
Westside
Community Court Work Crew statistics:
- 678
block faces covered
- 41
bags of trash removed
- 520
street cleaning hours
- 5 drains
cleared
- 65
People reporting for crew
Theft
Accountability Class: The Center for Court Innovation
(CCI), from New York, recently inquired about recidivism (repeat
offender) percentages in the BID's Theft Accountability Program.
Since inception the statistics show a 93 percent non-repeat
behavior for offenders. The program coordinator also notes
that people who attend and successfully complete the classes
learn to engage in critical thinking about their behavior,
which is a great contributor to low recidivism. CCI indicated
that our completion rates and low return offender rates are
among the highest in the country for such programs. The coordination
by the Multnomah County Court system, the District Attorney,
the Portland Business Alliance and downtown retailers who
teach the class are a good partnership in this reduction of
petty crime that affects all consumers.
In February,
the Theft Accountability Class reports:
- 70
persons were sentenced to attend
- 32
Open cases
- 31
persons were successful
- 8 failures
that await additional court sanctions
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6.
Sidewalk Ambassadors
The Ambassadors
report for February that the kiosk stationed in the downtown
core reported more than 1,722 contacts in 18 days. By stationing
the kiosk in the core area, many visitors have greater access
to information. The Ambassadors also set up near Pioneer Courthouse
Square during the Winter Olympics opening celebration. Many
visitors from out of the country were passing through and
contacted the Ambassadors for information and were met with
the always friendly "Green Team."
The Ambassadors
were also busy in February inspecting Way Finding signs for
accuracy in the BID, and delivering the Dining Guides to various
hotels and businesses. An additional duty was to check the
BID for all new dining establishments for inclusion in the
next edition of the Dining Guide.
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7.
Portland Perks
The 2010
Portland Perks coupon book has been released, funded in partnership
with the Downtown Retail Council and Travel Portland. About
60,000 copies of "Portland Perks" will be distributed this
year, with 15,000 to leisure travelers who book the Portland
Perks hotel package, and another 45,000 to Portland convention
delegates. This marketing vehicle offers coupons for shopping,
dining, cultural attractions, and performing arts organizations.
Most participating businesses are located in downtown Portland;
new businesses participating this year include Nel Centro,
Mercantile, The Original, and Central Drug. The Portland Perks
hotel package will be promoted in the Seattle market through
a targeted advertising campaign starting March 1. Guests who
book the Portland Perks Package between March 1-April 25,
for travel through May 9, will receive $50 cash upon check-in.
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8.
Business Census and Survey
The annual
Business Census and Survey of all businesses, governmental
entities & non-profit agencies located in the I-5/I-405 loop
has been printed and recently sent out to each of the 4,500
businesses operating in downtown Portland. Data collection
for the census is underway, and results should be finalized
by late spring.
The purpose
of this project is: to accurately count all the employees
and businesses in the downtown area; to obtain feedback that
will help us better understand and respond to the existing
downtown market, as well as identify future opportunities
and challenges facing the market; to establish benchmarks
of leading economic indicators for tracking the progress of
ongoing downtown development efforts; and to create a resource
of information for prospective downtown tenants or developers
interested in conducting site analysis.
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9.
Fashion's Night Out
Last Fall,
Vogue magazine spearheaded Fashion's Night Out, an event in
New York City and other major fashion capitals encouraging
customers to come out and celebrate the start of the fall
season with them, entertaining clients with fashion presentations,
personal appearance by designers and celebrities, live music,
food and drink. Local participation in this program was discussed
at the February DRC meeting to much positive response from
retailers. The event will take place on Friday, September
10. Retailers will plan events to host in their stores on
that evening, while staff will work on creating other unifying
components of the event that may include parking discounts,
street entertainment, a shopping passport or giveaway at a
central location, and a fashion presentation at a downtown
park.
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10.
Big Belly Solar Trash Compactors
The third
shipment of the BigBelly solar trash compactors will be installed
in downtown Portland in March. Portland General Electric,
Hotel Lucia and Hotel Deluxe, and Qwest Communications are
sponsoring these compactors. Each BigBelly is designed to
hold five times the amount of garbage that a normal garbage
can hold, and less trips made by garbage trucks to empty these
units saves on carbon emissions. There are now more than 30
Big Bellies installed in downtown Portland.
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