Special Edition
STREET CONDITIONS UPDATE
*Please scroll through to the end to see all important information.

    Advocac y Update September 2018
                                                             Mayor Breed walks Mission Street near 6th
Meeting with Mayor Breed

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 Civic Center, 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.
  • 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 about what the City was doing to improve care options for the high number of mentally ill individuals living on the street, the Mayor 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 which include staff from multiple City agencies, and she described the City's new centralized database One System where vulnerable and at risk individuals are registered and more easily managed so as not to be lost in the shuffle between multiple City agencies and the 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 CMCBD will meet with Mayor Breed and the Police Chief again in the coming weeks to discuss the progress made and how to sustain improvements to street safety and cleanliness.
SF Travel 
Clean & Safe Coalition

CMCBD is a participating member of the SF Travel Clean and Safe Coalition . The Coalition, led by SF Travel's Cassandra Costello, meets 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 Coalition recently met with Judge Terry Jackson to discuss San Francisco's perceived inability to successfully prosecute illegal behavior.
CleanSafe365

CMCBD is a 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.

   CMCBD Service Reminders
                                CMCBD Clean Team
Clean Team & Ambassadors

CMCBD's Clean Team and Ambassadors address cleaning issues and threats to public safety 7am-7pm, 7 days a 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. *SFPD has been instrumental in protecting staff as they attempt to do their job in the midst of dense, and often dangerous, anti-social behavior.
                               CMCBD Safety Team
Safety Teams

C MCBD deploys two person Safety Teams, comprised of a CBD Ambassador and a SFPD 10B Police Officer, to proactively support public safety when additional funding is available. The co-responder model helps ensure the appropriate response to clean and safe issues on District sidewalks. CMCBD's current Safety Team is funded by CMCBD and a grant from the City's Invest in Neighborhoods Program.

                      CMCBD pressure washing
Pressure washing &
Public Works Coordination

CMCBD interfaces with Public Works on a daily basis to ensure they are upholding their responsibility to clean District streets and gutters.

*Remember Public Works is not required to clean or repair sidewalks. Sidewalks are property owner responsibility.
 

CMCBD pressure washes District sidewalks.
         SFPD assists CMCBD Clean Team
Police Department Coordination
 
CMCBD interfaces with SFPD on a daily basis. CMCBD hires SFPD 10B Officers to support the District and for individual properties as requested by owners at their own expense. SFPD has also stepped up Officer foot patrols in the District. In  addition to enforcing public safety laws, officers are saving numerous people from drug overdoses on our sidewalks, and are a tremendous ally in helping the CMCBD remove bulky discarded items that clutter and impeded public spaces.
 
Also announced this week...SFPD's plans for a safer UN Plaza. 
              CMCBD cameras record assault
Security Cameras

CMCBD continues to expand its security camera network. The camera network helps law enforcement effectively prosecute criminal activity that occurs in the District. It also assists our Clean Team and Ambassadors to proactively see issues on the sidewalk before a call for service even comes in. 

   Mayor walks the District with Fix-It Team 
Fix-It Team Coordination

CMCBD staff work directly with the Mayor's Fix-It Team. The Mayor has walked the District now on several occasions since her inauguration with no warning to her own City departments, including the Fix It Team, so she can see first-hand what the rest of us see playing out on our sidewalks day-in and day-out.
                                      Empty tree basin
Tree Basins

CMCBD helps maintain tree basins keeping them free of weeds and trash. A coordinated effort is also made to ensure tree basins are level with the sidewalk, creating a safe, flat surface for pedestrians especially the vision and mobility impaired.
Needle Numbers Decreasing

CMCBD is seeing more City agency and private sector support to help help keep discarded syringes off District sidewalks. CMCBD collected 1,500 July compared to 3,000 the month prior.

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 CMCBD will roll out its first nine cans this fall thanks to funding support from the Mayor's Fix-It Team and a Community Challenge Grant.

CMCBD is now fundraising to add more cans in 2019.

CALL DISPATCH FOR SERVICE
7 a.m. - 7 p.m. | 7 days per week
415-543-5223
During non-CBD hours call : 
311 or Police Non-Emergency 415-553-0123


To sponsor more CMCBD clean and safe services CLICK HERE