It's been another busy week at the Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA), as we worked passionately to increase the vitality of Downtown Bend.
Our staff wrapped up our summer high-pressure/deep-cleaning sidewalk program, getting some final scrubbing in on our downtown sidewalks. The DBBA works diligently not only to sweep every sidewalk, every morning, 365 days per year - but we also spend the summer months (as temps allow) deep cleaning every inch of our Downtown.
We also met with the City of Bend this week to create a snow management plan for this winter to make sure to keep Downtown Bend, and the new parklets that have been created, snow and ice free. Downtown snow management is a partnership between the City of Bend, The DBBA, and business owners in Downtown Bend. The DBBA owns 2 snow blowers, an ATV with a snow plow attachment and a plethora of large shovels. We keep all of the sidewalks, the ADA parking stalls and the crosswalk areas free of snow. We loan snow shovels to business owners, and we help with ice melt in areas that tend to ice over in downtown. The City of Bend is responsible for keep roadways, parking lots and alleys free of snow and ice in. Downtown business owners are responsible for the areas in front of their business, their parklet, and outdoor seating areas. Our team has been working creatively to design holiday events that will adhere to state guidelines and CDC recommendations. We've reimagined Shop Small Saturday to take place over three weeks instead of one day in order to spread out guests and keep folks safe! Plus, you'll be able to choose if you want to participate in-person or online! If you've never participated in our Downtown Bend Shop Small Saturday event - you don't want to miss it this year!! This event is a ton of fun and you can win AMAZING gift baskets filled with incredible local products from our Downtown merchants. Are you interested in learning more about the DBBA or volunteering to help us keep Downtown Bend thriving? Contact us!
The Downtown Bend Business Association is a small nonprofit dedicated to increasing the vitality of Downtown Bend.
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This week at the Downtown Bend Business Association (DBBA): This week the DBBA was busy working to keep Downtown Bend vibrant and thriving! We launched our COVID safe Halloween happening's - scavenger hunts, spooky dares, a costume contest and more! Click here for information. DBBA staff met with community partners, including Connect Central Oregon and the Tower Theatre to brainstorm ways to make the holidays special while observing COVID19 guidelines and restrictions. More to come on these plans soon! We also met with stakeholders & community leaders to assure that Downtown Bend continues to stay top-of-mind, vibrant and the core of our community. Amongst others, we'd like to give a big shoutout to the Doubletree Hotel in Downtown Bend, Tangerine Hair Salon, and Rita Schenkelberg for meeting with us and finding ways to further our mission. If you happened to be in Downtown Bend in the middle of the night last week, you would have seen us up in the lift installing more twinkle lights in the large trees throughout Downtown Bend. We want to give a huge shout-out to Elite Construction for working with us to provide the lift that allowed us to do this work. As a small non-profit we are always working to stretch each dollar as far as week can, and this year with COVID19 severely cutting our budget, we've had to get really creative to find ways to meet our goals. Thank you, Elite Construction, for helping make the holidays beautiful this year in Downtown Bend! We also met with Sarah from Bend Marketplace to design a partnership so that we can increase online exposure for our Downtown businesses. Stay tuned to see how we'll be helping Downtown businesses feature their products, their classes & more! For the past several weeks, we've seen a real uptick in graffiti, flyers, and stickers in Downtown Bend and we've had to increase our staff hours to keep Downtown clean and free of debris. We are also working on an overhaul of our downtown.org website that will make it easier to connect with each business in Downtown - including connecting with businesses personally, staying in touch over social media, shopping online or ordering curbside pick-up or delivery. We anticipate these changes being complete by the end of the month! These are just a few of the ways that we've been working hard this week to increase the vitality of Downtown Bend! If you're interested in learning more about all the ways we're working for you, please contact us. |
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