DBBA Weekly Update | 12/3/2020

Last week DBBA staff and board observed the Thanksgiving Holiday, so there was no weekly update.  We did, however, continue to serve our stakeholders throughout the Holiday, as we continued to make sure that Downtown Bend stayed clean, top-of-mind to guests, and moving forward to increase vitality in the district.  

As you know, DBBA provides daily cleaning, graffiti removal and security checks throughout the EID, every day, 365 days per year.  It's more than just cleaning, though, -- it's communication and collaboration. 

For example, see the three images below.  In the first image shows abandoned personal items - which we've seen an increase in recently as livability issues have risen in our community in response to the pandemic.  As we see an increase in these types of things - we reach out to our partners at Bend Police Department to make sure that any items of value are returned to their owners, to let police know the areas of Downtown where we are see sleeping/living behaviors, and of course, we clean up an trash, human waste, and debris in the area. 

In the second image shows an overflowing trash can.  In this situation, in addition to cleaning up the area, we contact Bend Garbage not only to request an additional pick up if there are multiple cans overflowing, but to engage them in a conversation about the 'broken window theory' and how important it is to monitor changes in the community and respond to them quickly and efficiently to keep downtown thriving.  Even though we don't hold the trash-pick-up contract with Bend Garbage (that is held by the City of Bend and Bend Garbage picks up all of the Downtown cans for free), we are the entity that manages the vendor relationship.  (Vendor management is just another one of the services our association provides).  

The final picture is of a street light that was broken during the overnight hours.  In addition to cleaning up this mess, we contact Security Pros to see if their patrols or the garage cameras saw anyone throwing something off the garage, and we contact the City of Bend and put in a service request to have the light replaced. 

We realize that it's not just the immediate remedy that matters - it's working together with community partners to eliminate unwanted behaviors and situations before they begin.  

This week, we continued to install lights and decorations around Downtown Bend.  With the lift we installed more twinkle lights in the tree canopies along the streets of Downtown Bend, and we finished up installing lit snowflakes, wreaths, skies and ribbons throughout the district.  

Our Shop Small Saturday Passport Event wrapped up on Nov 28th, and we issued all of the prize baskets on the following Monday.  It was so much fun to see local Bendites, cute families and lucky winners pick up their prize baskets. 

​Throughout all of 2020, we have been so delighted and proud of the continued hope, gratitude and resilience of our Downtown merchants.  Even during this incredibly difficult year, our merchants still provided donations so that we could host this great event and award prizes to our local community members who made the choice to shop locally this year.  

Downtown Bend real estate pamphlet boxes have been an ongoing conversation in Downtown Bend.  About 2 years ago, we met with the City of Bend with a request to create an ordinance allowing us to manage these boxes within the Downtown Bend Economic Improvement District (EID).  At that time we were told that the COB wasn't interested in assisting us to take these steps, and the City requested that we improve our management of the boxes for the duration of one year and then come back to them with our request.  So, given those instructions, we documented the location and owner of each box and for the past 1.5 years, we've been in communication with each box owner about maintain their unit.  Our plan is to go back to the City during the next EID term to once again request assistance in creating a system that will allow us to monitor the look, feel, quantity and care of any pamphlet and advertising boxes within our district.   The images below show just one of the issues that arises from having these units in Downtown Bend.  In these photos, as you can see, the units have been emptied and the pamphlets littered throughout Downtown Bend.  

DBBA staff continued to focus on marketing to promote our Downtown during on of the most challenging years that we have seen.  Working on daily posts & stories, reaching out to merchants to learn of their sales, coupons and special offers, promoting those items, creating new features on our downtownbend.org website, working with Bend Radio Group on trade options, working with The Source to provide a holiday shopping guide, working with Bend Marketplace and Visit Bend to promote Downtown - and so much more.  We continue to stay committed to doing everything within our power to keep our businesses open and profitable. 

Finally, we continued to advocate at a local, state and federal level in regards to OLCC laws, proposed taxes, stimulus packages and more.  We are here to take the power of our collective voices and put it to work to help our business community succeed.

If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, please reach out to us.