DBBA Weekly Update | 1/7/2021

Wow!  What a crazy holiday season!  We took a few weeks off from our regular newsletter and DBBA updates to focus our time on promoting our small business during the holiday season, and then allowing our staff to take a much needed rest after a crazy year. 

During December, we were very aware that Q4 for our business community was vastly important, and that we needed to do everything we could to promote our businesses in having a profitable holiday season.  We took pride in creating shopping guides and featuring products, marketing take-out, and optimizing our advertising channels.  We made sure that downtown was looking it's festive best every single day, and as COVID regulations changed, we made sure to keep our businesses updated so that they could navigate the changing waters.  
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To the right is a photo of Ryan, our one-and-only incredible Maintenance and Operations lead.  This photo was taken on Christmas morning.  Yes!  We really do clean all of the Downtown Bend EID every single morning, 365 day per year! 

This week, we were not immune to the political unrest felt throughout the nation.  However, we were proud that when the reports of political stickers and flyers around town went public, our Downtown EID was not included.  Do you know why?  Because we are removing ALL flyers, stickers and graffiti before anyone is downtown (yup, every single morning!).   We understand that an inviting district is a clean and safe district, and we make sure that Downtown Bend puts it's best foot foward every single day.

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January officially kicked off the beginning of our efforts to pass a new EID this spring.  For more information about the EID click here, for information specifically on the 2021 EID Renewal click here.  The EID rate and scope of services is designed by building owners in Downtown Bend and the DBBA Board of Directors.  This week we sent out a letter to all building owners inviting them to meet with us and share their goals and feedback from the coming 3-5 year term.  You can see a copy of this letter below.  If you are a stakeholder or community member that would like to share your thoughts and feelings about downtown, please feel free to contact us.  Downtown is for everyone, and it takes everyone in our community working together to build the heart of our City.  

letter_to_building_owners_re_2021_eid.pdf
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We also continued working on improving parking in the downtown district this week.  If you were downtown this week, you might have seen work being done on the Centennial Parking Garage.  This work will allow for the parking garage to access to be controlled, making the garage safer, cleaner and more efficient.  We want to give the City of Bend Parking department a huge shout-out for the amazing developments seen over this past year.  It is amazing what we can accomplish when we all work together!  
In addition to work being done on-the-street to improve parking, we have been rolling out a 'downtown parking easy and convenient' marketing plan to help educate our community on the ease of access to our downtown businesses.   If you have questions about downtown parking, please reach out to us! 

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We also welcomed a new City Council and Mayor pro tem this week.  We'll be working with City Council closely this year and meeting with them, and other community leaders next week to discuss what is needed for our City in 2021.  We'll be there to represent Downtown Bend and advocate for the needs of our business and building owners.