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Cleaning Up Their Act
Getting serious about rehabilitating the image of downtown New Haven
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Business New Haven
8/24/1998
By: Priscilla Searles
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You see them walking around downtown New Haven, the people in the lime green shirts and Australian bush-style hats. Who are they, what are they there for?
Although many know these men and women are employed by the Town Green Special Services District, few have any comprehension of what Town Green Special Services is for or how challenging the organization's mission is. Does New Haven really need people walking around in funny hats?
Few would argue that New Haven has an image problem. Many, especially those who live elsewhere, share the view that the city is dangerous, unclean, disorderly, empty and lacking in amenities. New Haven's urban renewal boom of the 1960s is but a memory.
To quote Town Green's business plan, “Takeovers by conglomerates and failed hometown businesses have left a void in New Haven's private sector leadership and investment, both of which are key elements to any city's future.”
If that image is to improve, it has to be done slowly, carefully and with a master plan that can be agreed on by the majority of those involved. Enter the Town Green Special Services District. Its personnel didn't ride into town on white horses expecting to perform miracles single-handedly, but they did get the political and public approval they needed to be up and running in a phonemically short period of time.
In 1994 Mayor John DeStefano Jr. and the center city subcommittee of the Regional Leadership Council began looking at the possibilities of creating a special services district downtown. After studying districts in other cities, the committee decided to take on the establishment of a special service district as a special project.
The first task was to define the boundaries. The Town Green district encompasses a 27-square-block area from Audubon Street to Frontage Road and from State Street to York, with the New haven Green at its core. It excludes the Broadway area.
In the spring of 1995 the Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance creating the district. Since approval was required by those living in the district, a core group of 12 representatives approached all property owners asking for support. In the fall of 1995, 72 percent of the property owners in the district approved the plan and by January 1996, Town Green had a board of commissioners.
Getting started wasn't easy. There's plenty to do if people who work in New Haven are going to take advantage of what the city has to offer, not just get in their cars and go directly from offices to their suburban homes.
And how do you convince people who live and work outside the city to come on down? There are still a lot of negatives to deal with in New Haven. On the other hand, New Haven has a world-class university that is finally investing in New Haven's future and a group of merchants who know that working together is probably the only answer - even if they don't always agree with each other on how to go about it.
Clean and safe.”
Jane Snaider, president of the Town Green Special Services District, lets that phrase roll off her lips multiple times in the course of any conversation.
“New Haven has to be clean and a safe place to visit and work in,” says Snaider, who has headed the organization for about one year. “That's where the focus began, and continues. Perception is everything,” says Snaider. “We're trying to make the reality so much better than the imagination.
“A trip into New Haven is much better and safer than people thought it would be,” Snaider explains. “We know people do come into New Haven, but that isn't enough. How can we give them more, move them around more, get them to come in early and utilize what New Haven has to offer? Clean and safe is a good place to start.”
So what do those people in the green shirts do? According to Snaider, they begin the process of making New haven a place people are comfortable spending time in. Known as hospitality officers, the nine to ten people that work in this capacity cover the district from 8 a.m. to midnight on weekdays, Saturdays from 10 a.m. to midnight and on Sundays from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Armed with maps of New Haven, bus schedules, a mental list of what's going on in New Haven and a radio, monitored by a police sub-station, the hospitality officers have become part of New Haven's comfort zone. Well, maybe the people who see them everyday don't pay much attention, but judging from the letters from visitors, some out-of-towners seem to think their presence is a great idea.
Always posted near major events, Snaider makes it clear what these hospitality people are not. “They are, in addition to everything else, the eyes and ears for the police department,” she explains. “But they are not the police, that's not their function.
“They're trained to call anything and everything in to the police, and it has helped in a number of situations,” she says. “The very fact that they are there and visible and ready to answer questions is what they are there for. They help in the perception of what New Haven really is. We don't just assume these people can handle the task at hand. All receive extensive and ongoing training, with members of the community providing a lot of it. Visitors don't seem to have any trouble grasping what these people are here for.”
The “clean” component of clean and safe may be a little more difficult to explain.
The concept is easy enough: The first impression people have is visual - and let's face it, dirty sidewalks and streets don't make most people want to spend a lot of time in that environment. But letting Town Green keep the district clean wasn't a popular idea.
Peter Indorf of Peter Indorf Jewelers, a member of the College Street Merchants Association, had no difficulty is expressing his first opinions of the new organization, and in particular, its control of maintenance in an area in which he has more than a passing interest.
“Originally a lot of us who are members of the College-Chapel Street Merchants Association questioned the viability of the Town Green organization,” recalls Indorf. “We thought we were getting less, not more, for our money and thought people walking around the city was a waste. But now we can see the value.
“If we're going to get people to come downtown, we have to start by shoring it up so when they do come, it will be a positive experience,” says Indorf. “When the Town Green first started we thought that Schiavone Management did a better job cleaning the sidewalk area than they did, but the Town Green is doing a much better job now. But there is always room for improvement.”
Snaider doesn't disagree with Indorf. “When Town Green first started doing maintenance, it wasn't wonderful,” she acknowledges. “The crew would clean, then there would be calls - “They didn't pick up the cigarette butts, etc., etc. The crew had to be trained to do it right.” And there are still problems. “Merchants would like everything to be removed, including gum,” Snaider says. “We do what we can and we're always trying to do it better. But gum, for example, can't be removed by us. We don't have the money to purchase the equipment we'd need to do it. One the other hand, we now can steam-clean the sidewalks every fall and spring so we are moving forward.”
A recent donation of a walk-behind sidewalk sweeping machine, along with the purchase of two ride-on sweeping machines, has made the job of cleaning sidewalks easier.
Another issue the organization deals with is graffiti, all of which, Snaider says, is removed within 48 hours after being reported and with a signed consent form from the property owner.
Then there are weeds to deal with, plants to be watered, etc. “When you see these people out there cleaning the city, it sends a message,” says Snaider. “Seeing someone working to make New Haven a better place is an incentive to new business. It sends a positive message.”
So where does the money come from to pay for all these great plans?
The organization has an annual budget of approximately $800,000. About $500,000 is raised by assessing property-owners in the district an additional 1.5 mills. The city of New Haven contributes $140,000, Yale $90,000 and SNET $40,000 annually.
(Yale's and SNET's contributions make sense when you read the regulations of representation on Town Green's board of commissioners. A seat on the board can be guaranteed for $100,000, and since Yale pays $10,000 in property taxes within the district and SNET $60,000, both decided that making up the difference to give them a say on what Town Green does was a worthwhile investment.)
Town Green spends 27 percent of its budget on hospitality. That's payroll and whatever equipment is needed for the men and women in the green shirts. The remaining expenditures are broken down as follows: 25 percent for maintenance; three percent for streetscape and beatification; 16 percent for marketing; eight percent for operations; and 21 percent for personnel.
The board of commissioners represents a cross-section of the district. Serving as commissioners are Bitsie Clark, executive director of Arts Council of Greater New Haven; Ernest DelMonaco of Financial Interactive Systems Inc.; Lisa Drazen of Taft Apartments; Rick Elser of Richter's Cafe; Kathleen Etkin, Ninth Square Project, Ltd. Partnership; Joe Fahey, Yale University; Vincent Farricielli; Jeff Ghazali of Bentara Restaurant; Tia Hairston-Edwards, Center Court Apartments; Eugene Harris, Harris Financial Planning Services; Terrence Lescoe of the Knights of Columbus; Matthew Nemerson, president of the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce; Michael Schaffer, C.A. White; Donald Shassian, CFO of SNET; Charles Terrell, president of New Haven Savings Bank; Barbara Wareck of Chapel Investment Co.; Susan Whetstone, chief administrative officer of the city of New Haven; and George Zdru, ZdA Associates.
Various committees have been established to deal with the issues and problems New Haven faces: parking, hospitality, a committee to deal with streetscape and beautification.
Fully aware that New Haven must be packaged and properly presented, Town Green faces many challenges. Developing marketing programs, such as the 70 new banners that are about to be placed throughout the district, producing a parking lot brochure and negotiating for two-hour meters are just a few of the newer projects on the table.
Still new kids on the block, the organization's business plan addresses how to move forward: Keep it simple, keep the programs focused and limit them to what realistically can be accomplished.
“We are trying to develop partnerships by bringing together diverse organizations and individuals to identity problems that hamper economic development and come up with solutions,” says Snaider.
Is Town Green Special Services a good idea? To many, it's simply too soon to tell. But all agree: “Clean and safe” is definitely a good place to start.
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