Sactown Urban Update

Sactown Urban Update

Saturday, February 28, 2015

Downtown, getting Clean and Safe…

Downtown has experienced a 50% decrease in crime in the past 10 years*

A big part of the credit for this goes to The Downtown Sacramento Partnership (DSP).  They've built an effective coalition with government/service agencies, law enforcement and the business community. Their clean and safe programs support downtown development and  provide services to all downtown users by maintaining the physical environment.
Here's how:

Downtown Guides: The familiar, Downtown Guides, dressed in yellow, provide customer service to downtown users. These information ambassadors welcome visitors and employees to downtown, provide directions (to more than 18,000 people last year!) and assistance, and support crime prevention by working closely with law enforcement agencies.

Clean Streets: Seven days a week, the Clean Streets team, wearing lime green gear, respond to maintenance issues in the district.  In 2014, they removed 3,618 pieces of graffiti and 163,240 gallons of trash, debris, and leaves from DT. They're now also providing street-level maintenance services in Old Sacramento.

Homeless Outreach Navigators: DSP's blue jacketed Navigators connect homeless individuals with services focusing on housing and long-term solutions.  The Navigator team, working with over 500 individuals in the past year, successfully housed 117  individuals in permanent or transitional housing and reconnected 258 individuals with other services outside the district.

Community Prosecutor:  A deputy district attorney, designated as a community prosecutor,  works on behalf of downtown businesses, property owners, social services, law enforcement, and community organizations to identify and implement broader solutions to nuisance crimes specific to the urban core. Last year the program prosecuted an average of 50 cases per month, including violations of probation.

Attribution: DSP's 2014 Annual report.
*Source: Sacramento Police Department Part 1 crimes 2005-2014.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Sacramento Rising... ..."its a new day"...


Sacramento is in the 2014 TOP TEN of Least Stressed-Out Cities according to CNN Money.  That and many other interesting and fun facts and visuals can be found on DSP's exciting video! Sacramento Rising!  Check it out...


Sunday, February 15, 2015

A” Collideoscope” of possibilities...

Collisions, Co-Learning and Connectedness.  Or setting the stage in Downtown Sac for innovation and growth from chance meetings. “Collisions”.

At DSP’s recent “State of Downtown” breakfast, Keynote Speaker, Mark Roland spoke of his vision of how downtown could be re-shaped to fuel innovation, using his experience as a ROCeteer consultant for (Las Vegas) Downtown Project. The ROC stands for Return on Community.

Mark founded ROCeteer to fuel innovation within Las Vegas’ Downtown Project. ROCeteer provides coaching, mentoring, training and consulting support to the Las Vegas Downtown Project’s startup ecosystems and entrepreneurs.

Excerpts of Mark’s vision:  It’s all about Accelerating Collisions, Co-Learning, and Connectedness, which in turn will lead to Happiness, Luckiness, Innovation, and Productivity
We should focus on maximizing long-term ROC (Return On Community & Return On Collisions) and institutionalizing ROL (Return On Luck) – Accelerating Serendipity, as in finding valuable or agreeable things you weren't looking for.

Mark's 3 INGREDIENTS FOR SERENDIPITY:
1.    Residential density of 100 residents/acre
2.    Street-level activity for residents to collide
3.    Culture of openness, collaboration, creativity, diversity and optimism

This all sounds a lot like where Downtown Sacramento is headed to me, how about you?

[Attribution: Gleaned from Mark Roland’s (Las Vegas) Downtown Project presentation, DSP (Downtown Sacramento Partnership) and Internet sources.]