Downtown Vibrancy Mayoral Transition Committee Report
Outcome #1:Downtown is a welcoming, exciting, livableand energetic destinationfor all its diverse residents, visitors, and workers , filled with active store fronts,known for its walkability, hosting world class events, and is well understood as theregional epicenter for culture and entertainment.
Success Metric A: Increased foot traffic in DowntownSan Jose as measuredby the rate of increase.
Success Metric B: Increased sales tax receipts asmeasured by the rate ofincrease.
FY 23-24 Recommendations
Recommendation #1: Permanently fund and create a teamof Downtown-focusedstaff that coordinate non-profits, government agencies, and private sectorstakeholders to create a more cohesive Downtown. Additional staff would create ateam of 5 professionals solely focused on Downtown. This includes one overallDowntown director whose team would be made up of 4 other subject areaexperts that work with both internal staff and external partners on all thingsDowntown. The City should define and approve a governance and executionmodel for the team across the possible stakeholders. The team would becomposed of subject area experts in:
1. Economic development, an officer focusing on both small businessesand large projects opening and expanding, and serving as a businessally specifically for theDowntown area;2. Cleanliness and safety, a lead spearheading initiatives around socialservices, homelessness, beautify sj, and other basic quality of lifeprojects;3. Public realm activation, a member of the team that can implementideas for increased vibrancy and activation within the Downtowncore;4. Brand management, serving as an ambassador for communications,social media, marketing, and economic development support to work 1 closely and collaboratively to amplify the message of all the otherpartners doing this work.
Success Metric: Hire a team of 5 people by the endof September 30, 2023solely focused on ensuring Downtown San Jose’s success as measured bythe hiring rate for the team of 5 people.
Recommendation #2: Activate Downtown storefronts throughleases, pop-ups,and through other innovative means by removing fees, permits, and other taxburdens.
Success Metric A: Rate of decrease in Downtown storefrontvacancies anddecrease in small business turnover.
Success Metric B: The rate of increase in retailssales to demonstrate theseinvestments will have a positive economic impact to the City.
Recommendation #3: Bring forth to the San Jose CityCouncil consideration of apilot program prototyping "permit free" zones in Downtown San Jose to increasefree event offerings. Event producers would complete training courses and sign anagreement to ensure event standards are met and that safety protocols arefollowed.
Success Metric A: Rate of increase in the number of“permit free” eventswithin DTSJ contributing to the overall vibrancy of Downtown.
Success Metric B: The rate of decrease in time requiredto launch an event.
Recommendation #4: Ensure the gateways to DowntownSan Jose are clearlydefined, clean, and welcoming. The City should identify the “gateways” toDowntown San Jose, begin tracking complaints around the gateways, anddecrease complaints in these locations.
Success Metric: Rate of decrease in the number ofcomplaints around theidentified “gateways” to Downtown San Jose. 2 Recommendation #5: Add additional dedicated police on foot, bike, and/or openair, street legal vehicle patrols, Mobile Crisis Assessment Teams (MCAT),Downtown ambassadors, and private security guards that both create awelcoming environment for Downtown and increase the ability to respond morequickly to quality of life and emergency situations. It is important to note that thePolice, MCAT, security guards and the Downtown ambassadors will be activatingthe street and responding to the needs of the environment particularly aroundmental health issues. The three types of security stakeholders in Downtownshould be coordinated by the Downtown Team on a regular cadence.
Success Metric: The rate of increase in the numberof dedicated Downtownfoot patrols, Downtown ambassadors, and private security guards bySeptember 30, 2023.
FY 24+ Recommendations
Recommendation #1: Develop a lighting plan, fundingsource, and governance andexecution team for Downtown San Jose in a way that connects our peoplecentered places like the Arena, Arena Green, the Convention Center, GuadalupeRiver Park, San Pedro Square, Post Street, SoFA, San Jose State University, CityHall, and other Downtown institutions; adding to the perception of bothDowntown’s vibrancy and safety.
Success Metric: City Council approval of a plan toreinvigorate, reimagine,and decide on how to fund the lighting design for Downtown San Jose sothat major Downtown attractions are seamlessly connected and morevibrant, ultimately increasing the perception of both energy and safety ashallmarks of the Downtown core.
Recommendation #2: Identify the list of locationsfor new art installations inDowntown San Jose and create a funding strategy that reinvests money into thearts and culture of Downtown San Jose. The list should identify 25 publicallyaccessible and viewable locations in Downtown San Jose for these new artinstallations. The art installations should be experience-based, interactive,high-impact, high-visibility, and dynamic. These installations can be temporarytrial period art of installations for possibly 6 or 8 months, with the goal of thembecoming permanent. 3 Success Metric: The rate of increase in actual artinstallations to planned artinstallation implementation in Downtown San Jose.
Recommendation #3: Create a marketing campaign fordrawing residents,entertainment, and businesses to Downtown San Jose. Identify funding for thiseffort.
Success Metric: Bring to Council by June 30, 2024a proposal for aDowntown San Jose marketing campaign.
Recommendation #4: Create a list of 10 targeted changesand investments inDowntown and identify a funding source that adds to the built environment andenhances the public realm to enjoy San Jose's 300 days of sunshine.
Success Metric: The rate of increase in the numberof public realmimprovements planned and completed.
Recommendation #5: Identify a new source of revenue,such as rental cars fees,electric scooter fees, rental bikes fees, or other potential fees, including TOT, thatbecomes reinvested into the arts and culture and promotes Downtown San Joseas a high-quality, exciting destination for both leisure and business.
Success Metric: Rate of increase in the number ofperformances and eventsin Downtown San Jose.
Recommendation #6: Recreate and relaunch the parkingvalidation program inDowntown San Jose in specific areas to make it more inviting for people to shopand dine in Downtown San Jose.
Success Metric: The rate of parking validation usagefor this program withinthe Downtown core. 4 Downtown Vibrancy Transition Committee Roster / Acknowledgements:
1. Council Co-Chair Omar Torres, District 3 Councilmember2. Community Co-Chair Gary Dillabough, Downtown Property Owner andBuilder3. Nanci Klein, City of San Jose4. Robyn Sahid, City of San Jose5. Carlos Acosta, San Jose Police Department6. Michael Lomio, City of San Jose7. Alex Stettinski, San Jose Downtown Association8. Adolfo Gomez, Owner, Mezcal9. Janette D'Elia, Jay Paul Company10. Janis Gemignani, SJDRA11. Laura Chmielewski, Team San Jose12. Carolyn Gonot, Valley Transportation Authority13. Ru Weerakoon, Former Chief Land Use Officer14. Jay Bradshaw, NorCal Carpenters Union15. Jonathan Becher, Sharks Sports & SAP16. Scott Ekman, Adobe17. Vincent Delcasino, SJSU Provost18. Jeff Rosen, SCC DA Office19. Anjee Helstrup-Alvarez, MACLA20. Frank Nguyen, Owner, Academic Coffee21. Jimmy Sarfaz, Signia Hilton 5 Mayoral Transition Committees "Glossary"
Goals:Each committee has a mandate that includes thegoalsof the committee. Forexample, the goals of the community safety committee are to (1) increasepedestrian and traffic safety, and (2) reduce street level crime and improve the feltexperience of safety for residents and small businesses. In meetings, we've alsoused the words "pillar", "north star", and "mandate".
Outcomes:The transition committees are going to start by discussing what success looks likefrom a holistic community impact or state of well being perspective. We can thinkof these asoutcomes. To give an example, the CommunitySafety Committee maydecide that one of their outcomes is “San José residents feel safe anytime,anywhere in San José” or “San José residents feel safe walking in theirneighborhood.” Recommendations:The Committees will spend the second and third committee meetings generatingrecommendations. Each Committee will produce 3 - 5recommendations for theupcoming budget cycle, and 3 - 5 recommendations for the longer term (withinthe next two years).
The recommendations will also have a success metric attached but Committeemembers are not expected to define actual specific targets for these successmetrics. Recommendations may or may not be specific to a particular Cityprogram or service. For example, stricter enforcement of speeding in heavilytrafficked intersections or increasing the number of traffic calming solutions maybe specific recommendations from the Community Safety Committee. Eachtransition committee will rank their recommendations in order of which they thinkwill have the biggest impact on their goal and outcome. 6 Success MetricsOutcomes and recommendations should be measurable via asuccess metricsuchas a community indicator, which is a performance measure that quantifies trendsaffecting outcomes (the well-being of communities). Success metrics are typicallyexpressed as a rate or percentage and can be disaggregated by race and locationto identify disparities and and take action to close the disparities. To give anexample, an outcome may have the success metric “the percentage of San Joseresidents who feel safe anytime anywhere in San Jose.” The goal is to identifyboththe outcome and the recommendation success metricsso the City does notbecome overly focussed on measuring a particular program or service that is notultimately improving the higher level outcome. When an outcome is not clear orcannot be readily measured, other program or service level performancemeasures may be used as proxies. For example, a proxy success metric forpedestrian and traffic safety might be a reduction in the crash injury rate.Committee members are not expected to define actual specific targets for theseoutcome metrics.
Product:Theproductof the transition committees will be 15- 25 recommendations for theupcoming budget cycle, and 15 - 25 recommendations for the longer term.
The budget cycle recommendations will feed directly into budget prioritizationover the course of two council meetings. In the first council meeting,Councilmembers will provide a publicreadoutof thecommitteerecommendations. In the second council meeting, Councilmembers will rankoutcomes across all the transition committees. The Administration will use theranked strategies from Council and the product from the transition committees asinputs in the normal budget process. 7