The North Beach stretch of Broadway often gets a bad rap for being seedy, dirty and dangerous. But this week, a group of business and community leaders demonstrated that their efforts to improve the area were indeed paying off.
On Tuesday, the Top of Broadway Community Benefit District (CBD) held its annual meeting at Naked Lunch, reviewing its accomplishments and releasing its annual report. Around two dozen property owners, business owners, and community leaders from the Broadway area were in attendance.
For the unacquainted, a CBD is a nonprofit group that assesses special taxes to property owners in a small area of a community, to fund maintenance, improvements, security and other programs. The Top of Broadway CBD includes properties on Broadway between Columbus Avenue and Montgomery Street, and Kearny Street between Columbus and Broadway, in addition to some adjacent properties.
Jerry Cimino speaks to the CBD.
"It's neat to be part of a neighborhood community where you know people and you see them on a regular basis and you know people want the best for our neighborhood," Jerry Cimino, founder of the Beat Museum and the CBD's newest board member, told the group. "It’s invigorating.”
Top of Broadway is the smallest of San Francisco's 16 CBDs, with 40 properties (including one affiliate) and an assessment of $108,000. It also got a $200,000 one-time start-up grant from the Broadway Entertainment and Cultural Association, which was handling improvements prior to the CBD's formation.
Fiscal year 2014–15 "was a year of a lot of accomplishments," said the group's executive director, Benjamin Horne. "It was our first full year of providing services." In all, Horne said the CBD addressed 1,274 graffiti incidents and 606 illegal dumping incidents over the course of the year. "That’s a lot of graffiti in a small area," he noted.
The CBD also conducted regular power washing and street sweeping, held nearly 2,000 merchant check-ins, engaged visitors to the district with 1,250 hospitality interactions (an increase of 200 percent year-over-year), provided landscaping services and tree maintenance, and removed graffiti-covered and broken street furniture.
According to president Stephanie Greenburg, the CBD has also hung 20 flower baskets on Broadway (they're replanted every six months), and received a grant to install 13 historical markers (an increase from the original estimate of 10, as costs ended up being lower than expected). A subcommittee is currently at work on the latter project.
Thanks to a grant, Horne said the CBD was able to install four security cameras on Broadway, near Kearny. "In the future, we hope to expand the program if we get additional funding. The goal is to cover the entire public space of the district.”
The CBD also decreased its interactions with SFPD by more than 70 percent year over year, with only 95 total interactions in the past fiscal year. SFPD Central Station Capt. David Lazar told the group that the area had been quiet lately, with few incidents. "We should change the name to Mayberry Street," he joked, before requesting that attendees let him know what else Central Station can do to make things better.
The group also talked about the temporary closure of Vallejo Street between Columbus and Grant avenues for the construction of Poets Plaza, slated to occur beginning this week (pending SFMTA approval). The CBD has been asked to provide a quote for maintenance of the area.
Marketing and branding have also been a focus. "We brought Alex Lopez on as our public relations and marketing consultant," Greenburg said. "He’s been invaluable in helping us rebrand and strategize." The group now has a new website, logo, Facebook and Twitter pages, and even a hashtag (#visitbroadwaysf).
The CBD hired acclaimed local artist Jeremy Fish to design some of its street pole banners, and is now at work on a video featuring a mix of member businesses, including coffee shops, restaurants, clothing stores, nightclubs and street fairs.
The group held two large street events during the fiscal year, a Bold Italic Microhood event and the Off Broadway Summer Pop Up, which brought about 2,000 people to the area for a street fair with makers, music, a beer garden, food trucks and more. "We look forward to doing more events like that," Greenburg said. "These are new people who are discovering the area."
Greenburg also celebrated Top of Broadway's selection as a featured tour for the 61st International Downtown Association Trade Show and Conference, which is being held in San Francisco Sept. 30th-Oct. 2nd. "We were thrilled when they chose us" to be featured at the conference for CBDs and Business Improvement Districts from around the globe, which she said was the fastest-selling, most popular conference in the organization's history.
Horne wrapped up the meeting by discussing new plans to expand the CBD. It launched an affiliate program in the spring, and hopes to roll out a formalized expansion project in the next couple of months.
Horne explained that there are many reasons to expand. "We got a one-time grant that eventually is going to run out. We can’t necessarily rely on that going forward, and we need a broader base of operations to make this sustainable." He said they'll look at Jackson Square up Columbus Avenue to Washington Square and over to The Embarcadero. The current plan is to meet with individuals to discuss what kind of services they might want.
Horne also thanked all of the members of the CBD and its board, all of whom are volunteers. "We have more people working here with a small group than some of the larger CBDs do," he said.
