Downtown Property Owners Vote 71% in Support of Renewing Clean and Safe Program through 2015

San Diego, Thursday, June 16, 2005 – San Diego, CA - The Downtown San Diego Partnership Clean & Safe Program has been renewed by a vote of Downtown property owners to a ten year contract with the City of San Diego to provide enhanced maintenance and safety related services in the Downtown public right of way. This positive vote by property owners means that Clean & Safe will not only continue to operate 24 hours a day, but it will now also be able to expand services - specifically it will increase maintenance personnel from 17 full time employees to 37; expand sidewalk power washing services to all neighborhoods; and greatly increase sidewalk sweeping and landscape maintenance.

Clean and Safe is a Property and Business Improvement District (PBID) and the geographical area it covers is 272 blocks which include the following neighborhoods: Core Columbia; Cortez; East Village; the Gaslamp Quarter and Marina. The program operates under the auspices of the Downtown San Diego Partnership and is governed by a volunteer Management Committee whose members are comprised of property owners, businesses and representatives of each Downtown neighborhood.

The program is comprised of Maintenance and Safety Ambassadors. Working together as the Clean & Safe Team, these crews are deployed in the five neighborhoods 24 hours a day, 7 days a week where they perform maintenance activities supplementing the City of San Diego's services. The enhanced services which the Maintenance Ambassadors perform include: sidewalk sweeping; trash and debris removal; power washing sidewalks; graffiti removal; landscaping; tree maintenance and weed abatement. The program's Safety Ambassadors serve to complement the City of San Diego's Police Department and act as extra eyes on the street.

Commenting on the overwhelming support demonstrated by the voters, Downtown Partnership President Barbara Warden said "We are extremely grateful to Downtown's property owners for this tremendous show of support, and we are very proud of the Clean and Safe Program and the work it does Downtown. Tuesday's vote means that Downtown workers, residents and visitors will continue to enjoy a clean Downtown and a professional, responsive and hard working maintenance staff for at least the next ten years to come."

About the Clean & Safe Program

With a desire to improve the business climate and quality of life in Downtown San Diego, property owners and the Downtown San Diego Partnership launched the Property and Business Improvement District (PBID) in July of 2000. Funded through property tax assessments, the PBID established the Clean & Safe Program to improve the appearance of Downtown's sidewalks and enhance public safety for residents, employees and visitors alike.

On June 14th, 2005 the Clean & Safe Program was renewed by a vote of Downtown property owners to a ten year contract with the City of San Diego to continue to provide enhanced maintenance and safety related services in the Downtown public right of way. This positive vote by property owners means that Clean and Safe will not only continue to operate 24 hours a day, but it will now also be able to expand services - specifically it will increase maintenance personnel from 17 full time employees to 37; expand sidewalk power washing services to all neighborhoods; and greatly increase sidewalk sweeping and landscape maintenance.

The Clean & Safe Program maintains one of the largest service areas for a PBID in the nation. Added together the five Downtown neighborhoods account for 5,330 parcels; 269,622 linear feet of street frontage; 1,657 enhanced, special benefit lighting poles; over 300 trash receptacles; 990 regular sidewalks; and 98 enhanced sidewalks.