CMCBD News
- Blick Art Materials Store Opening
- NEA Grant Awarded for Central Market
- 24 Days of Central Market Arts
- The He(art) of Central Market
- Central Market Light Pole Banners
- Central Market Summer Concerts
- Comcast Newsmakers: Community Guides
- Central Market Community Guides Holiday Service Schedule 2010
- Art in Storefronts Pilot Program Kicks Off
- Market Street Pilot Traffic Changes
- Art in Storefronts
- Central Market Summer Concerts 2009
- Central Market Summer Concerts: Music on Mint Plaza
- Central Market Summer Concerts: Music at 1275 Market Street Plaza
- CMCBD holds benefit for Community Guides Program
- Video: At the Heart of the Matter
- Gays invest in SF's mid-Market area
- Sponsorship Opportunities for CMCBD Benefit
- CMCBD announces 2009 meeting schedule
- Central Market Community Guides Holiday Service Schedule
- Retail Sparks Sixth Street Transformation
- SMWM embraces big picture design, planning
- New Board of Directors Announced
- Meet Tajiri Winesberry, Community Guide Program Manager
- Meet Nick, Community Guide
- SMWM + Slow Food Nation
- A banner year for Central Market
- Meet Natasha, Central Market Dispatcher
- Mid-Market 'caterpillar' transforms into 'butterfly'
- Seductive setting, ProvenÇal dishes at Chez Papa Resto
- Music on Mint Plaza Summer Concerts
- David Bazirgan, Chef, Chez Papa Resto
- Sangiacomo's baby
- Chez Papa Resto now open
- Meet Maurice, Community Guide
- Mint Plaza: Best public or cultural project
- Community Guides help give a hand up
- Streetscape Improvement Plan Underway
- Turning a Neighborhood Around
- Love Thy Neighbor(hood)
- Community Guides begin February 4
- Clean Streets services start February 9
- Central Market CBD names new president
- Central Market CBD Open House
- Central Market Moving Forward
- Mid-Market combats blight with new district
- Central Market Survey
- CBD announces new executive director
Turning a Neighborhood Around
The Registry
03/18/2008 12:00am
Jennifer Aquino and Vladimir Bosanac
For many years the neighborhood along Market Street between Fifth and Ninth streets was troubled by homelessness and crime. But thanks to the creation of the Central Market Community District, a team of community leaders and neighborhood residents and store owners is working to turn the area into a safe and pedestrian-friendly place to live, work and shop. In its first full year of operation, the district formed a board of directors, hired an executive director and conducted a neighborhood survey in order to better understand the scope of services desired by the Central Market community.
It also launched a Website (www.central-market.org), a monthly neighborhood enewsletter called Central Market Matters and a monthly Public Safety Seminar series as part of a crime prevention, safety education and neighborhood outreach effort. This year, the organization will take an even more aggressive approach to tackling the crime issues and beautifying the street. We sat down with Executive Director Daniel Hurtado to discuss the group’s agenda.
The Registry (TR): What was the impetus behind the creation of the Central Market Community Benefit District?
Daniel Hurtado (DH): The Central Market Community Benefit District (CMCBD) was formed following 25 years of economic decline, physical decay and deterioration of public safety in Central Market. Concerned property owners and community stakeholders in Central Market came together to establish the organization in order to address the concerns of neighborhood residents, workers and merchants regarding crime and cleanliness.
Through the CMCBD, property owners are able to fund programs that supplement the city’s baseline services and benefit the community, improve the quality of life in the public realm and help create a cleaner, safer and more inviting Central Market for everyone.
TR: How did the CMCBD spend its first year and what are the future plans for the neighborhood?
DH: In February, we launched our long-awaited Clean Streets and Community Guides programs designed to advance the CMCBD’s mission of improving the quality of life in Central Market’s public realm. … The Clean Streets program includes daily cleaning and maintenance services for the public right of ways within the boundaries of the Community Benefit District. Through the CMCBD, the program will provide sidewalk sweeping, litter removal, power washing, graffiti removal, and quarterly steam cleaning throughout the neighborhood.
The Community Guides service is an innovative approach to addressing safety concerns while also helping to make the area feel friendlier and more welcoming. The Community Guides will act as eyes and ears for the neighborhood’s merchants, residents and workers as well as police and social services providers. Working closely with police and social service agencies, the Guides will provide public safety and crime prevention services, social service outreach and hospitality and information service.
The program includes two full-time emplyees supported by a team that includes a field supervisor, operations manager and a dispatcher. The dispatch service will not only connect the Community Guides and the Clean Team to a central dispatch office, but will also serve as a call center for non-emergency safety concerns, cleanliness issues and social service needs in Central Market.
This year, we’ll focus on managing and modifying our core services with input from our social service partners, the police and the Central Market community. We’ll actively look for ways we can enhance our programs in order to provide the best possible service for Central Market. We’ll also develop a comprehensive streetscape improvement plan for Central Market, producing a summer concert series and other neighborhood events, create a retail directory and other promotional pieces and launch a marketing and advertising campaign.
(To read more, click Download a PDF of Article on the upper right corner of this page)