What’s new:
Downtown neighbors developed a plan to invest new funding generated by an assessment on residential property.
- With a matching $50,000.00 grant from DGRI and $74,160.00 raised from residential property assessments, $124,160.00 will be invested in improving safety, cleanliness and beauty in the neighborhood specifically for neighbors.
- The agency that manages the funds – the Downtown Improvement District (DID) – recently approved the proposal.
- Neighbors will see more Ambassadors serving the Downtown community with extended hours soon!
Quick recap:
Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. engaged neighbors this year with information about the DID and how adding a residential assessment would improve living conditions Downtown.
After attending multiple Condo Owner Association meetings, individual building gatherings, and Q&A Open Houses online and in person, our team spoke to at least 100 neighbors.
- January – March 2022: Residents were engaged in virtual and in-person information sessions to learn more about what the DID is and what it does.
- Specifically, we addressed residential property owners about paying an annual assessment of $120.00. For all residential properties downtown, the total investment is $74, 160.00.
- May 10, 2022: The City Commission approved including residential property owners within the DID boundary to the assessment roll.
- July – September 2022: A residential subcommittee was formed to have neighbors who are paying the assessment decide how the funds would be spent.
- 8 of your neighbors convened biweekly for 3 months to review what’s being done in other cities, discuss our specific neighborhood context and decide on the best way to use the resources.
- Thank you to the group of neighbors that volunteered to take leadership in this effort to address the needs of the neighborhood!
- The final recommendation: Add two full-time, resident-specific Ambassadors with extended hours and a social capacity to engage neighbors directly about safety concerns in the neighborhood.
- September 28, 2022: The DID Board received the proposal and unanimously approved the plan to fund two additional Downtown Ambassadors for resident-specific safety initiatives.
What’s next:
- Now that the proposal is approved, Downtown Grand Rapids Inc. is working to hire two more Ambassadors to engage with Downtown neighbors.
- The best training will come from meeting you! We’d like to engage with neighbors as often as possible to make introductions and gather feedback
- If your building has a resident happy hour or a new neighbor meet n’ greet, please keep me in the loop so that we can introduce the new Ambassadors to neighbors in your building.
If you’d like to share your ideas on how to work with the Ambassadors to improve Downtown living, please email me (kchanning@downtowngr.org).