November 12, 2024 — Downtown Management Commission Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[1:31] Okay. maybe we should. Well, it's gonna show up in the Transcript, I think, but maybe not the audio. All right. Well, I just got all this all the motions? Yes, okay. We have approved the minutes in the Transcript as well. So we have no members of the public present. We'll move on to the consent. Agenda topics will not be discussed unless there are questions posed by the Commission.

[2:03] Do we have any questions on the consent agenda from the Commission? No questions from. Let me just check really quickly. I have one question on the affordable commercial grant program. Actually, a couple of questions. Did we decide our folks from our profession on that. Yes, I'll be giving a full presentation. It's on the agenda. Got it. Okay? Great. Thank you, Brandon. Any, no other comments. And we can move on to the financials and sales tax report in the packet.

[3:06] Did anyone have any questions on the financials for the sales tax report. Okay. let me see if I have. We had asked for sales tax data from East End versus Pearl Street. I remember that, and I see that as a tactic there should be a map included as well. It shows the the boundaries. That was my other question. We had again was looking at the data. What is the extension? So that should also be included in your packet which say. page playing by, Oh. thanks. Thanks for calling that out. Okay.

[4:03] so my question about the sales tax was, do you think that the vacancy rate is the biggest contributor to that? Or what do you think the biggest contributors to that are is seems like we have very vacancy. 1st floor vacancy rates across the East and West End. I I just thought that that might be a reason why the East End Bill Sachs is lower. There are probably other reasons. But yeah, well, I think year over year it's up a little bit which is good. So that's a good indicator. Of course, inflation has a little bit of pressure on that as well. Vacancy rates certainly can drive into that. But overall numbers from visitations and such that we've seen have not really indicated. There's been a lack of visitors. Yeah, so it could be certainly because of the the vacancy there. People right across the street, for instance, you see those? Yeah, what do you think about Pearl Street and all? What's the sense about the reason

[5:09] for that location area being down. that one's a little bit more difficult because we haven't really seen a whole lot of decrease in occupants, so that one would definitely take a little research to figure out kind of what's going on with that. It's hard to do a direct causation with a lot of these numbers. but it's something we'll certainly keeping an eye on to see if that trends continue. Exactly. So. This is just now into August. So I will say the visitation numbers that we saw placer AI around Parents week was very high. It was very noticeable, so I'm hoping that translates into higher numbers for September as well. So hopefully. That will that trend will reverse in September. Yes, and we know that people are

[6:01] well, at least we know that people are spending less compared to the number of visitors that we have. But the areas, I think, are the most interesting in telling us one level deeper. So I'd love to hear more when we have more data. Okay, that's the only question from me. We have no other questions. We can move on to the Public safety update. Good afternoon. And so to you guys, let me apologize for our chief reference. He's planning on being here. Unfortunately, at about 3 o'clock he got pulled into something. There's a couple of beers involved, so all right. So I got a lot of really good news, and then I'll let you guys look at some of the stats. There's some really, really good statistics and data that's come out for the last a month. That's that's showing a good trend. Couple of things. 1st of all, new sergeant, for the Mall has been selected. It's a sergeant Skable. Been with the department for a very, very long time. Absolutely fantastic office, our sergeant. He's going to be joining us downtown here, probably in March.

[7:14] He just had knee surgery, so as soon as he comes back to full duty, look at him down here. That's going to complete our staffing for them all, and which is fantastic. We've never had them all, sergeant. So this is going to be a great addition to the team. So it's going to be fully staffed with 6 officers and a sergeant full time. So that'll be really exciting. Secondly, our budget was approved by city council, which is wonderful. We got more than we ever expected we were going to get, which includes some e-bikes, and we've known that our officers that work in the downtown area using the e-bikes have been very, very successful. So we are purchasing some more e-bikes to get more of our mall team onto those bikes so that they can get around a little bit quicker and hopefully make more of a difference in the long run. Speaking of the hiring, we are currently at 14 away from fully staffed.

[8:08] We, I just found out, right before I came over here, that we've got an additional 5 officers that we're going to be laterally hiring into the city, which means that we can put them on the streets very, very quickly after a short training program. And then we've got another 9 that we're going to be sending to the Academy. So we are going to be fully staffed by the end of the year 1st part of 2025. We haven't been fully staffed since, I think probably 2010, maybe was last time we were fully staffed. So this is fantastic. We're going to be preparing to go to the city manager's office to see if we can increase our staffing by another 10 to 15 officers which will will directly impact what's going on in and around the Mall area because we're gonna look at trying to increase our impact

[9:00] team, our neighborhood impact team which works the hill and is also working the Mall in the evening hours until about 3 in the morning. So that'll be something that will. You'll notice a significant presence usually between that 7 o'clock at night and 3 in the morning. If we're able to get those additional officers and we'll get them assigned to this area. So that's really exciting as well. What you'll see over the Christmas season is we're going to be increasing our presence along the Pearl Street Mall area, the 9th Street Mall area. We're going to be hiring saturation patrol officers over time. We've done it the last couple of years been very, very successful, we believe, when we look at the data related to thefts in the area. So we are going to be having a couple officers every day from Black Friday through the week after Christmas. They're gonna be just patrolling these areas. They're not going to take any calls for service. Their whole job is high visibility being out here hopefully, being a distract or dissuader for any

[10:03] be people that have nefarious intent. So that'll be happening. And then we've got we don't have any public right great. So we are going to have. We've been working very closely with our drug task force. They've been doing a lot of operations in and around this area. They've been very successful. We're going to continue with those operations with our drug task force to try to do what we can to disrupt the methods coming into this area and be it's a draw for a lot of our on house. So we want to disrupt that to see if we can't as well dissuade them as well from from hanging around down here. So we're working on that. Finally, before I get to the data liaisons. We are increasing our liaison program with numerous groups and businesses throughout the the city. If you recognize where there's an area that we need to be focusing liaison having a direct contact to the police department. Please get with us specifically what we're looking for are those individual, those those specific locations where we have chronic calls for service, chronic problems that really it keeps on get spread out throughout multiple different watches

[11:16] at the police department. So we end up with a day shifter that comes out and deals with it. We end up with a swing, shift option that comes out and deals with it. Well, they deal with it differently than the day shift officers. So you don't have continuity in how we're dealing with that issue. We want to get a liaison involved with that. So there is continuity. There is some sort of consistency in how we are addressing the problems that you're having. In certain areas you have a luxury downtown, and that you have 6 liaisons. And now, sergeant, that really are focused on what's going on downtown. But just outside of this footprint. If you know of anything else, please let me know, or if there's anything that needs very specific attention, please let me know, and we can work on getting that done questions on any of that stuff. Yeah.

[12:00] is the request to the city manager for more staff for the evening shift, because there's an increase in crime in the evening hours. Because I know before we talked about over. yeah, correct and the data, you'll see some interesting stuff with the data. No, it's not specific for increasing them all. So we're asking for 10 to 14 officers. That is going to help us really flesh out a lot of different assignments, one of which is the neighborhood impact impact team when we were when we came up with the staffing of 100 9,191 officers. It did not have account for 6 officers and a sergeant assigned solely to downtown. It was 2 officers, and that was it. So we've taken it upon ourselves to reallocate some of our personnel to to put a bigger presence downtown. And what we want to do is we need to flesh out these other units throughout the city that we have kind of

[13:01] picked from to help support this unit, help support our our Sams, our camp cleanup team, and our team. Those are those are different teams along with the Mall that have not been supported through our numbers over the last 10 to 15 years. And so what we need to do we need to do is we need to get those numbers so we can build back up these other units that we filtered from. And one of those that's gonna have a direct impact on those of you down here on the Mall area is going to be the impact team. They when I was a sergeant for the impact team, I had 10 officers that solely worked the impact team. and they are now down to 4 officers and a sergeant. We need to get them back up to 8 to 10 officers so that we can increase our our presence down here. This is my opinion downtown, especially during those late evening hours when when we don't have that make sense. Yeah, great. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely any other questions. It depends on what the problem is. For example, we've got the Bluebird

[14:09] apartment complexes right over at 30th and in Mableton, essentially. And we started noticing there's calls for service there that were starting to increase. And we so I met with the management from Bluebird. We talked about what the issues were specifically, what time of day that was. They expressed that it was during the afternoon to evening hours. So I got with the watch 2 commander and said, I need an officer that's going to be liaison with them. So we have a watch. One officer that's liaison with them. We've got a liaison for 1440 Pine Street. We know that there's there's chronic issues at 1440 Pine Street, and rather than just continuing to to throw different officers. At that we got a liaison. We have 2 liaisons assigned to the shelter up north. We have no liaison that's assigned over in the Thunderbird area. We have one that's assigned to Nest part of Thunderbird. So there's

[15:02] we have liaisons that that are picked from patrol. We want people that are working patrol to work as a liaison because they are going to be able to directly impact what is going to be happening with those businesses, or with that that that apartment building, or whatever the issue is. And they have like relationships with people instead of a you have an issue at at 1445, instead of calling and saying, I need to talk to an officer about how to handle this situation, and then it waits in the queue for for 2 or 3 h, because we're busy with a bunch of calls for service, and then you finally get a call from somebody that works on the other side of town. They're not familiar with what's going on at 1445. They're going to be telling you. Yeah. You know, they're gonna come up with something this way. You've got one specific person. You've got their email. You may have their cell phone number. You can call them up or you can email them and say, I have some questions about this this tenant I'm dealing with. So there's this problem

[16:02] that makes sense. Yeah, cool. Any other questions very, very quickly. I'm just going to cover the data when you look at the data, especially when you look at the when you look at crime in District 3. So crime in District 3, there's a lot of red red is bad. I'll tell you right now the city we've got. We're we're dealing with a lot of issues throughout the city. I'm gonna be completely transparent. And and we're working through them. But you guys are a in a certain area of District 3. That is, more. more directly reflected in calls and patrols in District 3, which is the Mall area. When you look at that. You see, a whole bunch of green green is really really good. In fact, when you look at the numbers related to the the oh, you don't. So when you look at it, you'll see the negative. So you were negative. 43% on on narcotics and drug calls the

[17:02] structure fire non-structure fires. Those are mostly going to be our people that are setting little fires are unhoused that are setting up fires by their camps. That's down a significant amount 83%. Our disturbances are down. Almost 40%. Trespassing is down almost 4. It's at 43%. Our assaults are down 9%. And our total cost for service are 27%. So that's all really, really good numbers. And that is kind of an anomaly compared to what we're seeing in other parts of the town, especially the area that's surrounding the Mall. That's the rest of 3. It extends from essentially just a little bit north of the Mall all the way up to the hill to Baseline, and then everything in goss and grove. We're seeing an increase in that area. But here on the Mall. Things are are serendipitous. So this, this includes the Civic Center Park, Central Park. 3, the specifically for the 3 Mall it focuses

[18:01] it does include Central Park and civic and the parked by the library as well. Interesting thing with that is that is one of our problem areas that we're we're focusing on for stratified policing. I don't know if we discussed stratified policing with you guys. So if I may for just a brief moment I'll explain it. Stratified policing is a problem already in policing that we are doing right now in the city or for the police department, and we identify an area that has a significant problem related to some sort of crime. We assign a commander to that area, and they are allowed to work with other resources holistically throughout the rest of the city. But then also bring in resources from within the police department. They'll bring in our undercover officers. They'll bring in additional patrol options. We'll bring in our detectives. And collectively, we, we identify what those problems are, what the causes of those problems are. We address those problems.

[19:00] We saw a significant decrease right in that Central Park. civic park area over the last we that's been a problem area for us assigned to Commander heat since for the last 8 to 10 months, and we recognize some issues with regards to some of the shrubbery around the the bandshell. So we call the shrubbery way, and that made a huge difference in our yeah. Who would ever think that? But then we added e-bikes, which made a huge difference. We brought in a drug task force which has made a huge difference. So it has significantly impacted what is going on downtown in that part of downtown, and then you throw into it the 6 officers that we've got working in the Mall area. And collectively, we've seen a significant decrease compared to what we had last year over those last over during October. So good numbers. I think we're gonna end up asking the chief to move that problem area into a monitor phase, which means we're going to move on from that being a problem area to another part of town north boulder is another problem area that we're addressing. As well. Interestingly, it did get displaced driving issues

[20:16] west of the Criminal Justice Center right along 6th and Canyon 6th and Arapaho. We're seeing an increase of problems there. And and so I, we're gonna be moving some of our resources to deal with that. Yeah, we're just gonna we're gonna know. I think that that's that is a unique one. Off with regards to the bandshell, and being able to to just remove a little bit of shrubbery and make a huge difference I don't see us doing it at eve fine, or anything else anytime soon. But there it is. We are finding that as we tackle one area, it displaces some of the issues to other areas. So we are. we're evolving in our response to this and trying to figure out solutions that that don't just displace it, but actually correct it.

[21:08] Questions. Keep it on alright. I've got another meeting that I need to get to reference the shelter. So it's okay. I'm gonna take off. Thank you all very much. Yeah. Thank you for this. David, yeah, absolutely. Okay. Up. Next, we have the Tina for a downtown boulder partnership update. Where do I get to do that in this slide dance next slide. Excellent. Well, Hi! Everybody! Great to be here. I I didn't get to give all this feedback, but I feel like we've got to do some Pr campaign.

[22:01] Good stuff, good stuff. So I've got 20 min. But I hopefully will not take quite that long, and I want to thank Commissioner straight trees for coming to our downtown town Hall. So some of this is going to be repetitive, and Erica serves on our marketing committee. So some of this for you, too. But I'll go ahead and get through some of the basic updates we have pedestrian counts. If we get the next slide. Our pedestrian counts for the this is hard for you to see. Hopefully you were able to see it on your packet, but we were actually down a little bit in September year over year. Not sure what that's about, but it's an interesting trend to observe. and the same was true for October, so most notably, we observed that at Fallfest, where our numbers just weren't quite as high as we had hoped, but we're hoping that with some renewed interest at the holidays coming around which I will talk about in a minute that things will be picking up a little bit more on the next slide.

[23:05] I'll talk just a little bit about our communications and marketing efforts. So, as you probably know, one of our 2 main areas of focus are to help make downtown clean, safe and interesting, and then also to market downtown as a destination. And we do this in partnership with the city and also with Visit Boulder. Our market share is really focusing on Metro, Denver and Boulder. Specifically. So we're trying to get people who are local or close enough to be local to come downtown. And we partner with explore communications, they run ads for us. This is just a flow chart of some of our media that we've been buying, including cable TV magazines. And our digital role go to the next slide. This is just a little bit more about that. This is the boulder focus media. And you will remember the So Boulder campaign that we started back in the spring. That's been so fun and whimsical. I've got an Updated spot to show you for the holidays here in on the next slide, I believe hopefully, I'm right on that.

[24:03] Oh, sorry. So the 1st summer digital flight happened until the end of September. So we knew we were capturing that kind of end of summer back to school traffic, and it was really really successful. We had 7.1 million impressions, and our click through rate was 0 point 3 5%, which is pretty good. We had a dedicated flight on Linkedin as well, because we're trying to appeal to people who work in office, also trying to tell the story about people who might businesses that want to move their offices to downtown boulder. So really focusing on that professional sort of b 2 b aspect of social media. And we're going to be kicking off our winter flight which actually went into play right before Thanksgiving. And we're now in the real throes of a holiday campaign. We're going to have a 2 page spread in the November 52, 80 edition, and we actually got an accidental inside cover placement in October 52, 80, and the cover said, I meant to bring it, and I was coming from another meeting, so I left it on my desk. But the cover says shop local, and then you open the inside, and it's older. So that felt like a nice little surprise. On the next slide

[25:13] you can see some of our Meta summary. So this is about the so bolder events work that we did around our stampede. There's a great little picture of Peggy. She does well always. Who doesn't love Peggy. We placed a carousel ad in the Denver market that did really well as well. And our our fall themed creatives are getting double the click through rates beyond the summer and spring. And that's really interesting. I think maybe we're hitting some of that football traffic and people who are back to school, and a little different way than maybe somebody who's coming to travel over the summer on the next slide. Maybe this is the yeah. This is the one with the video. Can you click on the 30 second spot? I don't know if the audio is gonna work.

[26:04] Did that open. said, but I'll tell you while she's trying to figure that out. Incidentally, that was that picture of the spot with the QR code. That's a new thing that we started running this year, and it's an ad that shows on cable television. And the idea is that you have your phone in your hand while you're watching TV. Well, then, pick up your phone and scan the QR code. It turns out people do that absolutely crazy. But they do. So that's been a really interesting investment. And we'll continue to invest in that, and if you can't load the spot, it's okay. We can send it out later, or hopefully, you'll see it on social. It is awfully adorable. If you feel like you're ready to get in the holiday spirit. Otherwise we can just go back to the deck. You know they're gonna have a heart is 5, 6,

[27:01] I mean, it's an archive. that's true, right in Denver. So boulder, too, so shop, small dine local and support the community that makes downtown boulder. So, boulder there was something about puffy jackets. Puffer season get puffed up. It's winter in downtown boulder, and you know what that means. Puffer jackets. So, boulder. Sure, we have that. But we also have over 220 locally owned stores and restaurants. That's so. Boulder, too. So shop, small dine, local and support the community that makes downtown boulder so boulder and just a fun fact. All of the models that we use in our marketing materials are affiliated with local businesses. So that's really fun. Sometimes you'll see somebody they'll come into a shop and be like, Hey, don't know me, I'm like, no, you just saw me on the side of the bus. All right, if you can go to the next slide.

[28:08] No, that's okay. They're just sort of the same. depending on, how much time you want to spend watching jingles. I have a question while we're waiting. How many do we know how many people come to Boulder to do an outdoor activity and then come downtown like, do we have a sense of? If people are coming here? I'm just thinking like, why would someone from Denver come to Boulder. Mostly it's high. or to do some sort of like outdoor activity, or go to Eldora like we're kind of on the way. Have we specifically marketed like in the kind of outdoor outdoor activity. Then come also eat in boulder. Come also shop in boulder. Absolutely. Yeah. And that's part of what that whole so Boulder campaign is predicated on is, it's like you're getting the whole experience right. You have a hike. You have a beer. You have a tea at the tea house. It's it's the holistic experience. And while we don't actually know exactly why somebody comes to Boulder, I will tell you a really fun, anecdotal

[29:15] thing, which is not scientific, but is a true story. Yeah. I was walking behind some people, and one of my favorite things to do is eavesdrop when I'm wandering on just for market research purposes and I heard some people say, God! I would much rather drive an hour to come shopping in boulder than go to like Cherry Creek, and I, said I, I almost want to interrupt them and say, Can I record you for the next. You know board meeting that I have to go to but the fact is that people really do. They do come here to to explore the Pearl Street Mall. It's a it's a destination. and the brands that they can't get anywhere else. Boulder bookstore is also a giant destination for people to come, and the sun died and savvy the best block. No, we don't have best blocks. Our social media. These are just some summaries here of some of our

[30:09] our search firms, search terms. Our email traffic continues to do really? Well, hopefully, you're subscribed to all of those. But those are a really good way of peppering information. We have real estate, we have booty Friday, and then we have employment as well. So all of those are doing well. We also have our business newsletters, our member newsletters, as well as different notifications that go out to our constituents, our members, the property owners and people, when there are shoplifting incidents and things like that. That's not part of our marketing campaign, but it is part of the work that we do internally. You can go to the next slide. I'm very happy to give you an update. The last time I was here I shared with you. That our ambassador, statistics and metric reporting system. The smart system was not actually so smart after all, because they were going through a revision to go to the 2.0. And Elder was one of the test markets because

[31:06] we love our new technology here. And unfortunately, we lost a lot of data from certain months. But we've recaptured some of that, and so we're able to track that better now. And I also sent out in your report the Q. 3 ambassador report. So we're getting more consistent with those reports. We're hoping that they can also be disseminated to a larger group of people so they can see the impact of the work the ambassadors do. I know. I say this every time, but I'll just remind you a lot of times. The work that ambassadors do is invisible because you can't see something that they have already removed. So we had some really high cleaning stats in September and October. I want to also really shout out the graffiti removal. There was a huge issue. After a city council meeting people went through, and I think they put in about 11 different tags all around downtown, and our team cleaned them up within

[32:00] maybe 6 or 7 h. It was gone. So really, having eyes on the prize to make sure that we know what needs to be cleaned and get it done quickly. We rely on people to report those issues because we try to be everywhere at once. But we are overseeing 49 blocks. Crazy amount of feeding. Yeah, is that like, I know, it's just the past 2 months. Is that unusually Hi or is that it was high. It was high because of this one that this group of people who are out really with the message that they wanted to spread But yeah. if they get fined for that, or we just continue to pay the cleanup, you know, I don't think the police department has left. But we definitely filed a report on that specific one. And if there is an instance where it's like a repeated message showing up again and again we make sure to work with our partners at Pd. And say, Hey. are you aware of this? Can you, you know, try to find out who this person is. Well, I think it's like the business kid, I mean. Look how much money, how much time it is to remove that times. You know what we pay?

[33:09] There's definitely a business case for specifically targeting those our repeat graffiti offenders. If it's a money right? Question, yeah? And then some of us just kind of random things. You go to the next slide. Here's just some more photos. We have changed our hours of operation. So we are Sundays, 8 to 6, Mondays, 8 to 7, 30, and then Thursdays and Saturdays were 12 and a half hours a day. The ambassadors just did a bunch of work on the East End cleaning out some of the East End planters. Those are going to be decorated for the holidays, and in addition to the ambassador work. We also have a contractor who's coming in and putting up all of the lights that will be ready force. It's on the holidays on November 24, th

[34:03] can you go to the next slide, please? So some of our really fun programs and events that we had in October we had World Singing day, which is great time. We were actually going to be taking over the operations of World Singing Day. It's been run by an independent person, and he is bestowing this event upon us, so next year it will belong to downtown boulder, and we'll put our own special spin on it. But that was definitely a good time, and then last week the Munchkin masquerade was phenomenal. We had a great turnout, no incidents whatsoever, no whispers about a Mall crawl, which I was very relieved about from my 1st October, and we had. We had really record people we had. We had people who gave away a lot of candy. We did notice that our pedestrian counts were down, but some of that could have been just where the pedestrian cameras are located versus how the traffic is one of our specific areas that we've really tried to focus on for

[35:02] the Munchkin masquerade this year was making sure that the East End was activated, and there were. There was a wonderful balloon vendor who put up balloon sculptures. That kind of kept the eye going up and down the block. And it was really fun to see. I think I walked 18,000 steps that day, and I just went back and forth, back and forth, and seeing the traffic on the east end of the Mall was was really special, and to see those businesses get engaged in this thing that sometimes can just be a little bit mall focused. That ended up being really fun. And I was there. I was. It felt it felt very crowded on the Mall, and I was. That was just an opportunity to like put things like the balloons. But perhaps even other things on the East Side to like drop people there, because I've heard people. I don't go because it's so crowded because I was asking. It's true, and I'm like, Well, it's easy to get pizza like that's why we go. But I'm wondering if they're like you could probably draw more people to the East End, because, oh, it's not as crowded. And we have this like specific thing like a haunted house, or you know something.

[36:06] Perhaps if there's money or more interest in that. But I I do think people actually don't go because it's crowded. And more people might go to the East End if there was an attraction there. Yeah, yeah, totally. And I mean, we had a record number of businesses who signed up to participate. I think we had 81 businesses sign up with us. So they were on the digital map that people were looking at, and then there were other folks who, you know, signed up that didn't Rsvp. Which is fine. They were just sort of part of the party. But I agree, yeah, there's definitely opportunity. And people were taking advantage of the space up there for sure. That felt new to like. It's normally pretty sparse down there, so that felt good. Yeah. Good. Good! What was your favorite piece of candy? What about the best candy? I only eat chocolate. So whoever had probably Reese's peanut butter gums. I've convinced, my children they're only

[37:00] that's normal to only eat one piece of candy per day, Max, so like pick your one candy. They're still very young, so we'll see how long that lasts, for I used to tell my child that one day an ice cream truck. It was a music truck. My favorite was Fnbo, or one of our sponsors for the event. They gave out these green pig noses, and they had their giant green, inflatable pig. And so I kept seeing people wearing these green pig noses. And I was like, is that a political statement? Fuel? Yeah, they were giving out giant chocolate bars that were like this big. So they got none of this. I know this one quickly, because they were huge. Yeah.

[38:00] alright enough enough trick or treat talk. Let's go on to the next slide. So I just want to show you some highlights from the intercept survey. I'm not going to go into too much detail here because you can. You can read through it. And it is. There's quite a lot of data in there. But 1st of all. I just want to thank the Community Vitality Department for partnering with us on this survey. We've done it every single year or every other year since 1995. And that gives us this really long piece of data where we can see over time what people's behaviors are, why, they're coming downtown. And this year we had. If you can go to the next slide. we got 775 respondents, and that's a really big deal, because at the beginning of the summer we thought we probably weren't going to make it. It was really hot, and we were facing some survey fatigue. It was a long survey, which means we got a lot of data. But it also means that the people who actually participated in the survey had to stand there for like 30 min, and that's quite a commitment to make, despite that, though we really did get some excellent things, and

[39:10] the surveys were conducted between July 19th and September 16.th So we really saw a whole gamut of like full on summer vacation heat, you know, afternoon rainstorms, and then into kind of like back to school. Football season has started what is happening when people come downtown. If you can go on to the next slide. We did what the biggest takeaway. And what I'm going to ask everybody in this room to sort of be an ambassador of this message is that locals are coming downtown. Locals are coming downtown. Say it with me. Locals are coming downtown just over half of the respondents who are from Colorado were from Boulder versus 43% in 2018. So that actually means that people are reporting coming from Boulder more than they were pre pandemic

[40:02] there were fewer downtown residents and I'm not sure what to attribute that to. It may be that people who live downtown are a little bit afraid of people carrying clipboards, and so they just wouldn't stop to converse with them, thinking that we might be asking them for money, or some kind of petition, or something like that. But there was an increase from South Boulder and from gun barrel. A quarter of the respondents among locals lived in North Boulder, and so there have been a lot of housing developments built in North Boulder, a lot more people moving to gun barrel that just correlates with sort of housing, and where people live predictably, the Elbards are really where people come from, and Broomfield, and then the top States for visitation were California, Texas, and Illinois, and that has been unchanged for the boulder tourism market, for I think time immemorial is the scientific term. But those are really. That's where people come from. So yeah, I've I've covered this if you go to the next slide.

[41:09] I think I covered that. This was good news that we have so many people coming from long haunt in in. just simply because the Longmont downtown has really flourished in the last 4 or 5 years. And it's great to know that their residents are still coming to Boulder, because we have that special older magic, whether they're coming here because they work here and they're enjoying their time after work or before work still shows that we have a market share there. Interestingly, our market share from Denver did drop considerably, and I don't really know how to interpret that. But that's a piece of information for you to chew on on the next slide. I talked a little bit about this. Where do people live coming from downtown.

[42:02] you know. Go to the next slide. This is another really interesting one, right? So we invest a significant amount of money, of time and energy into, how do we market? And it by far the best way that people are finding out about how to come to boulder is word of mouth. So how do you buy word of mouth by making sure that when people come downtown themselves they are having a good positive experience, so that they want to tell their friends. Then we pay them $20 to buy the French. No, just kidding. That's that's not a campaign that we've started yet, but this is just sort of one of those marketing tropes that we know to be true, and it was proved by this intercept survey. We did see a rise in social media as a way that people were finding out and magazine articles were down, so that sort of correlates, just with the general way that people are consuming media on the next slide. I think there's something there also, like we have a lot of friends in Denver. and like to the extent that people invite their friends in Denver to come to boulder versus vice versa, like it does have a you know. There's a lot of interplay between that. It would have an impact like at scale.

[43:11] But I wonder I don't know. Maybe people are inviting their friends to come to Boulder last weekend we we did see? That there is a an uptick in people coming to shop. That's great for the retail industry. We saw a downtick in people coming to dine not so good for the restaurant industry. We saw a marked decrease from 28 to 2024 in hanging out and people watching, which is just sort of an interesting thing, because the Poultry mall is this incredible 3rd place, where you can just sort of sit and watch humanity pass you by. I have a theory that maybe some of the people who are coming downtown to hang out and people watch, watch the people take the survey and know that they don't want to take the survey, because they watch somebody taking 30 min out of their day. But that's

[44:04] solely between the switchers. Insight into the survey. But it they did. There's also a down tick in coming down for employment or a job. So that is in line with everything we know about office vacancy and people working from home. Can you go to the next item event attendance? We saw that people reported. Really, there's a decrease for coming to the farmers market, which is quite odd, because I talked to Mckenzie quite a lot from Boulder County Farmers Market, and their numbers are actually up. So again, this might be a sort of self-reported thing. I don't think there's any major challenge there. The farmers market is doing well, but just an interesting point of data. The events like bands on the bricks and the Creek Fest and Pearl Street Arts Fest. They do draw people but fewer than before Covid, and nearly half of the county residents said they didn't attend any of the listed events.

[45:03] I'm not sure what to attribute that to. It could be that there are more options in competing markets. And so there's a different free concert that they could go to every day of the week. Maybe they're wanting to stay home and watch movies. Maybe it's too hot. They want to be in air conditioning. I don't know but that's just an interesting piece of data on the next slide. I'm almost done. Thank you for this level of granularity here. this is a super super interesting. Stat, so in 2018, the average total spending, not including their hotel room, is $61 in 2024. It's $116, right? So we all know stuff is more expensive right now. That's just a fact. But we also saw that people are spending 4% of them are spending more than $500. Right? So this is skewing the average in this really interesting way, like people are dropping. They're not. If they've got money, they are not afraid to spend money. If they don't have money, they don't want to spend money

[46:02] right? So that you've got people who are spending less than a hundred dollars, and then you've got this right here. And I think this is just sort of representative of like the missing middle class in our country. But again, that's purely patina Swinger conjecture. It was not brought to you by our Rc. Associates. Survey that's connected to the farmers market like it's very expensive. but like there's a lot of wealthy people visiting, but also new people moving to Boulder, who likely are placing people who have been like, well, things have gotten really expensive in Boulder. So I'm not going to go to those places. But new people. It's like for filling the gap. Sure. Yeah. People, yeah. it's really wasn't yet. Okay. his. Can you go to the next like. this is just a little bit more. That is not

[47:02] super surprising. Knowing that things are more expensive. It jumped dramatically in the last 2 years. Interestingly, though, we did have our retail outpacing, our restaurant spending in 2024. This is just some general demographic research. and then on the very last slide, if you can take me to the end. you you just you just mentioned it. You said that right. This is the trend toward more affluent visitors downtown. So what do we do with that? How do we create space for people who are not in that top demographic while also accepting the dollars that include the sales tax and the investment of the people who are in that higher income bracket and are nerving neighbors. This is the challenge that we're dealing with in 2024. So thanks for taking the time to go through that with me, there's way more data. And we did post the entire survey results on our website. It's on the business resources Tab, if you want to dig into it with more information.

[48:00] and I think that's all I've got, and just one a quick comment. I I've been noticing that Dbp has put those really nice signs on all the vacant East End businesses which I had wanted that to happen like a long time ago, because that block, that 700 block is very vacant. So I just wanted to say that I appreciate that. And I think it really helps. Well, thank you. And we actually did that in partnership with the city. So thank you to our partners at the city for helping us. you know where at that. When did they gonna tear down that building? I hope. Block here they have all this like track. Big 1st floor vacancies we do. Okay? And are, is that been pretty consistent? 1st floor vacancy? We do not have a 1st floor vacancy problem in downtown boulder. It simply does not exist. I know there's some spaces on the east, the side of East Boulder. But if you compare to an industry standard like anything above 14 is considered a problem, and we're

[49:14] maybe at like 4 or 5%. If that we, the problem that we have is office second, 3, rd that's where our budget. And it's just it's upside down. It's upside down from other downtowns. Yeah, so I don't. I'm not saying I think it's a problem compared to other places, but it's noticeable, because it's so small. So it just feels like any business that shuts down like main check. Just shut down like you just notice. Yeah. But then more, you just notice it more. So the signs make a big difference. But when we're so concentrated, we're gonna people notice every business it shuts in. I think when you're walking past a block. any other questions. If you have no good food.

[50:02] and Owen The lazy dog like is open yet. It is not open yet, but they took down the fencing on Friday. So it looks so much better now. And I mean they're working on that thing, you know, day and night. Yeah. they've actually had a hiring call as well. What's happening with the former bed. does anyone know so like Patina doesn't even nibbles? Well, I'm glad that she finally that's been bacon for like about a year. It's the West End. Yeah. Space is getting a lot closer as well. So a lot of the vacant spaces that you do see, do have.

[51:18] Oh, then. but not the medicine. There is a new French bakery coming into the old shop house. Oh, that's yes, so we don't have a French bakery. That's good. That's that's good. Intel, Tina had to leave you with something. Thank you. It could be cute or red. Okay, so we can move on to matters from Staff

[52:05] Chair first.st We've got Matt Shazanski with the 1st couple items to be leading. We've got some participation from others Commercial Improvement district analysis. Thank you. so just take a few minutes. We we're able to get a presentation to the Council. Got some feedback on both the improvement district analysis and the commercial areas blueprint. So just a quick refresh the improvement district analysis is the near term. What are we going to do to create efficiencies and work on government over the next year or a few years, and the commercial area blueprint is to do the deep dive into what we should do over the next few decades and other than a few like sort of specific recommendations on focus areas to eventually start to dig into. There's just enthusiasm on council. and a real curiosity about joining that conversation. So

[53:04] you know, jumping from that, we put out an Rfp for the 1st phase of that, the improvement district analysis that's on the streets right now that we've got a deadline of November 20 second and so we will review those, and get the consultant on board and get that project done very quickly. The timeline is looking at having our 1st set of deliverables as soon as April for that to line up with the city's budget cycle. So it's definitely something that we'll be back to next meeting and talk in more detail about how that's going. Try to unfold very quickly. And alright. we might be reaching out to you between meetings we not as body. But if us anything we've got at that point, we don't have like drafts or anything. So is this identifying.

[54:14] So they're new improvements to the improvement districts or new improvement districts. It's gonna it's gonna analyze the options that we have within improvement district structures. So there's a handful of different types of improvement districts, including general improvement districts that State law allows municipalities to deploy. We're gonna take a look at what our options are in the current situation to make improvements to things like taxation levels, governance types of improvement districts, maybe even into some border changes and things like that. But we're really looking at the immediate future of for general.

[55:00] Okay, yeah. So we're talking about governance structure. Yeah, okay. Chris, do you have anything to add on? I'd say that the biggest thing that we'll be considering. That would be relevant for the Documentary Commission is the conversations around the possibility of down to a development Authority that could incorporate a boundary that includes University of Hill. Possibly, and also, as we see ways to fund things that we know that nobody wants to see as well. So group connection between them that, too, could be leveraged with resources that we have through Cajun there to to more resources of their so more to come 1st is this financial analysis to understand your options? What? How can be raised by this

[56:00] for future missions? So is that connected to the fact that the University Hill did is that the has such little funds allocated? So is there like a lack of funds to work on the connection between the 2? Exactly. Yes, it's all. I'll never let them look at that. So yeah, a big part of the work is actually related to our challenges for financing, for projects in the hill area. and then challenges in Boulder Junction, where you have 2 overlapping districts that have different mill levies and some things, and some desire to expand Gid benefits to the new developments.

[57:02] So we've got different trade offs that we need to be evaluating. Where is the breakup point of the downtown to the east. 21st street or something, but then there's like No Man's Land between between that and they received the standard level of support from the city as opposed to the premium. I definitely feel like now that with the Moxie Hotel like. Think, there needs to be a little bit more focus on the hill for sure. like it's interesting like, welcome to you families. My mom has a store on the hill, and I'm like I don't pay him a lot up there like it's so it's I mean, we know these students. Parents are going up there. And now even more so now that there's going to be more so. I don't know. They're just. It seems like you can like

[58:01] 20 extra copies, whoever prints up. But I got in Budget. It's I don't know who pave. There is not a business improvement district. So that's certainly something that we'll consider through this work is other options for the Hill to fund things like that right? We can't have them taking away from all the work we're doing down here. People have a bad taste in their mouth. They don't know the boundary. They're gonna think it's 1 thing. So I guess the last thing I'll say on this is like I said in the commercial district, Dallas officer. The commercial areas blueprint is that longer term vision and there will be some work coming up in the course of the next year or so on that. but that is mostly tied into the update of the comprehensive plan.

[59:00] So if you want to get involved early, or you know, people who really want to get involved early on the long term future and help with the General improvement district. The 1st step is to state comprehensive plan update outreach. So yeah, perfect moving on. We want to share with you all our draft. 2025 work plan. This is still in development. But this is the time of year that you take a look at it. Priorities there anticipate. We're going to be having this at our time, resources capacity in the year ahead. So just want to share with you all where we're at in that journey. So that's Matt. And it says my name on here. But it's obvious. We're all gonna weigh in on this. So let me just advance this. So just a reminder that community vitality across all our work groups, we have a strategy centered around these 3 pillars district vitality, cultural vibrancy and access for all.

[60:07] And in order to accomplish goals in those areas, we've divided that work up into these divisions. And so, as we go through some very high level work plan elements kind of give you a taste of what we have in mind. We'll see it broken up in these areas. And the work planning it is a draft. It is something that's being developed across all city departments right now that rolls up into city council priorities and a citywide work plan. And so this all integrates with a lot of work going on in a lot of departments. So it's it's a draft. It's a high level draft, and it's something that connects to a lot of different work plans. So it's something we're going to talk about all year. Any questions you have. Just slow us down, ask, and we'll get your detail on this. But I think yes, we're gonna start with Christine. Okay, so you want to go through some of these. Yeah. So parking and access services,

[61:03] we have kind of like 4 or 5 different groups of folks, because we've always referred to maintenance and capital improvements as one group. But in reality we're starting to break them into 2 takes 2 groups to manage those separate things as well as customer service kind of blends with the parking and access evaluation stuff, and then also enforcement, just to make sure that all the things are working too. So parking and access some of the big projects that we have going on this year, there's a term in the industry called mobility hub. So getting away from just parking garages. And how do you get different types of multimodal into a parking garage. So we're starting to evaluate that, especially since we know that we're making investments in the parking garages. How do we take that moment and start to make those investments in infrastructure as well as wayfinding in into the garages. We talked about that last time as well as parking a parking code update with planning and development services, planning and development services is looking at a very large parking code update. And we are coming to the table for, like the neighborhood management program which it doesn't impact Cajun or Dnc, but

[62:11] it takes up a lot of time. So some of the annual business stuff that we work on is the residential access management program known as Ramp Chautauqua Access Management program and the On street performance based pricing. So we're evaluating that every single year to try to figure out what's going on with demand and manage that so that it's a little bit more equitable processing customer service. Our team is on the front lines dealing with anybody, with any questions about vendor manage like if you've got a vendor on the Mall, they manage everything from them to neighborhood parking pro programs, all sorts of stuff. So they're answering lots of questions all day long. But some of their big projects we are looking at pursuing accreditation, just as our entire parking organization which we're doing really, really well. And there are a couple of projects that we're going to have to increase our performance in certain areas in order to meet industry best practices. So this you'll see this end up on all of the different work groups priorities for this

[63:19] so just tightening things up and then permit pricing implementation. But annually they're dealing with customer service issues. All of the parking permits for Chautauqua commuters, businesses, neighborhoods as well as garages and vendor products. So they're staying busy all year round. The next one maintenance and capital improvements. So again, the accredited parking organization also requires certain level of performance of our garages. Hence all of the investments in our garages, as well as we are finally going to be starting construction on our 1,100 spruce garage to make things even nicer. Really excited to try this out. Cmgc is construction manager, general contractor just to remind everybody. So we're hiring one contractor who will manage all of the subs and

[64:08] hoping that this will be more streamlined process. We're also working on a 10 Year Strategic Asset Management plan. So we will know what we're working on in all of our facilities across Cajun Eugene all over for the next decade, which will be nice to know what we're doing. And annually we're working on capital improvements, managing assets and cages on the hill and then the on street parking, meter management. We take care of all of the on-street throughout the city. Fun! Fact. I calculated all the square footage of all of our pages of buildings alone. And it's nearly 1 million square feet that's just of our caged building. That's just the building that's not including this on street parking. That's not including all of the other facilities up on the hill. That's and we have a grand total of 9 people who do this work. And so we partner closely with downtown boulder partnership. So we

[65:07] They are doing a fantastic job of managing block by block, who provides the medium ambassadors downtown. So they were working on a lot of the asset infrastructure. And they're working on the day to day operations. So it's a really delicate balance between the bid and the city, and how all of this work is done, and other departments of the city. Of course. Yes, again, that standard level of service that transportation maintenance provides throughout the city. we rely heavily on them. Public utilities, parks, and recreation. Yes, of course, our partners downtown partnership, and our team of 9 managing lumber and billing. It's very interesting. just facilities like there's so much more than facilities. But yes, so they're busy.

[66:00] and our enforcement team is just as busy because they are also working on Ipmi accreditation as well as they have to manage every single paid parking spot throughout the city. Special events, parking management ramp enforcement camp enforcement. When there are emergencies. Our team is trained in traffic management so they can step in an emergency. So. And that's a group of 14. So the teams are small but mighty didn't see. Here it is. It's on our plan. hey, Christine? Yeah, I will have more information, but probably Q. 2, of 2025. The issue is so much of the work is concrete and concrete has to be done when it's 50 degrees and rising so it can't be done for time. Very exciting. Wish us luck. It won't be more details, garage closures to an absolute minimum.

[67:02] but there will be. but we will communicate in advance as much as possible with everybody. So you think everything. My goal is hopefully working and out of there in 3 to 4 months, getting everything done. But I don't know what the what the closure plans would look like. So once, that is, that's 1st first, st and our goal is to hit one garage per year, so that we're not having like the scattershot. We're closing this one down for 2 weeks, and then that one for 3. And then we're trying to create a cadence that everybody understands. We're directing people to park. So there's lots of space always at St. Julian. Plenty of space over there. There's lots of space at Rtd. There's lots of space at 1,500 pearl. So the customer service team has to manage all of the communication with all permit holders, letting them know where they are assigned to for that period of time, and then we also have to run pretty intense marketing campaigns to let people know like, Hey, this garage is closed. But please go to this location. Yes.

[68:11] yeah. Good. Good. Yep. Moving on to our District management Work group, which is Rigging Lane, following Halloween. Another small but mighty team. So we're hitting very high level and yes, interns and lots of support. So one thing that we're going to be focused on starting actually, kind of now and into next year is taking a look at our mobile vending cart program reviewing the criteria and the process, and also just to look and feel to make sure that we're getting the best experience and also supporting businesses who want to enter into a business on Pro Street through that want to take a look at all of that. So we're going to examine that closely. And propose some improvements that coming up

[69:03] also, as you know, Rtd eco passes are going to be expanded. And so, as we, as part of our annual business cycle, took a take a look at all of our transportation contracts. be deploying more resources to get all of our part time workforce onto the Rtd Eco pass. We're gonna start work on the 50th anniversary of the Pearl Street Mall that's going to be across departmental team. It's gonna involve some very important partners in the community. And make sure that when we celebrate in 2 years time that it's gonna it's gonna be a celebration worthy of the importance of Street Mall to the hearts and minds of people in Boulder. So, starting to work on that. Now we talked about some of these other things. Did want to highlight the University Hill streetscape improvements that's going to be in collaboration with our friends of transportation and mobility, and taking a look at the mediums on Broadway and some improvements along the commercial area to make sure that there's a great experience.

[70:11] I won't go into the annual business cycle. But I I do want to highlight something. You're going to hear more about your commercial program in a second. And I also wanted to highlight outdoor dining. We're going to be entering into another year of that pilot, making agreements, trying to deploy more resources and make sure that maintenance is taken care of, so that there's nothing to worry about. As those street furniture determinates. So you know, while we're on this slide. We are in these negotiations for the space that's been vacated by symmetry. 3, 60, the recommended spruce. There's more space there. We're looking for a tenant for the base nx space here. 1,500 pearl we do have

[71:02] tenant I identified for the kiosk nothing side yet. So what we're sharing it doesn't work out. Moved it there in the 1st area. It's funny. I just noticed the other day I was driving this yellow thing right at Tian. Yeah, that's really good idea sticking out. But that's on me. Yeah. that's foolish price. But there's limited. So over to the office of Arts and culture. This is a very brief how to do it. Very brief overview of we just had our our work plan meeting today, and it got but wanted to highlight just like there's going to be a boulder. Commercial areas blueprint. There's also going to be a boulder arts blueprint. That's a strategy document we produce next year.

[72:11] I'll probably come and talk to you about that at some point during the year, because downtown being the cultural center of Boulder, and we want to make sure that we ask all the right questions about the strategy for the next few years for the office arts and culture. And that's going to be around things that you see in this annual business cycle, which again, is very brief. But the cultural grants program, public art our civic dialogue program, including boulder Arts week and our collaborations with the visitors. Bureau the Public art maintenance and public art tours. Our programs for artists are, you know, we have programs for professional development of arts professionals in our nonprofits. And so, taking a look at all of that with the blueprint. Some other stuff coming up. Is there a owner of like the

[73:02] what is the overall? Look and feel that we're going for with art in boulder. Or is it just like we like this artist and thing? Not that that's bad, just like yay, let's just do that, or let's do that. Or is there like an overall like we want to increase this feel of this type in the downtown with art or something? So each a new permanent piece of public art does have a selection panel that is formed of community members that are specific to that project. Now, there's some exceptions that with murals and temporary artwork. There's a standing selection panel that kind of oversees those. But the community weighs in on each and every one, and so a as far as like, look and feel those criteria that's designed by those selection panels specific for the project.

[74:00] And then artists propose ideas. And that's how they respond to to those criteria. Now that, said the current community culture plan, which is sun setting, does say that there are some like gaps in the collection. There's some things that this community values very highly, and we want to tell the story of Boulder through these artworks. And so it has recommendations to the selection panels on how they could approach some of those needs in the community for works of public art. The Arts Commission is the one that sort of is our voice for the fact. And so there's an Arts Commissioner that sits on every community selection panel, and one of their responsibilities is to carry forward. Got it. Yeah, I was on one of those, and it it felt little bit more influenced by the people and their preferences about like what ended up being chosen right, which is, I would say, perhaps maybe it's representative. It's hard to know, but I could see that, like it might not be cohesive throughout the city.

[75:02] If each selection panel was just choosing what they liked best. and you know it, it's hard because it is subjective decision that people have to make right, especially about art, about what do you like? And so what we do is rely on selection panels to have those conversations and inject at the right times public inquiry and some professional advice, and try and have a staff technical panel that weighs in. So I can't say that like we'll be able to curate. I'm not. I'm not critiquing it. It just doesn't feel like there's a a feel like it's obvious that no one wants like animals, mountains. outdoor stuff like, if that type of stuff never really seems to be chosen, which is very like stereotypical. like older, but not as seen in the arts, as I would say, so it's like, and then the last cultural plan. There's an observation that maybe we have enough of that. And we want to like, have some variety. Yeah. And just so, the blueprint is the place where we get to have that kind of input. I'm not saying, I want to have a role in this. I'm just saying that sometimes I felt there's a disconnect between the arts

[76:10] and what people think about Boulder, and maybe that's intentional. But it's also like, are we wanting to be a premier outdoor destination city, or are we not? Or we want to be kind of something else, or something different, like it seemed like art is a way to tell a story. Exactly. What is the story that we're telling? I'm not sure what story we're telling. Well, and that's intentional, and you were sort of right in the way you framed. That is that each selection panel is kind of telling their own story right? That changes when you start to look at the collection as a whole, or it's really big projects. So one thing that's going to be coming up in the next 2 years is the Western City campus. Big project over at Alpine balsam big investment. There's going to be a lot of art. And so we're sort of backing out and saying like, instead of a discrete neighborhood project, that we want to address a couple of communities. This is going to be about the entire community and the story that we tell there. So there's going to be some fluctuations.

[77:08] But to your other point is like the the message of what boulder is does get conveyed by our art? Yeah. And when we asked that question in 2015, in the original cultural plan. there was this sentiment that was put forward by a lot of people in the community saying, we have the outdoor art. We have the bronze realism. We don't tell our story as a contemporary world city, right? And so that was one thing that was before there. I don't know that we've accomplished that goal to be honest. But that's another question. Yeah. And then there might be like a new intentional okay for the next 5, 10 years. And we're trying to get the middle between local input and a curated intention. But we do want that voice to be part of the conversation. So that's where you need to wait. Another thing that's happening. I put 9 new public art projects. Oh, right above that. There you go. We do have a timeline for next year to get the PC. Garage installed

[78:06] lining up with construction project. Christine's got going on, so we'll keep you updated on that. But looking forward to cutting the rib on that sure so surprised. Over the office of special events. There's some new projects coming up, I mean, Justin works hard on getting those permits process, keeping those events safe working across departments on turning gears. But we're taking a look after recommendations from Boulder social streets, that series, that transportation planning put together as well as program recommendations that we got in that planning exercise we did earlier this year. We're going to be taking a look at several streets around the city as possible. Event streets kind of like we have up at the hill. And seeing if there's new, easier ways to get people to deploy events onto the streets and then eventually sponsor those and make sure that happens. So that's something that's going to be an exciting thing comes up 1st half of next year. We provide a special events guide maybe a little bit easier to read and a little bit less weight, so it doesn't hurt your arms while you're lifting it.

[79:18] And then improving our sponsorship progress program. We for special events. We have certain sponsorships that we give out to groups, help with things like 0 waste costs, or to try and guide certain events. That are filling the gap in the community. And so we'll be improving that process next year. Any other questions about this this slide. the Elliot. and talk about business services, the the machinery that keeps us all running. And all of this so we do have a few discrete projects. We're going to try to tackle in business services. The city is as a citywide project. They're working on them tree for the term long term financial strategy. So part of that is us diving deep into our revenue sources and uses. So really trying to make sure we can correlate

[80:10] the dollars we create with our revenue streams and the dollars we spend on the community. So it's a little bit of a tangent from the long term financial strategy, but it's very directly correlated. You've heard a lot about Placer AI and a lot of the data that we're collecting there. So the evaluation and analysis of not just that data, but also what are some of the things that we do to measure how successful we are as an organization that supports this community will be something that we are also looking at. Some of the not so fun stuff is the Mou and agreement development. So we make sure we really have a clear understanding of who manages what and what they manage, and when it's going to be something, we're really going to be spearheading a lot with business services kind of taking the lead on that. And then, of course, we have a new Erp and enterprise resource planning tool Aka workday that we're transitioning to. So that's going to be a big lift for business services team to help support the department in that transition.

[81:11] The rest is just annual business cycles and supporting the lovely work that these folks do budgets. But you know budgets are standing for our priorities. That's right. You're right. So that that wraps us up. That is the highlights for a work plan. Chris, do you have anything else you wanted to assume? No, because I wanna make sure we keep moving. And this is our draft work plan. So there, everything is contingent on analyzation, resources capacity. So there might be some short term. But this is where we're same very exciting, forward thinking. Can I ask a question. how or how does or does not your work plan interact with like the 5 Year Vision Plan, or whatever we were talking about a while ago? I forget the name of it.

[82:09] Remember? Oh, the vision downtown vision. So the vision plan will certainly be a major input to blueprint work. Okay? So it is certainly part of our conversation, and not just that other departments of the city. All these work plans feed up into a citywide work plan because there are a lot of cross department dependencies. That's why we're doing this work now because we get it all boarded into the citywide work plan spreadsheet. There's dashboards available online priorities to make sure that there's transparency across the organization. And with the community oops

[83:00] as far as the downtown vision plan goes, that is certainly available agent in place. Yeah. thank you. Thank you. Guys. Next we got Regan for an update on our portable commercial pilot program. This is not good. That's name tags. Oh, there we go like that. Okay. it's gone. Zoom in a little bit. Okay, that's good. All right. Affordable commercial grant pilot program Update

[84:01] quickly go over the agenda. I'll remind you all the purpose of this work. Go over the review and scoring process that we followed to ultimately select grantees. And then I'll go over some next steps. So as a reminder. The purpose of this work is to address a gap in the market for more affordable commercial space and increase opportunities for small local business community to thrive in our commercial centers. and the Grant program was available to eligible eligible property owners. property managers, new business ventures, who were proposing to renovate or repurpose existing commercial space with the requirement that they provide long term affordability to multiple plans. So we received a total of 5 applications.

[85:00] We to review those applications. We convened a review panel which consisted of city staff. So myself and Jennifer Pinsono. She's in the city manager's office and oversees the economic vitality program. Dan King is a consultant with the Small Business Development Center, Sbdc. Claudia Sanchez. She is a community connector. So for those of you who are maybe unfamiliar community connectors is a city program that works with community members to represent underserved communities within the city, and those members become involved in the city projects and programs to really help the city make better decisions and elevate the voices of these historically underserved communities. And then, lastly, Commissioner Calvin serves to represent Dmc. As as a non-voting member. Applications were scored on the following criteria. So supports for local small businesses

[86:06] impact feasibility and then project longevity. Is there kind of like a long term impact and affordable component. And the criteria were broken down even further, and posed specific questions that really helped guide the review panel to make decisions and scoring, and the highest scoring applications were recommended for funding. So again we received 5 applications, and these 3 outlined here. were the highest scoring, and we were able to fully fund all 3 of them. So that includes Kgnu community radio proposing a project south of Pearl on 14th Street. top hat supply on East Pearl, and then the new local over on the West end, and I'll dive into each of these a little bit more.

[87:03] So, Kgnu. We awarded them for a grant that supports the renovation of their new 10,000 square foot community media center, which enhances their digital and broadcasting capabilities. So the project aims to provide affordable accessible space for community-based program in training in Boulder Civic Center. and their project proposal included a commitment of below market rental rates, not only for Kg and you, but also for a cafe space performance space meeting spaces that will be housed within that community media center with a long term affordability commitment of no less than 10 years. Top hats supply capital improvements and rent subsidies to help revitalize East Pearl and ensure arts. Representation remains in downtown boulder. The project supports over 30 artists annually, and is projected to engage over 200 visitors monthly.

[88:10] Housed in that space will be a working artist nonprofit, which will serve as an incubator space to provide more affordable space to artists in the community, and that'll also include studio and gallery representation, monthly open hours for artists, community cultural events, so really great opportunity to kind of revitalize the East End. And then, lastly, the new local, so a bit similar to the top hat project. This project is focused on the arts. and the grant will support heating upgrades for the space on West Pearl, but also provide a rent subsidy over at least the next 5 years. which will allow the new local to better support the sustainability and visibility of the women owned businesses that it supports without the overhead pressures.

[89:06] So in summary you know these applicants in this Grant pilot program will support projects that not only improve existing commercial spaces, but also enhance community access to arts, media and cultural resources. Can I ask you a question? Yeah, were any of these spaces vacant or previously? Top this top top half supply? And Kgnu, okay? So they're vacant. Okay, yeah, that's a new local. Yeah, exactly. Next steps. So currently finalizing scopes of work for these grantees that we awarded and just finalizing the agreements, the contracts. That we're going to be executing with them. The goal is to fund these projects and evaluate the successes and identify any opportunities for improvement.

[90:02] and we're budgeting for a future phase of affordable commercial. But this is a pilot program that we really help inform. But just as somebody that participated is kind of interesting is interesting to see who applied for it. And it. These selections feel like things that will it checked over with culture. I don't, since I'm invisible. Small business, right? Right? so yeah, I appreciate you. And I think kind of along the lines of what you're saying. I mean, one of the scoring criteria? Or the questions was, does the project provide additional community benefit? I think these 3 really stuck to that out of all 5?

[91:11] That's great, yeah, nice work. I I connected Reagan with another developer who said that what I want to help. But this felt too complicated for me, and like which I think is probably a certain swath of like major developers who are just like they don't do this sort of thing. This is like grant nonprofit stuff so, but I think he was willing, and I think other people probably are willing to try things. And so I think this does open the door to say, Hey, we have one successful program. This addresses this need. We're open to additional pilots that might not actually meet those goals, but might need some of their goals like, and I think there's clearly an interest in maybe filling space

[92:00] temporarily. which we still might want to do, that that still might be good for the city. Fill the space temporarily with underserved communities. Yes, when there's like a full paying tenant like maybe they can't stay. But maybe we could negotiate that. I think that's still a benefit to the community. We should still explore other pilots that are maybe not the ideal, but still better than vacant space, and people not, you know, being present. And but maybe it's gonna release the space. It's like also, how well you know their their business. like they have different goals. Vacant space is a vacant space, I mean. Well. just I'm sure they've done the analysis. And they're making a decision for some reason. Yeah. But I think getting more feedback from those who didn't participate. And what and other things they would be interested in is definitely good because

[93:00] there's a lot of need, and still a lot of for sure. And that'll be part of next steps, too, is doing additional community outreach and gathering that feedback. It's freaking. Now we have a working product. Update. Are you giving a I'm gonna do it on behalf of Sam. He's been leading the aims transition. So the last time we were here Sam gave an update on the parking product evaluation that we're going to engage in this coming year. So we had promised after we got feedback from you all that we would give you a general timeline of when we would take on these things so next slide. so as a reminder.

[94:02] some of even my computer's a little slow. Now we go Our objective is to achieve the highest and best use of the assets that we have. Thank you, Jen. And so the areas that we identified that we really wanted to focus on in terms of higher and best use is supporting all modes of transportation, downtown. managing, parking, demand across the district. maintaining safe, accessible, and activated district assets. consistent or creating a consistent parking experience across boulder supporting the the park, once philosophy and supporting the downtown economy next slide. So this is it. We are in the middle of work planning. So this is a tentative timeline. Things can flex and such as things come up, but wanted to give you a general idea of what we're what we're thinking about. That's fine. So we've talked about this ad nauseum. But we are doing facility assessments to figure out what needs to be addressed in each one of our garages, and then we are going to do the construction to address those deficiencies. So we've been doing structural assessments at 1,100 spruce. We did a safety assessment in the St. Julian

[95:14] because as we started this process, we were just thinking about the structure of the of the building. And then we realized that we also need to be thinking about safety. And now we're going to be applying structure and safety to to 1,500 pearls. So you'll notice that this one's a little jumpy if you will. But the Cmgc work we're going to start with spruce. and then, when it sounds like the Saint Julian's moving forward got through planning board with their expansion. So we're trying to time our work with their work. If they do continue their work. So that we're not creating too much noise at multiple times for people around there. So that one is in flux. And then after that we'll be coming to 1,500 pearl garage

[96:00] slide. Mentioned that we are looking at mobility hub infrastructure in all of these garages. So we found out about a grant through the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Dr. Cog. Last minute we threw our hat in the ring and applied, and we've gotten responses saying like asking more questions so hopefully, we'll have more information for you all about that. But hoping to secure some extra funds to do those mobility hub investments and strategy researching next slide. Permit pricing evaluation. I know last time we were here we were talking about permit pricing, and how quickly you wanted to escalate or not. And it turns out we have to follow the the budgeting process. So what was submitted to the Budget Office in April of this path of 2024 is going to be feeding the 2025 pricing. But we want to get ahead of that and give you guys an opportunity to provide feedback in early Q. 2, so that we can work it into the budget for 2026 budget. So we have a really long time

[97:09] when budgeting for the city. So we're getting that on our dockets. So that you guys have those opportunities. Also managing parking demand across the city, the way finding into the garages we will have to bring in a consultant and such in order to do that sort of work. So it all depends on resources and capacity on the team, so that one we know needs to happen. The timelines are in flux. That's a little little asterisk is about so fyi next slide and then supporting the downtown economy. So we really want to drive creative marketing campaigns to promote our current parking products. so again, this is one of those things that we need additional resources for. So as the as the work plan plays out, we'll know when this really would come online, based on staff capacity.

[98:04] and procurement timelines next wayfinding within the garages. We want to again, timelines in this one we want to install when or after the construction is done. So there's so many dependence externalities right now, so I can't give you a very, very clear timeline. But generally this is what we're thinking. So we would do. Staff kick ups, bring it to you all for feedback, install the signage, and then, 6 months to a year later, provide feedback on what didn't see our traffic patterns changed, etc, based on what we did next. Analyzing, parking products or analyzing products to identify unmet customer needs again depending on staffing and all of those things. This is the general timeline that works.

[99:02] You see that we're trying to build in ideas of when we bring things to y'all, so that you have an opportunity to weigh in because doesn't work very much doing that. So I guess the next next steps are. Do you guys have any questions or feedback on the proposed timelines? Or do you have any changes that Dmc would like to suggest? Because for me. The gotta gotta this year are really investing in the infrastructure, the lead time on procurement and the cost of not making investments in the facilities it takes its toll. So those are, those are my gotta gotta. But if you guys see something differently, I'd love your input as we're working to priorities. feel like we've talked about it. Very good. Yeah. Perceptions of of our assets to people that are visiting the city.

[100:03] how that plays into collecting and use. So it's very yeah. I just like wonder to change perception like they don't seem to notice little things or the big things. I mean, they're very expensive. I mean, like the upkeep and all that like. Do you have to do something like pretty big and drastic for people to actually like sense that something's different. I don't. I don't know. I think that's a question of like I was excited about the idea of like murals on the garage like that. Were that use like wayfinding and renamed and like rebranded, because marketing really drives perception, and, like the garage, is putting a lot into them. But, like people, might not change their perception unless there's something like outwardly.

[101:01] not even in right out, different about it. So that I mean the art. Obviously, on this 1st garage, like will be an example of that. But that was already people's favorite garage, anyway. So like, how do you raw people? Besides, there's open parking spaces to the other garages like I. I do think you might have to do something bigger like let's, you know, rename the garages, and have, like an some art defining thing that draws people there and said, Oh, like I know no one's gonna take my idea of the woodland animal scene. But I like the wolf, you know the like local boulder animals. We're really into that. We have art in our house that's like the owl, and it's in our neighborhood, and, like like those are things where people would be like. I'm gonna go to the owl garage like. I think the current mark. I I'm not saying we should do that. But those changing public perceptionist seems very outward to me, and less about the inward

[102:04] feel, because those people aren't going in. To begin with, they're just so. That's just my like. Do we have to do something big. perhaps, with our supervisor to like. get people to change their minds? I wouldn't be upset if it was the owl garage. But I love baby owls who doesn't love baby owls. By the next Dmc. Meeting we will be bringing in murals. There are murals that are going to be happening in this building, and one of them will be visible to the public. And there are animals. It's not necessarily part of a Mini garage.

[103:01] It might. That might not be what it takes. But it's more of the outward. Yeah, yeah, and we'll I'm hoping that the way finding in the garages would incorporate some of what you're talking about. So yeah, yeah, I don't want to be directed with what it looks like, yeah, my magic wands. I agree with you. There should be some identifying feature in each garage that helps people find they're normally like doesn't need to be in garages, but I think we're just trying to solve the particular problem of perception and differentiation I have to escape. My child is at school still. Well, I have after school until 6. So I have to hustle. And that concludes matters of time. Great. Okay? So I think that the matters from Commissioners, the Town Hall. The content was what Patina

[104:02] presented. It was a bit. There's a bit more there, but I do feel like you've got a good update on that. Do you have any questions in particular about the town Hall? She'll tell me how to make it. Mom. Informant. Okay. okay. And we have Elliot there presenting on the data this week. Yeah. yeah, I think I think there's a lot of interesting questions from the the big survey. People were very interested in that. And the takeaway that I heard at least was. What are we going to do with what we've learned? And how could people better work together on addressing some of those things, but that was just the overall feel. But I'm glad that I went, and I would recommend that

[105:01] you, too. go when they do that again, they're gonna do a late hours. So with that the next topic we have is 25, that 2,025 priorities. I have asked, first, st that we postpone that until dawn. at least on his back as the chair of the Commission, so we will push that to the next dead or anything. That's okay. And will we have a sense of council priority? The after that, right? So counts because they're gonna be in the midterm. They're not doing a retreat. They're not shifting authority. So just double check. So they're not asking for

[106:01] a letter from commissions this year. So we just we put this on here just acknowledging that there are 2024 priorities. and they have a lot of them. Yes, and maybe they are staying the same or maybe it's time for retreat where there's a spectrum of very strange for 2025 to. We need to have a commission retreat and have a facilitated conversation to pull out what our new priorities are. So the question would be, if we're going to consider whether or not where in the spectrum are you? Can. There'll be a reconfiguration of these quickly during a commissioning led by the chair. Do they stay the same? Or do you want something different? So I guess. And since you weren't here with me, kind of establish that and handy as well, yeah, to see if anything comes out and use useless, or

[107:01] oh. super useful, and something that should take did. Yeah, did don did he attend the planning? Yeah, no. I mean, last month. And did he have any? Did you talk about this at all? Or no? No. Okay, yeah. I think he probably would have thoughts on spending time on this. And yeah, we could also like, if there'll be a topic for next time. But I depending on, I think we'll probably need like 30 min. So it depends on what other stuff is on the agenda. I know we don't want to go over so, and the strategy that you can see decided to deploy was individual. Commissioners are sending their written priorities. Do we give them a number? Know a number of priorities to Lisa staff collects each of the individual

[108:10] responses from the Commissioners, and then we synthesize that into a collective. Yeah, we have 20, which seems like too many. There you go. I like the idea of the top 4 top 5, and then we can see the overlap between and maybe narrow this down or adjusted a bit, I'm sure Don would like that idea. So we could put that into action right now. Yeah, so email, it sounds like asking for the top 4 top 5 of these, yeah, or any edits, or new or adjustment of it, like you might like. it's like too specific or too broad. Some of them are really broad, and some of them are really specific. So that's kind of using these as your guides. Yeah, it doesn't have to be. This doesn't be the exact language. But if you're seeing some ways that you could smush

[109:08] several into one, feel free to to do that that that might be, how might go about it anyway? So okay, if that sounds like a good approach, due dates. Thank you, Lisa, for keeping us. Okay. So with that, can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting all in favor? Aye, aye. thanks everyone, thank you.