City will spend $600K a year for Downtown Mall cleaning crew
The city has contracted with a company called Block by Block for two years in an effort to address concerns about “cleanliness and safety” on our pedestrian mall.
Last July, Friends of Cville Downtown had to do some damage control after launching a petition that one critic said amounted to “not very subtle dog whistles about making sure the unsightly unhoused people were not to be seen on the Downtown Mall." Friends of Cville Downtown quickly changed the language of the petition and added some thoughtful suggestions for the Downtown Mall, including “a Downtown ambassador program such as Block by Block to take over cleanliness and maintenance for the Downtown district.”
Recently, Friends of Cville Downtown again found itself the target of critics, this time for their support of a hastily introduced “camping ban” ordinance, which those critics called “inhumane,” a “boot to the face” of homeless people, and an “abomination.” City Council quickly voted 5-0 to table the idea indefinitely.
However, a week later, the city approved a two-year, $1.2 million contract with Block by Block. It’s one of several “community interventions” the city agreed to fund in June, including $450,000 to hire two people for two years to do "street outreach" with those experiencing homelessness, which would be separate from the Block by Block contract, and $280,000 for a more permanent restroom situation on the Downtown Mall.
Incidentally, while Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis said almost nothing about the Downtown Mall during his presentation about the proposed "camping ban,” he did mention the city hiring a “cleaning” company for the mall. And while he didn't say so directly, he suggested that the proposed ordinance, if passed, would allow police to remove people from the mall ahead of the company's scheduled cleanups.
Clearly, while the “camping ban” ordinance was rejected, Friends of Cville Downtown, a non-profit advocacy group whose board of directors includes area developers Hunter Craig, Chris Henry, and Keith Woodard, has had some significant influence on city government.
This isn’t the first time the city has approved a Downtown Ambassadors pilot program. In fact, this 2012 C-Ville Weekly story about such a program — launched a few months after benches on the Downtown Mall were famously removed in an effort to deter panhandling — sounds like it was written last week. "Plus ça change, plus c'est…”
Joan Fenton said the Downtown business community has pushed for this type of program for years, and she thinks it will make the Mall a more welcoming place. — Cville Weekly, September 11, 2012.
And as the Daily Progress reported, the city launched the 2012 ambassadors program to “help quell the concerns of downtown business owners, who said public drunkenness, fighting and lewd behavior on the mall were driving business away.”
Ironically, when former Police Chief Tim Longo requested $1 million for more police officers on the Downtown Mall earlier that year, along with permanent police kiosks, it was deemed too costly. The ambassador program the city adopted would cost approximately $80,000 a year. However, in 2016, despite some in city government applauding the effort, the program was cut from the budget without much notice, as then city manager Maurice Jones wanted to focus on hiring more police officers.
One of the early ambassadors, a former park ranger named Jerry Arbogast, told the Daily Progress that he’d radioed the police for help fewer than a dozen times during his two years as an ambassador, and that when people approached him, it was usually to “ask for something simple, like where to find the best steak dinner.”
Again, in 2023, the Downtown Mall welcomed ambassadors when UVA announced that its Ambassador Program (UVA contracts with RMC Events for this service), which extends as far east as 4th Street NW, and includes the Corner and other areas along Main Street where UVA students most frequently go, would be deployed on the Downtown Mall. Chief Kochis told the Daily Progress it was the result of interdepartmental meetings between Charlottesville, UVa and Albemarle County, and a response to the rise of gun violence in Charlottesville.
“This change is part of our responsibility to contribute to public safety efforts in places where our students regularly go,” said Longo, now UVA’s Chief of Police, “which includes off-Grounds locations such as the Corner and the downtown mall.”
“We view that responsibility as contributing to public safety efforts,” added UVA Deputy Spokesperson Bethanie Glover.
However, as you might have noticed, the UVA Ambassadors are no longer on the Downtown Mall.
Glover declined to say why the UVA Ambassadors are no longer patrolling the mall or when they stopped doing so.
“It was a short-term plan from my perspective…to help the city with coverage,” Longo told the DTM, but he couldn’t recall exactly when that coverage stopped.
And here we are again!
Block by Block has been hired by numerous communities across the country in recent years, including Virginia Beach and Roanoke, and their marketing materials — which the communities that hire them and the local media typically mimic — tout their ability to make public spaces cleaner, friendlier, and safer.
For instance, this report from WDBJ7 in Roanoke leads with “spotlighting a program that is quietly transforming the city block by block.” Bet the folks at Block by Block were happy with that! Also, the local TV stations in Roanoke have done numerous stories on the program.
According to Charlottesville’s scope of work requirements, Block by Block ambassadors will be out on the mall up to seven days a week, 8 to 10 hours a day, even in bad weather, doing a mind-boggling array of tasks — picking up liter (including leaves), removing graffiti, pressure washing, cleaning up animal and human waste, developing relationships with businesses, providing directions and information about the mall, assisting the public with safety concerns, and collecting data on people they interact with.
On many job review websites, Block by Block employees talk about liking the idea of helping people but complain about clients/communities having unrealistic expectations of what ambassadors can do, and not being able to sit down during their shifts. Apparently, that’s to project a stronger presence in public spaces, whereas the 2012 mall ambassadors could be seen sitting at information tables and riding around in golf carts.
Employees also complained about being outside in all kinds of horrible weather, cleaning up hazardous materials like needles and human feces, dealing with the unhoused and mentally ill without proper training, and often having nothing much to do, especially in smaller locations like the Downtown Mall.
Not everyone on City Council thought the Block by Block program was a good idea.
As Councilor Michael Payne told 29News, he was the only “no” vote on approving the contract, believing that $1.2 million could be better spent elsewhere, and that this could be done in-house at a lower cost using city staff.
“Even if our only goal was to focus on downtown mall improvements, there’s so much else that could be done with $1 million,” Payne said.