Palo Alto council sets new goal: cleaning up downtown

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By just about any measure, downtown Palo Alto has seen better days.

Vacancies remain unusually high thanks to a combination of factors that include changing work habits, rigid regulations and rents that remain stubbornly high despite an economic lull. On one block, near the intersection of University Avenue and Kipling Street, a recently constructed four-story building at 429 University Ave. remains vacant seven years after the city approved it. The building to its east is empty and sporting a “For Lease” sign. So does the one east of that.

Vacancy signs, however, are not the only visible sign of distress. As the City Council discussed and approved on March 11 its objectives for economic development in 2024, members singled out another culprit: grime.

Council member Pat Burt said he has been hearing concerns from downtown merchants and other tenants in recent months over the “deterioration of cleanliness downtown.” This includes dirty streets and trash receptacles that aren’t being emptied out. And while the city explores other downtown initiatives, including loosening of regulations around retail and new policies to encourage housing, Burt urged his colleagues to keep cleanliness on top of the list.

“I want to emphasize that one of the first things that we do is help get these streets cleaner and the sidewalks cleaner,” Burt said. “Just get back to as good a condition as we used to be — that’s step number one.”

He attributed the lack of cleanliness at least in part to recent changes in Downtown Streets Team, a nonprofit that provides services to homeless individuals and that employees volunteers to help clean the streets. The nonprofit has been facing scrutiny in San Francisco over its business model, which has traditionally compensated its “volunteers” by giving them vouchers and gift cards. In 2022, the city attorney’s office in San Francisco concluded that its team members are in fact “employees,” not volunteers and should be subject to wage laws.

To address the labor concerns, the Downtown Streets Team changed its model last year and launched its Streets Team Enterprise program, which pays workers to do the cleaning and which aims to prepare them for long-term jobs. These employees are now performing the cleaning in conjunction with the Street Teams volunteers, whose yellow T-shirts have been a visible presence in downtown since 2006, when Palo Alto began to employ the nonprofit to clean downtown streets, garages and plazas.

While members of both teams get access to case management, employment specialists and other social services, the number of volunteers has gone down because these workers no longer get a financial incentive like they used to, said Chris Richardson, chief program officer at Downtown Streets Team. However, the addition of the enterprise members, who are recognizable in teal shirts — means that the number of workers cleaning the streets has not diminished.

Richardson said that about 41 workers regularly clean the city’s streets and facilities, which includes 35 volunteers and six enterprise members.

While the model has changed, Palo Alto’s commitment to working with the Downtown Streets Team has not. Last month, the council approved a new $528,000 contract with the nonprofit for cleaning services in the downtown area, the California Avenue business district and the car-free portion of Ramona Street, just north of Hamilton Avenue.

A report from the Department of Public Works noted at that time that the expansion of the team will “help reduce overflowing garbage receptacles, improve reporting of safety hazards and graffiti, and ensure that the newly purchased furniture and games are kept clean and maintained.”

Richardson said he was surprised by Burt’s observation and said that the nonprofit’s own survey showed that there has been very little difference in the outcome between the traditional service model and the current one.

“We are still exceeding our contract outcomes,” Richardson said in an interview. “There is still oversight by the city of our work. And we are now fulfilling our mission to a great extent and I’m proud of that.”

Richardson acknowledged that in some cases, participation for cleaning by shift has gone down. He noted, however, that his nonprofit’s primary goal is to get people out of homelessness. And by that metric, the new program has been a great success, he said.

The council, however, agreed with Burt that the city needs to better prioritize cleanliness in both of its downtown areas. On University Avenue, this means making sure that the city is not falling short on cleaning and trash pickup. On California Avenue, it means adding streetscape improvements and eliminating the haphazard design that has defined the avenue — much to the chagrin of local merchants — ever since the street was closed to cars in 2020.

In adopting its new economic priorities, the council unanimously added a provision directing staff to “improve the cleanliness of the University Avenue downtown area.”

The addition is part of a broader set of objectives that the council adopted to boost economic vitality in its commercial areas. The list of initiatives that the council unanimously approved for 2024 include helping to establish “sustainable business organizations” in its commercial districts; approving a plan for improving the University Avenue streetscape; advancing plans for a new downtown garage in conjunction with affordable housing; and implementing a pilot program that connects landlord experiencing vacancy with small businesses that seek brick-and-mortar spaces.

On California Avenue, the plan calls for engaging merchants on “high priority, rapid implementation projects” such as new barriers, better signage and new guidelines for outdoor dining areas. The council’s newly formed Rail Committee is scheduled to discuss this effort at its March 20 meeting.