The city’s new Downtown Reno Partnership today touted what was called an impressive list of accomplishments in the short time the new ambassadors have been working downtown. Downtown Reno Partnership Executive Director Alex Stettinski praised the mayor and city council for their support of the initiative.
“It takes a village,” he said. “It takes an entire city to make the project successful.”
Some of the group’s statistics from the past two months:
- Over 300 shopping carts collected
- More than 500 quality of life calls
- Nearly 300 wellness checks
- More than 50 shelter referrals
- One life saved
- More than 400 graffiti removals
- 13 incidences of public urination halted
- More than 50 incidents of human feces cleaned
- More than 1,000 directions provided to citizens
“The ambassadors are raising the bar of our culture in downtown,” Stettinski told the City Council today. “We are giving the message to the public what’s okay and what’s not okay.”
Stettinski stressed that the program is not about removing the homeless from downtown.
“There has been the notion, at times, that our mission is to get homeless people out of downtown,” he explained. “That is not our mission whatsoever. Our mission is to truly target homelessness and find solutions together with all the other agencies.”
Councilmember Jenny Brekhus praised the group’s work. She also suggested diversifying the BID’s board for what she said would be a broader representation of business interests.
Washoe County Library Director Jeff Scott praised the ambassadors.
“They have been a huge help with us at the Downtown Reno Library,” he said. “We have had some long-standing issues with some of our patrons hanging out outside of the library. They help make the library and all of downtown Reno a safer place to be.”
A homeless veteran said he was able to get off the streets because of the ambassadors.
“I wanted to say thanks for directing me with information to get off the streets,” Brandon Bird said. “I’m off the streets and into a program through the Veterans Resource Center.
Councilmember Oscar Delgado also praised the group.
“Congratulations,” he said. “These numbers are great. These are super great.”
