Downtown Guides Try to Boost Businesses : Tourism: Their job is to help visitors find their way around a 40-block area, especially during evening hours.

In his beige fedora and khaki trousers, Al Autor, 60, brings to mind a modern-day Indiana Jones. But instead of searching for the Ark of the Covenant, Autor searches out tourists in need of directions.

The retired Marine is one of 10 guides hired by Downtown Long Beach Associates, a nonprofit business association, to help visitors find their way to shops and restaurants downtown.

The guides wear safari uniforms so visitors will be able to identify them, said Steve McCullough, a supervisor with Wells Fargo Guard Services, which will run the guide program.

“We didn’t want to conflict with the colors worn by the Police Department’s bike patrol,” McCullough said. “They wear white and blue, so we’ll be wearing blue and khaki.”

The guide program, which began Monday, was funded by a $250,000 grant from the city Redevelopment Agency and $25,000 from the business association.

The guides work in a 40-square-block area, primarily on Pine Avenue, Broadway, and 1st and 3rd streets.

Two guides will walk the downtown area Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and four will work Friday and Saturday. Up to six guides will patrol from 6 p.m. to midnight Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

“We’re trying to promote community activity during the evening hours,” said Manny Jones, executive director of the business association.

More than 120 people applied to work as guides; four women and six men were selected. Before hitting the streets, the guides, who are paid $8 an hour, completed an 80-hour training program that included lessons on security, first aid, cardiopulmonary resuscitation and interpersonal relations.

“My first impression is that I’m going to like this job--especially the (public relations) part,” said guide Cecelia Khan, 36, who recently moved to Long Beach from the island of Trinidad. “Generally, I just like meeting people.”

The downtown guide program is patterned after similar programs in Phoenix, Philadelphia and Portland, Ore.

Phoenix employs 12 full-time and four part-time guides, who also serve as security guards, said Margaret Mullen, executive director of the Downtown Phoenix Partnership.

“Our convention center is in downtown Phoenix, so we . . . had a lot of people coming downtown who had questions,” Mullen said. “We found it was more cost-effective to have security guides--people who could answer questions and still telephone or radio our police.”

Ruth Scott, president of the Assn. for Portland Progress, said her city launched a guide program to quell business owners’ complaints about beggars.

“About half of the time our guides are used to discourage panhandlers,” Scott said. “We call it ‘soft security.’ When panhandlers are rooted in one place, our guides will stand on either side of them and pass out coupons for services, so if people want to give, they can give them a coupon.”

Earlier it was reported that Long Beach’s guides also would be used to discourage panhandlers, a story Jones now denies.

“I was misquoted on a couple of things,” Jones said.

While the guides will not serve as security guards, Jones said, they will pass out information to panhandlers about programs for the homeless and people in need. They also will carry two-way radios.

“The guides are the eyes and ears for the downtown area,” Jones said. “If they see something that needs attention, they’ll radio their supervisor, who will then notify the appropriate service--be it the Police Department, the Fire Department or paramedics.”

Lt. Mike Hill said the Police Department has nothing to do with the downtown guides. Just like hundreds of other groups, “they will call us on an as-needed basis,” he said.

The business association plans to promote the guide program with pamphlets left at hotels and the Long Beach Convention Center, and with advertisements in newspapers.

While several downtown business owners thought they would benefit from the guide program, Darcy Randles, a member of the DLBA board of directors and owner of Hampton’s West gift shop, questioned both the guides’ proposed schedule and their walking beat.

“Two bits says they’re going to be down on Pine Avenue, not at a card and gift shop on Elm Avenue,” Randles said. “You’re talking about 10 blocks wide and four blocks deep. I don’t see how two guides can be at the restaurants and here at the same time. I think it’s supporting the restaurants, but the restaurants don’t make up the whole retail area.”

John Morris, president of DLBA and owner of Mum’s restaurant on Pine Avenue, said this is just the beginning.

“All the other cities with guides started with a small zone, and as time went on they expanded. This way . . . we can get the bugs out,” he said.