DOWNTOWN : Businesses Unite to Fight Crime, Grime

In an effort to improve the Downtown area’s image, a committee of business owners has devised a plan that asks property owners and tenants to use their security guards and cleaning crews to fight crime and grime.

Dubbed “Downtown Safe and Clean,” the proposal by a subcommittee of the Central City Assn. calls for businesses in the area bounded by 1st, 7th and Olive streets and the Harbor Freeway to remove graffiti from their properties, sweep and hose down surrounding sidewalks and gutters twice a day and position security guards outside buildings to serve as “eyes and ears” for the police.

The plan includes a “transient assistance” strategy that calls for security guards to be informed of and direct transients to shelters and social service agencies. Police would be called to arrest aggressive, persistent panhandlers.

Organizers also hope to set up a hot line to the Police Department and to arrange a deal under which the city would place more trash cans on the streets in exchange for a pledge from businesses to empty the cans into their private garbage bins.

Randall Villareal, general manager of the Biltmore Hotel, said the plan is an attempt to improve the area without further taxing business owners. The program essentially unites some of the individual cleanup efforts in place now and tries to get more businesses involved, he said.

Many businesses already have security guards, maintenance and trash collection services, and the program aims to have those workers clean up and patrol outside their buildings as well as inside, Villareal said.

Don McIntyre, Central City Assn. president, said the organization will help program organizers promote the plan among business and property owners.

“It’s certainly a concept not everyone necessarily embraces,” McIntyre said. “It’s going to require a lot of cooperation.”