Gainesville Downtown Ambassadors have completed 3,873 improvement tasks in first two months
Press release from City of Gainesville
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – With two full months of operations to report, the early success of the City of Gainesville’s Downtown Ambassador Program is now backed by data that measures its impact.
The Gainesville City Commission unanimously approved the program in August 2024, awarding a three-year, $3.1 million contract to the nation’s leading ambassador service provider, Block by Block. The ambassadors were hired to perform hospitality, cleaning, safety, and outreach services, with funding coming from the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area’s (GCRA) budget for Downtown Gainesville. This budget is jointly funded by the City of Gainesville and Alachua County.
In a presentation that will be shared with the Downtown Advisory Board and the Gainesville City Commission in the coming weeks, Block by Block reports the Downtown Ambassadors have completed a combined 3,873 tasks within their first two months on the job.
Ambassador accomplishments from Dec. 2, 2024 – Jan. 31, 2025 include:
- 780 graffiti paint or stickers removed
- 563 safety interactions to assist businesses
- 534 directions given to downtown visitors
- 401 cleaning tasks to assist businesses
- 152 service calls for houseless neighbors
- 119 trash bags removed
- 102 acts of automobile assistance
- 17 calls for police/fire/EMS
The team, numbering 14 when fully staffed, also has made significant contributions to downtown outreach. Ambassadors have engaged with 114 people experiencing homelessness and helped 15 people find places to live. In January, they made 35 referrals to Veterans Affairs to connect veterans with housing, healthcare, and other essential support.
“The ambassadors are making a real impact,” said Gainesville Mayor Harvey L. Ward. “They operate on foot, bicycle, and vehicle, and they are committed to reaching people who want help and guiding them to the vital resources they need.”
The results are bringing praise, as business owners and visitors have submitted comments commending the ambassadors for their achievements and remarking on the visible improvement.
“We are thankful for the ambassadors that are posted outside of The Continuum Downtown Gainesville. We appreciate what they are doing.” ~ Greg C., The Continuum Apartments
“I want to express my sincere gratitude for the exceptional work done by (Ambassador) Tina on SW 2nd Ave. She has made a remarkable improvement in front of our building, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed.” ~Allen M., UF Innovate @ The Hub & Sid Martin BioTech
“I just arrived back in town after several weeks. I sensed a change. I was not sure exactly what it was but the downtown felt different. There was something missing. Then it hit me. There was no trash, no trash anywhere. It is wonderful. Thank you.” ~Ken M., McGurn Management Company
Leaders from the Downtown Ambassador program will attend the March 4 meeting of Gainesville’s Downtown Advisory Board to answer questions related to the report. Report details will be included as part of the GCRA’s annual update at the Joint City-County Commission Special Meeting on March 24.
I so wanted to mock this liberal dream of a program, but it does seem to be having a measurable impact, plus I made a rare journey downtown and was greeted by the nicest person in a silly yellow jersey/bib. It was a friendly and nice encounter.
If you’re calling it down the middle, may be worth continued experiments.
Hahahaha
See err-body, GPD asked me if they could get a budget increase of 1.8 million and they would assign 4 full time police officers to down town and I told them NO!!!! I decided to spend 3.1 million of your hard earned money on sticker scrapers. I love being King!!!! Court Jester bring me my donutz NOW!!!!
By your own calculations the ambassadors are more the twice as cost effective as officers and are more motivated to make downtown nice by actually cleaning up on top of helping people to make it a more pleasant area. Much rather have tax dollars being used proactively than reactively.
Well Neil or Bob, oh yeah that’s right you are “Neil and Bob” (at least that is the rumor). According to my calculations you are infested with dumbazz disease….. Anyway you are right downtown is much safer with those pesky stickers removed.
We no longer go downtown. Doesn’t feel safe anymore. Plus fees for parking everywhere is a cold deterrent.
It costs taxpayers $90k/month for this program, so we paid $180k to scrape off some old stickers and pick up a few bags of trash.
Oh, they also temporarily shooed away the homeless drug addicts that Harvey Ward invited into our city.
Not even Angel Reese stat pads this badly. I bet Harvey brags about “cooking over 5,000 grains of rice” when he makes dinner.
$86,000 per month for this program.
1936 “tasks” performed per month.
Are the “tasks” worth the $44 each that the taxpayers pay for them?
yeah.. depending on size 119 trash bags over 8 weeks seems pretty low. around 14 a week.
I stopped going downtown because of the vagrants & panhandlers..
That restaurant Oak downtown is my favorite…
I’ll try to go there next week and will be looking very closely at trash 🚮 and litter downtown to inspect and see if they are going a good job.
I shouldn’t see one piece of litter or a panhandler!
I hope this program makes downtown great again!
I stopped going downtown because of the vagrants & panhandlers..
That restaurant Oak downtown is my favorite…
I’ll try to go there next week and will be looking very closely at trash 🚮 and litter downtown to inspect and see if they are going a good job.
I shouldn’t see one piece of litter or a panhandler!
I hope this program makes downtown great again!
The homeless have moved to the Streatery
For all the bragging on this program, the math shows that the 14 employees average completion of fewer than five reported tasks per day, each. This ‘service’ costs the taxpayers more than $71,000 per employee, based on the $1,000000/yr program cost.
Wow! Great job! Maybe DOGE will give them walking papers so they can get a REAL job….like the rest of us had (have) to do?
How many times did they clean the bathrooms in the downtown parking garage?
Answer: NONE, because City Manager Curry closed the bathrooms there permanently almost two years ago. It seems like something that should be brought to the attention of Florida DOGE – Having large, beautiful, costly bathrooms that are kept closed to the public because our City Manager is a total DEI disaster. That parking garage and those bathrooms managed to function for decades, until now.
It will be helpful if they removed some of the trash inside city hall also.
Get rid of this program ASAP! This is the definition of waste!
This is some kind of a joke program. 20 bucks an hour to give people directions. Gimme a break.
I prefer to go to Starke or Palatka. No bums and free parking.
If you really removed the bums that’s great, now make the parking free and I’d check it out. If you’re worried about parking spot hoarders enforce a 2-hour limit.
Well, since UF students pretty much demanded that we stop using inmates as labor for cleanup, I guess they had to create positions for this now? Shame, because no inmates were forced to do this, and I’m sure many enjoyed being able to get outside the four walls and fences they were contained in.
I noticed that all the positive comments are from management companies/apartment hubs. That isn’t inherently a bad thing and I feel positive about the ambassadors. But I dont like whose opinion is being framed as important.
I think it doesn’t feel right to see the city be turned into a place dominated by apartments and managers who don’t spend time here thinking that “I havent been here in months, let me comment on the trash thst isn’t here” at the same time as cherished sites like the High Dive are being torn down for people who do not care about this town. When i think about Gainesville changing, I think about how thr apartments are cheap and ugly looking and actively hurting the actual residents of this town and county.
I appreciate the ambassadors. I do not appreciate the weird toy mats they placed around the trees they planted Downtown when they cut down the old ones to make way for a hotel.
I have had help from the ambassadors when I needed help paramedics the called them for me on the phone they are doing a wonderfully job
This is so uplifting! Spread the word! Thank you!