White Plains Downtown District Management Association Inc

See schedule o for the description on the clean sweep programclean sweep programthe white plains downtown district management association's (wpddma) clean sweep and gum removal program is designed to improve the cleanliness and attractiveness of the downtown. Without this program downtown, litter baskets would quickly be overwhelmed by the volume of pedestrians on the streets during lunch and evening hours. The wpddma's clean team, clad in highly recognizable and logo'd hats, and coats works 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year to ensure that loose trash on the street is removed. In fiscal year 2023/2024 the clean team helped to remove over 2,000 trash bags per month from the business improvement district's sidewalks and its 99 trash receptacles. The wpddma's clean team also removes gum spots for the bid's sidewalks. This task is quite laborious as the gum is removed spot-by-spot from the city's sidewalks. Removing the gum this way complies with state law which requires the collection of any water used if power washing was utilized to remove the gum spots. Additionally, by not power washing, thousands of gallons of water are conserved. During fy23/24 the wpddma's clean team spent an approximate 100 hours removing gum downtown. Effective april 2024, a new sanitation provider was hired to manage the bid's cleaning program under a new contract that includes extended cleaning hours, power washing and the painting of street furniture.

See schedule o for the description on bid placemaking/arts programmingbeautification & horticulturein the last fiscal year, the wpddma once again contracted with a nursery (tony caseli, inc. As opposed to casa verde corporation from the past) to plant and maintain 49 large street planters. Each downtown planter managed by the bid was filled with a dazzling array of flowers including canna pretoria, nicotiana saratoga, coleus, angelonia, impomoea and scaevola. These plantings coupled with many more done by the city of white plains brought significant beauty to our downtown corridors. The bid also provided watering support for the hanging flower baskets installed along mamaroneck avenue by the city of white plains and sponsored a planting refresh of the urban garden at renaissance plaza, a new project.

Local business supportin addition to the three large programs above, the bid spent significant time welcoming new businesses to the neighborhood (coordinating ribbon cuttings, answering questions, distributing pertinent parts of city code, etc.), marketing our local businesses on social media and in our e-newsletter, and serving as a liaison, most frequently between city government and local businesses with questions. The bid was particularly instrumental in helping businesses learn about the city's receipt of a downtown revitalization award grant and potential application opportunities through direct on-site and marketing outreach and hosting two in-person orientation sessions on the grant.