The New Orleans Downtown Development District is taking steps to remove graffiti and litter from the Central Business District. According to the head of the DDD, cleaning up the area is imperative to attracting new business and tourists to the area.
"We've seen increased business activity, particularly new store openings," DDD president/CEO Davon Barbour told WWL's Tommy Tucker.
Barbour says even with this increased activity, the city must still be vigilant about cleaning up the heart of New Orleans. Barbour says the DDD is getting money from the city to pay for a code inspector and a title inspector to adjudicate property cases.
Barbour says a clean downtown is the difference between a tourist or business coming to New Orleans or going somewhere else.
"Curb appeal matters," Barbour says. "Every visitor that's in our community, every businessperson that's coming to look for opportunities, they want to know the area is attractive. So it's up to us to provide that assurance to them."
According to Barbour, it's going to take everyone's effort to keep downtown attractive for tourists and businesses. That's why, Barbour says, the DDD sent out flyers to nearly 3,000 residents and businesses to remind them of the district's appearance and cleanliness standards. Barbour says the district has resources to help those property owners.
"There was also a QR code on the back of that flyer that directed property owners back to our website with information about all of our various grant programs," Barbour said, adding that the DDD will help downtown residents as much as possible in keeping their properties up to code. "It's very much a carrot and stick approach. We want people to know that we're here to assist and that we want to get them to the finish line."
Barbour says one of the major parts of the DDD's cleanup efforts will soon get under way. The DDD recently put out requests for proposals for the district's sidewalk cleaning and public space maintenance contracts.
"This is one of the largest contracts that the Downtown Development District administers," Barbour said. "The vendor would be reponsible for litter removing, pressure washing of sidewalks, the overall beautification of downtown, (and) litter removal. This is something that's very, very important."
Click here for more information about the grants and assistance the DDD is offering as part of its cleanup initiative.
