by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
It’s been six months since Downtown Vision, Inc. (DVI) inaugurated the downtown ambassador program and like any new initiative, it’s time to reflect on where they’ve been, talk about where they’re going and try to take tangible measurements of something whose impact lies mostly in its tone.
“The success has been absolutely amazing,” said Joe Snowberger, who is in charge of operations for DVI, the organization funded by downtown property owners to enhance the area. “We have completely changed people’s perceptions of downtown and we are excited about the new face we are putting on the core of our city.”
Next week, Snowberger will hold interviews for two new full-time ambassadors and four new part-timers. Currently, 10 ambassadors alternate two shifts to make sure helpful guides in safari hats and orange shirts and clutching high-tech walkie-talkies — some on bikes — are downtown helping people park, get directions and make downtown look better for 16 hours a day.
“Or even pulling people’s pets out of the St. Johns River,” said Snowberger, referring to the heroic gesture by ambassador Burt Pringle, a long time waiter and bartender who decided to change professions about five months ago after seeing a feature on the ambassadors on television. Pringle recently rescued a small dog who had fallen off the Riverwalk in front of the Landing. DVI received a nice thank you letter from the owner.
Pringle, who said the least favorite part of his job is picking up after litter bugs, is ready for business every morning by 7 a.m., which means he and the other ambassadors do a sweep of the business district to clean up garbage and get Jacksonville ready to start its day.
“I can’t say enough about the passion of these people,” said Snowberger. “The whole thing couldn’t work if we didn’t have people committed to helping other people.” Ambassadors are assigned duties that include working in the rain and brutal heat of the oncoming summer months. Regardless, the turnover rate has been low. Only six ambassadors have left the program since its inception, and for one it was to become a deacon at his church, while another was pregnant.
Snowberger is about to embark on a fact-finding mission which will include collecting anecdotal information from business owners and those who spend time downtown to try to get a real feel of how ambassadors are helping.
“I get stopped all the time by people who said that they didn’t even know where any restaurants were and an ambassador helped them find something to eat,” said Snowberger. “Just the other day a lady on the Skyway gushed for 10 minutes about how nice they are.”
Snowberger will also be evaluating individual skills to determine what ambassadors are best at what jobs. Mostly, he said, it’s a matter of the difference between working at night and working during the day. Snowberger also will be evaluating feedback from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to see if ambassadors impact crime statistics and he will try to add questions onto business surveys to determine whether businesses think ambassadors help their customers.
“The ambassador is a two-part animal,” he said. “There’s the hospitality side, which means helping people figure out where to go. And there’s the side of the ambassador that just offers an extra pair of eyes and ears to make downtown a safer and more comfortable place to be.”
And mostly, Snowberger admits, it’s about perception. Crime rates have been falling downtown for many years, but people just feel better when these orange-clad guardians are gliding about the sidewalks, offering a warm smile and a point in the right direction.
“It’s really a matter of ergonomics,” he said. “Our ambassadors make downtown easier to handle.”
Ambassadors are especially critical during special events when there is a massive flow of people into downtown from the suburbs. And as Snowberger noted, for many downtown Jacksonville can be a confusing place to navigate.
“You know the streets that run east to west really aren’t marked either east or west,” said Snowberger. “A lot of people don’t know that Main Street is the divide. We can help people get to the right side of the street.”
Snowberger recalled that ambassadors played a crucial role recently when over 1,500 people attended FridayFest last weekend and over 1,000 people showed up for the Hard Hat Tour.
And Snowberger said that much of what makes the ambassador program successful is the partnerships with local businesses and the on-going cooperation and training with the sheriff’s office, giving an extra edge to the ambassadors if there ever was a rumble. Snowberger said they’re getting to the point where, for example, they will be told if 20 people leave a call center in Independent Square every night at 10. “That helps us know where to put people,” he said.
Six months ago, Snowberger, along with Terry Lorince and other members of DVI, talked to people in cities such as Phoenix, San Antonio, Tampa, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Atlanta to hear their suggestions about how to run a successful program.
What emerged was a system that was customized for Jacksonville, sort of a hybrid between hospitality and just keeping an eye out for other people, creating a general presence.
“A lot of the time, people just need to be reminded not to leave a laptop on their front seat of their car with the windows half way rolled down while they go into a show at the Florida Theatre,” said Snowberger. “That’s not a downtown crime issue, that’s just a common sense issue.”
Ambassadors are told to remind people to use their heads, like the other day when one ambassador found an elderly man whose electric wheelchair wasn’t working.
“We had someone right there to help them get home and get that wheelchair charged up again,” said Snowberger.
Ambassadors have also come to the rescue when there were leaky fire hydrants, worn-out boards on the Riverwalk and burned out lights.
As for the future, Snowberger said they are instituting a volunteer ambassador program soon so that people who want to give their time to help downtown can receive the proper training. Volunteer ambassadors can serve during rush hours, like lunch in Hemming Plaza, to sit in a kiosk or sit the lobby of a building. Certainly, they will come in handy during events such as the Florida-Georgia game. And this summer, DVI is hiring a full-time ambassador manager so that Snowberger can focus exclusively on operations.
A month into the ambassador program, DVI received Downtown Enhancement’s 2001 award for doing the most to benefit downtown.
“We know we’re on the right track,” said Snowberger. “Now it’s time to stay focused and take it to the next level.”