A Day in the Life of Midtown Association’s Clean & Safe Program
January 30th, 2023
If you work in, live in, or frequent Midtown often, you probably have seen our Clean & Safe staff wearing bright teal polos or Midtown Association hoodies. They can be found driving colorfully wrapped trucks and cleaning up and securing the streets of Midtown. Have you ever wondered who they are and what they do for the community?
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at a typical workday for Clean & Safe staff in Midtown.
About the Clean & Safe Staff
A typical Clean & Safe day starts at 7 a.m. for the morning crew. Team members conduct a check-in to share updates, review calls from the evening before, and set a positive tone for their shift.
The Clean & Safe team kicks off the day with check-in meetings.
There are ten full-time employees on the Clean & Safe team. They also partner with Lyons security for overnight security, the Sacramento Police Department, the Department of Community Response, and PRIDE Industries for additional help with maintenance requests. Clean & Safe members receive a training on many items including CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design), OSHA (occupational safety and health administration for needles and human waste as well as powerwashing), safe driving, and de-escalation tactics.
Our team members have a variety of backgrounds with training in security, construction, vehicle management, janitorial services, criminal justice, and social work. Our program management staff have led this department of the organization for more than six years, and most team members have been with the organization for about two years.
The Clean & Safe staff wear teal polos or grey hoodies with the Midtown Association logo for visibility.
If you spot the Clean & Safe team in Midtown, be sure to wave, say hi, or ask them a question.
Clean & Safe Vehicles
You may recognize these vehicles driven by our Clean & Safe team.
A Clean & Safe truck.
Trucks are regularly stocked with trash pickers, gloves, trash bags, paint rollers and graffiti solutions. The fleet undergoes routine maintenance to ensure Clean & Safe is ready to address service requests as they arise.
Clean & Safe vehicles.
Our Clean & Safe team also drive electric vehicles (EVs). Recently, Midtown Association was granted funds to purchase EVs to reduce our carbon footprint. Did you also know that the rainbow Midtown Love was designed to spread inclusivity in our community? Midtown is committed to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in our district. Learn more in our blog.
Clean & Safe Service Requests
The first task is to address service calls from business and property owners. Here is what a typical request may look like:
An example of a Clean & Safe service request.
Clean & Safe receives many different service requests throughout the day. These can look like any of the following: graffiti removal, code 2000 (human waste or vomit), trash pick-up, homelessness outreach, pressure washing requests, panhandling and loitering move-alongs, and other miscellaneous requests. Business and property owners can request services here.
When a service request comes in, it arrives via email, website, or phone. Regardless of where it starts, once it’s submitted, this request goes to every team member who is on duty at that time including security and maintenance. The request gets turned into a job log where a photo is taken of the location to start and end each job. At the conclusion of each job, a copy of this log is provided to the person who sent in the service request. These are retained in the Midtown system and complied to track our work.
Clean & Safe Maintenance Services
The bulk of a Clean & Safe workday consists of responding to requests, many of these being phone calls. During the Summer, Clean & Safe staff respond to an average of 150 calls per week.
Clean & Safe will typically respond to a request in 5 to 10 minutes. Depending on the demand it will usually take 25 minutes or less for the request to be completed. Business and property owners can find service hours and contact information on our services page.
Before and after of Clean & Safe trash removal and power washing.
In Quarter 4 of 2022, our Clean & Safe team removed 14 tons of abandoned trash from the streets of Midtown.
Before and after of Clean & Safe graffiti removal.
Our Clean & Safe team performs an average of 130+ graffiti removals each week.
Clean & Safe provides scheduled power washing services.
Our Clean & Safe team schedules weekly power washing with 250 hours dedicated quarterly to keep our streets clean. Businesses can also request our Clean & Safe team to power wash an area before an event through our events support requests.
Clean & Safe Safety Services
In addition to maintenance requests, the Clean & Safe team also performs routine safety checks for proactive areas of service, property checks, and community outreach.
Clean & Safe partners with the Department of Community Response (DCR).
The Clean & Safe team’s partnership with the City of Sacramento’s Department of Community Response (DCR) with a focus on 311 calls for outreach services to unhoused community members. Locations reported to 311 are addressed by both Clean & Safe and DCR as a collaborative effort. The collaboration allows team members to develop relationships and trust over the course of weeks with unhoused individuals in order to fully understand each unique situation and connect them to the appropriate resources.
Clean & Safe team member performs her outreach services to the unhoused community.
At times, the Clean & Safe staff will coordinate with Sacramento Police Department’s Impact team to assist with the cleanup of abandoned encampments.
They also help to educate the business and community members about CPTED (crime prevention through environmental design) recommendations, pass out flyers, and provide weekly updates.
Clean & Safe Nighttime and Daytime Security
At the end of the day, staff conducts their final check-ins and plan out the following day.
Clean & Safe services are available Monday-Wednesday, 7 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Thursday-Sunday 7 a.m.-2:30 a.m. As part of these hours, nighttime security is available Thursday – Sunday, 6 p.m. – 2:30 a.m. Nighttime security members wear yellow Lyons Security uniforms. Business and property owners can reach nighttime security services through the same Clean & Safe dispatch contact information.
Starting in Spring of 2022, our Clean & Safe team will expand our security services to also include daytime hours to increase safety in our community. Midtown Association will be adding an additional team of two security guards through Lyons Security in the district between 7 a.m. – 3:30 p.m., Monday – Friday.
Requesting Clean & Safe Services
If you are a business owner or property owner visit our services page to learn how to request services. If you are unsure whether your request is outside of our services– please contact the Clean & Safe team and they will direct you to the correct resource.