Blog

Downtown Master Plan: In 2019 and 2020, the Downtown Modesto Partnership assisted the City of Modesto with numerous public input events, focus groups and design sessions to develop a Downtown Master Plan, a document establishing a vision for downtown’s future growth and development. The impetus for this was DMP’s multi-year effort to redesign J Street and the desire it triggered to look at downtown holistically. In July 2020, the City Council adopted the Downtown Master Plan which can be seen here. And it was a good thing they did! Because of the City’s wisdom and the unified vision created by the hundreds of community members who participated in the process, we were able to quickly pull specific projects directly from the Plan which proved crucial in our emergency response to business needs during the pandemic.

Open Air Dining: Realizing that downtown was at a severe disadvantage due to its general lack of outdoor dining space, DMP worked with the City and multiple local community benefit organizations, including Opportunity Stanislaus, Stanislaus Community Foundation, Modesto Downtown Improvement District, the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau and Modesto Chamber of Commerce to create a new city initiative called an Open Air Policy, a program allowing and streamlining the process for restaurants to set up shop outdoors in the public way. In advance of the adoption of the open-air policy, Downtown Modesto Partnership President/CEO Josh Bridegroom went expeditiously from restaurant to restaurant, measuring store frontages and drawing custom plans for each business to ensure compliance with local, state and federal laws. He then coordinated review and temporary approval by the Police Chief, Fire Marshall and Community and Economic Development Director, allowing businesses to operate with some level of certainty until the Open Air policy could be formally approved. The City approved the Open Air policy shortly thereafter, providing for long term approval of the outdoor dining spaces.

“Seeking help for downtown restaurants, Modesto business leaders want some streets closed” September 13, 2020

“Modesto to narrow downtown’s J Street so restaurants can offer outdoor dining” September 24, 2020

Modesto Open Air Initiative

Parklets Program: When public health restrictions pushed dining outdoors, downtown restaurants faced a unique challenge: downtown is a dense urban environment designed for pedestrians, largely devoid of storefront private parking lots. To meet the new needs of downtown restaurants, DMP knew that parklets (public, on-street parking spaces repurposed as spaces for human gathering, dining, etc.) would add the much-needed space for restaurants trying to expand dining outdoors. So, we worked with local architect firm RED Inc. to come up with a parklet design that would mitigate the road grade to create a level platform, allow for unimpeded water flow through the roadside gutter and look attractive and inviting to customers. Shelter Cove Community Church volunteered materials and labor and worked through a summer heat wave to construct the wooden parklet which you can now visit on 11th Street between J and K Streets, right in front of Commonwealth gastropub. The City reviewed the parklet to verify it was safe and allow it to remain, setting the precedent for more. When other restaurants saw how much added dining space could be gained in the place where one vehicle used to park, they immediately asked our staff for the design plans and resources. Various church and community volunteers jumped in to help, providing engineering, labor and materials. To date, six parklets have been constructed and about nine more are being planned. Restaurant owners have credited these added spaces as being integral to staying open, and patrons have expressed overwhelming support for these fun new additions to downtown.

 J Street Project: Amidst various projects and policies coming together to support downtown businesses during COVID, there was one final environmental need: a safer, quieter and more comfortable street design for J Street, enabling patrons to navigate the area and enjoy outdoor dining and shopping in a welcoming, peaceful environment. J Street business owners who expressed an interest in using the street for outdoor dining and parklets indicated that the raceway-like conditions made it undesirable to patrons. The J Street Project, a longtime endeavor championed by Downtown Modesto Partnership, was the perfect solution. In fact, it was the J Street Project itself that inspired the City’s pursuit of a Downtown Master Plan. After much public input and professional consultation, the street redesign project was recommended by the new Downtown Master Plan. The events of 2020 would put that project on the fast track. Aimed at calming traffic through design, the J Street Project called for turning a four-lane street into a pedestrian-safe, two-lane street with diagonal parking to buffer pedestrian sidewalks from vehicular traffic. The changes resulted in 21 new storefront parking spaces. The configuration also allows for more and larger outdoor parklets to be built, an initiative that promises in-demand outdoor public space for downtown patrons.

The RAD Card: In May, Stanislaus Community Foundation introduced us to local donors Dave and Jeanne Olsen who were proposing to donate up to $100,000 toward downtown’s economic resurgence coming out of shelter in place. We immediately began discussing the potential for a gift card program. We knew that several downtown associations across the nation were coordinating buy one, get one gift card programs, and had already considered the possibility of doing something along those lines here. However, there were elements of the gift card program in other communities the Downtown Modesto Partnership didn’t want to emulate, such as:

• Complicated and costly logistics associated with creation of plastic gift cards for businesses that didn’t currently offer them

• Risk associated with donor funds going toward single-location gift cards when the business climate was so uncertain

There were also elements we wanted to ensure were incorporated into the program, including: 

• Fostering a sense of solidarity amongst our business community

• Reinforcing downtown as an experience-economy destination

• Creating contactless exchanges to quell consumer fears and better secure the health of our downtown patrons and business employees

• Incentivize a change in shopping habits for consumers that might ordinarily go to suburban shopping districts, thereby growing downtowns market

We couldn’t find an existing program that met all our goals, so we decided to create our own. We reached out to a local software engineer we had worked with in the past and developed the framework for what would become known as RAD (Relief Across Downtown) Card – a contactless, universal gift card app for downtown Modesto that uses donor dollars to double consumer purchasing power.  It has been our biggest achievement of the year. Here is where it stands to date: 

• Attracted over $2 million dollars in public and private donor funds

• Created $1.5 million dollars of dedicated funds for downtown Modesto businesses

• Generated much press coverage (add hyperlink to a new webpage on radcard.com with all press links) and interest from cities nationwide, setting the standard for effective relief

• Attracted 20,000 regional users

Further, the RAD Card continues to perform. Customers purchase an average of $100,000 in RAD Card funds each week and, each week, spend about $50,000. The spending pace is about half of that of which the funds are loaded onto the app by customers. RAD Card resident user growth is more then 10,000. Finally, businesses are reporting that up to 80% of their sales are attributable to RAD Card!

 There is also an interesting phenomenon occurring when RAD Card customers max out on their donor match; they are opting to reload their RAD Cards with their own, unmatched funds. Why? Customers tell us they like to use it as a gift card for loved ones, providing ample choice and experience. “Why would I buy someone a gift card for one business,” one customer told us, “when for the same price I can provide them with an array of options?” Others use it as a household budgeting device that promises to support local. Some families are even paying their older children their allowance in RAD dollars! What does it mean? It means Modesto’s first-ever downtown-wide gift card app is a viable product in our downtown business community. Belonging to the Downtown Modesto Partnership, the RAD Card will continue to be an asset for the health of downtown Modesto for years to come.

For more information on The RAD Card, visit theradcard.com

Restaurant Winterization Program: The comfort of patrons is always top priority. 2020 presented unprecedented challenges to maintaining that standard. With winter coming and no improvement to public health statistics in sight, our attention turned to restaurant diners who would soon be deliberating whether to sit outdoors in the chilly air. The DMP Board of Directors acted swiftly to approve the Downtown Modesto Winterization Program, a means of conveying reimbursements of up to $1,000 for restaurants purchasing items such as propane heat lamps and canopies to make outdoor dining spaces more comfortable and inviting. Nine restaurants immediately took advantage of the program before the State of California reinstated the stay-at-home order mandating restaurant takeout only.

Safe & Clean: The essential workers on our Downtown Experience Engineers (Safe and Clean) Team projected a sign of strength and care for downtown all year long. While some of their daily duties saw an increase due to the effects of COVID (trash receptacles filling with to-go containers galore!) new tasks were added for the safety and comfort of downtown patrons, such as disinfecting public street furniture, crosswalk buttons and storefront door handles. Only twice did this team have to modify operations out of an abundance of caution due to exposure to COVID, and we appreciate their hard work and dedication to keep the downtown environment clean and safe. Our business community is expressing more gratitude than ever for the Downtown Experience Engineers, and we are proud of our ability to effectively serve the area during such a challenging year.

Outdoor Dining Blankets: While reimbursements to restaurants for heat lamps and weather-protection canopies were underway, we launched a complimentary effort that surprised us by becoming all the rage—the outdoor dining Cozy-Up Blankets program. 500 colorful, beautifully woven Mexican blankets were purchased and bundled for distribution to downtown eateries to be sold to patrons. Customers didn’t just enjoy bundling up on outdoor patios; they saw the blankets as a token of fellowship and solidarity with small businesses during tough times. Instead of price tags, we fastened delightful DoMo District-themed decals to each blanket. 500 blankets sold out within a week and a half, so we ordered another shipment of 500 and scrambled to keep up with demand from restaurants who sold out just about every other day. Each restaurant was able to keep some revenue from the blanket sales, adding $2.5k in revenue to their cash registers. We continue to see excitement and demand for DoMo District blankets and are considering continuation of the program, providing DoMo District-branded souvenirs of solidarity for years to come. 

Good2Go: While working relentlessly on policy, urban design and revenue aid to help businesses, we also participated in the development of a new COVID-era program; Stanislaus County Safe at Work Task Force’s Good2Go is a training program designed to get businesses open while meeting safety goals. DMP has developed close, trusting relationships with downtown businesses and has on-the-ground knowledge of their unique challenges, so our ability to represent scores of downtown businesses was valuable to the task. Through this and other initiatives, we continue to deepen our relationships with community benefit organizations to get good work done.