Item 18 - Downtown Santa Ana Business Improvement District

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DOWN; TOWN: Downtown Inc 201 E 4th St. Santa Ana, CA 92701 Nov 2, 2021 City Council, Mayor and City Staff City of Santa Ana 20 Civic Center Plaza Santa Ana, CA 92701 RE: SUPPORT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR DOWNTOWN LEVY (ITEM # 18 ) Dear City Council, Mayor and City Staff I am excited to write on behalf of all of our Downtown Inc boardmembers, a dozen stakeholders who make up a diverse representation of those to be levied, in support to move forward with the processes to renew the business improvement district. The Downtown Santa Ana business improvement district has been around for nearly 40 years and it proved itself once again during the toughest year downtown has probably ever seen. Our board, services, teams and programming continued and adapted all through the pandemic: we worked with the city to establish outdoor dining and created safe protocols for downtown activation. Our communications and outreach network proved critical as we all dealt with unknowns and varying levels of being able to open and welcome visitors to downtown. We continue to work well with our partners, the Santa Ana Business Council and the City of Santa Ana's Community Development Agency and we hope for downtown to recover stronger than before. However, this will require us being able to raise support from mechanisms like the business assessment, solutions for the dip in parking revenue that has crushed our Downtown Merchant Fund, and we need to continue to find additional grants, improve operational budgets, make visionary plans, maintain partnerships and collaboratively secure new investments that help downtown build back better. In closing, I think a great testament to the spirit of downtown and the belief in our business district and this self -assessed levy is that most businesses have paid their business license and BID fees even during the darkest year we've faced together.) look forward to our continued work together! Sincerely,