Private security program at Concord's Todos Santos Plaza may lose funding
On Tuesday night the Concord City Council will decide the fate of a successful downtown security program.
Business owners around Todos Santos Plaza got together about two years ago to hire their own security guard, trash cleanup crew, and pressure washers to revitalize the area and get more people to visit the area.
The pilot program has been successful, but it's also run out of city funding and is in danger of shutting down.
Justin Crossley started his tap room, Hop Grenade, right on the Todos Santos square in downtown Concord over a decade ago. After COVID, he noticed the downtown area wasn't bouncing back as quickly as others, making him worry his business and others might not survive.
"People just weren't feeling very safe down here," said Crossley. "They wanted to see it be a little cleaner, just a little less of the craziness that was happening at the time."
He says because Todos Santos Plaza is public property, it was harder to manage some of the illegal activities like drug use out in the open and unhoused residents sleeping in front of the businesses. That's when the local business owners got together to hire their own security guard and clean-up crews to work in the plaza area seven days a week.
They went to the city and received a federal COVID grant of about $500,000 to launch the program for 18 months.
"It was a pilot program because we wanted to prove that this sort of action would make a difference down here," said Crossley.
Since then, Crossley said it's been an overwhelming success. In the first month, the security guard made 82 contacts for illegal activity around the plaza. In December 2024, only about 16 months later, that was down to only two contacts.
The program is now running out of money and merchants are going back to the council to ask for continued support.
"Our worry is that not that they're not interested in funding programs like this, but that there just might not be funding," said Crossley.
Farmers market vendor Oliver Gayo says he hopes the city can find funding because he's noticed a difference in the plaza, especially from a few years ago when families wouldn't come by as often because of the issues.
"When it's the case of someone like smoking weed right next to my tent and there's a kid walking, like, 5 feet in front of him, that's something we dealt with like two years ago," says Gayo.
Justin says when cities like Concord have a vibrant downtown area, it helps everyone thrive.
"We have a beautiful downtown and I think it's important for the city to remain invested in that," said Crossley. "You can't just let a downtown go to waste, especially one that's as nice as ours."
The Todos Santos Business Association says they've gotten a lot of support from both the city council and police department around the program.
A city council meeting Tuesday night was set to begin at 6:30 to discuss continued funding for the program.
