Cuyahoga County is joining the Downtown Cleveland Improvement District, which funds cleanup work through a special tax on property owners in the Downtown district.
County council members voted 10 to 1 at their Tuesday meeting to join the district and will begin paying close to $186,000 a year in 2026.
The district was created in 2006 and collects about $5 million a year. About 80% of that goes toward a contract with a company called Block by Block that employs “Downtown Ambassadors,” tasked with providing cleanliness and safety Downtown. The rest goes toward funding Downtown Cleveland, Inc, President and CEO Michael Deemer told council last week.
“Organizations like ours provide critical oversight and management to make sure that Block by Block services are being deployed in the way the local property owners need,” Deemer told council.
Under state law, the special improvement district in Downtown Cleveland requires the participation of properties that cover 60% of the “front footage” of downtown. If enough property owners sign on, all the properties in the district are charged a yearly assessment based on their front footage.
Money from the assessment can go toward cleaning and safety, as it does in Downtown Cleveland, or maintenance and physical improvements. A board created by the property owners decides how to spend the money.
Government properties are exempt under state law, but Cleveland and Cuyahoga County have chosen to sign on for the first time this year.
Cleveland’s buildings make up about 13.5% of the district. Cuyahoga County’s come in at around 3%, according to Ed Eckart, senior vice president of operations at Downtown Cleveland, Inc.
The decision to sign on was controversial at Cuyahoga County Council.
“Who benefits the most out of this? Let me answer it for you – Cleveland,” said Councilmember Michael Gallagher, pointing out to Eckart at a March 11 committee meeting that the city of Cleveland would normally be responsible for all of the cleaning and safety in downtown. “And here we are carrying their water again. And I don't mind doing it because I feel sorry for you guys that you're in a city that doesn't give a damn about you.”
Gallagher said Downtown Cleveland, Inc. should have reached the 60% threshold without Cleveland or Cuyahoga County signing on.
“It's not that we don't want to participate,” Gallagher said. “We don't want to tax people that don't want to be taxed. We don't want to be the votes that put you over a threshold to tax 40% of the people that don't want it.”
Even without the county, but with Cleveland’s properties signed on, the district passed the 60% requirement, according to Eckart.
The new agreement lasts seven years, through 2032.
