In 2011, a small group called the Westwood Ambassador Program picked up 80 to 90 bags of garbage off the streets of Westwood Village on an average day.
“I remember picking up receipts in 2011 that were dated a year prior,” said Michael Gonzalez, the Westwood Ambassador Program operations manager. “That’s how long the trash had been in the area.”
The program has continued cleaning Westwood for the past five years, making it into the Village people recognize today. This year, program leaders aim to include hospitality and safety in their goals.
The Westwood Village Improvement Association started a contract with a company called Block by Block to create the program, Gonzalez said. Block by Block, a company that provides downtown improvement services, supplied a team of 14 paid employees, or ambassadors, to keep Westwood safe and clean. Many ambassadors have worked in city cleaning projects in other areas.
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The Ambassador Program is split into a safety team and a cleaning team. The cleaning team pressure washes sidewalks overnight, and cleans up trash from the streets in the morning and afternoon, Gonzalez said.
Jason Kadomsky, one of the cleaning ambassadors, begins his day by picking up trash at 5:30 a.m., he said. He then decides which areas need the most sidewalk cleaning, and gutter cleaning on rainy days. By around 2 p.m., he and the other ambassadors have swept sidewalks, wiped down trash cans and picked up the Village’s trash.
“Working here has really opened my eyes to how much this area needs the services we provide,” Kadomsky said.
Niki Svara, operations manager for the Village, said that a lot of work had to be done when the program started in 2011 to make Westwood as clean as it is today.
“There were trash cans overflowing and graffiti that had been there for quite some time, so the ambassador program really went in and scoured the district and made it sparkle and shine,” Svara said.
Gonzalez said visitors from all over the world comment on how clean the Village is.
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This year, the program is expanding the safety team’s responsibilities and increasing its hospitality efforts, Svara said.
The safety team handles minor noncriminal activity, mainly incidents local businesses call in, such as disturbances in or around local restaurants, said Melissa Montes, the safety team leader.
Montes said she spends her days responding to disturbances that residents and businesses call in to the ambassador phone number, and patrolling the area.
The safety team also aims to increase hospitality by helping people, particularly visitors who visit the Village, find places to eat and shop, Svara said. The ambassadors will soon be equipped with maps and roam through the Village to direct visitors to different locations.
Additionally, the ambassadors have begun to work with the homeless residents of the Village, and People Assisting the Homeless, or PATH, an organization that provides housing options and assistance to homeless people. Kadomsky said that the ambassadors offer homeless people PATH referral cards, and have successfully assisted some into housing in the past.
Gonzalez said he thinks the program has helped reduce the number of people who are homeless in Westwood since 2011.
Montes said she enjoys interacting with people from all over, as well as the Westwood locals. She said she likes greeting some of the same familiar faces during her rounds every day.
Svara said she thinks the ambassadors have transformed the Village from a run-down neighborhood to a clean and inviting one.
“I’m really, really proud of our ambassadors and the work that they do in Westwood Village,” said Svara. “They are hardworking, highly responsive to any needs of the public, and they take lot of pride in their job.”