Clean & Safe Program in Downtown Richmond, VA
To encourage economic development, our Clean & Safe services keep our vibrant downtown looking great.
About Clean & Safe
Through the Clean & Safe partnership, the city outsources downtown sidewalk cleaning services to Venture Richmond, who in turn contracts with Streetplus. While the Clean & Safe team has been operating for more than 23 years – a partnership with the Community Business group, a local, minority vendor – Streetplus joined as the lead operator in 2024. Clean & Safe services include picking up litter, leaves and debris from sidewalks, weed eradication, steam cleaning homeless waste spots and removing handbills in Richmond’s General Service District, comprised of about 440 square blocks on the north side of the river and roughly 82 square blocks in Manchester on the south side of the river.
Goals for Clean & Safe
The goal of this Venture Richmond program is to keep Downtown Richmond clean and safe. The business community and downtown neighborhoods support the program, its effectiveness and responsiveness. Residents, businesses, employees and visitors benefit from the service and a cleaner and safer downtown.
Clean & Safe, Downtown
Richmond’s Downtown General Special Service and Assessment District, comprised of about 440 square blocks on the north side of the river, is provided with Clean and Safe enhanced services (sidewalk cleaning, litter and leaf collection, tree well maintenance, weed eradication, etc.) as a part of their special assessment.
Downtown (North of the River)
- 745,380 gallons of litter, 248,880 cubic yards of leaves and tons of weeds removed from nearly 770 blocks throughout the business improvement districts comprising Downtown, the northern riverfront and Manchester
- 31,156 block faces cleaned both north and south of the river 3,400 block faces cleaned
- 3,600 block faces of weed abatement
- 31,000 hours of sidewalk cleaning
- 56 blocks of sidewalks power washed Downtown along E. Broad and E. Main Streets over 500 hours
- 2,300 hours spent removing graffiti
- 278 graffiti/handbills removed
- 300,000 sq ft of graffiti tags (oversized) removed
Clean & Safe, Manchester
Property and business owners in Manchester worked with their neighborhood organizations and Venture Richmond from 2021-2023 on a plan to expand the Downtown General Special Service and Assessment District into Manchester to fund enhanced services and improvements to an 80-block area. On July 17, 2023, Venture Richmond and the City of Richmond held a press conference highlighting those expanded services and the launch of the Clean and Safe program. The enhanced services include items like providing consistent sidewalk cleaning, litter pick-up, leaf removal, and weed control and elimination and enhancing and maintaining tree wells. It also includes power washing homeless hotspots, as needed, distributing pet waste bags in key pet locations, removing pet waste from sidewalks and from tree wells.
Manchester (South of River)
- 745,380 gallons of litter, 248,880 cubic yards of leaves and tons of weeds removed from nearly 770 blocks throughout the business improvement districts comprising Downtown, the northern riverfront and Manchester
- 31,156 block faces cleaned both north and south of the river 3,400 block faces cleaned
- 45 hours of power washing sidewalks
- 150 tree wells mulched
Graffiti Removal in the Broad Street Corridor
Venture Richmond has also boosted its efforts to keep Downtown clean and mitigate graffiti. In 2022, Following damages that occurred to businesses during protests in 2020, Venture Richmond and CBG launched a new Graffiti Cleaning Pilot Program as part of Clean & Safe. In 2022, 224 graffiti tags were removed from street signs, light poles, buildings and alleyways and partnered with the Metropolitan Business League through the “We Care Fund” to leverage $70,000 to focus on graffiti removal throughout downtown, with a concentration along Broad Street following the damages that occurred to businesses during protests in 2020. After much success, Venture Richmond continued this effort in 2023 with a $75,000 grant from the City of Richmond, part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds allocated to the City, to continue this effort throughout downtown.
In 2024, we removed 300,000 sq. ft. of graffiti tags (oversized). Property owners and businesses in the Downtown Service District area can request help removing graffiti by emailing graffitiremoval@venturerichmond.com.
Venture Richmond's Commitment to Downtown Richmond
Venture Richmond is committed to a beautiful Richmond, VA by engaging businesses and community leaders to enhance the vitality of Downtown. We work with local companies on street cleaning, graffiti, beautification and placemaking with the intention of making Downtown Richmond a more clean and safe place to be.