Ambassador Service:
Provides a variety of public safety and good will services downtown. Ten Ambassadors, also known as Community Service Personnel, serve as the “eyes and the ears of the reading Police Department, communicating directly with police dispatch. The Ambassadors circulate on foot and on bicycles throughout the downtown district from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. weekdays, 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. on Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on the second Sunday of the month, and on special occasions (primarily events at the Sovereign Center and the Performing Arts Center). The Ambassadors also patrol six parking garages, and respond to nearly 700 calls each month for assistance in incidents ranging from lost children and disorderly conduct to shoplifting and auto accidents. The Ambassadors are also goodwill representatives of downtown Reading, meeting and greeting visitors and supplying information such as directions to Sovereign Center, restaurants and other businesses. DID Ambassadors make daily business checks to many of the more than 200 businesses in downtown Reading.
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Escort Services:
Reading DID provides free escort services within the downtown. The Ambassadors receive approximately 3,500 calls annually to escort employees from office buildings and stores to nearby parking lots and garages.Click Here for more information on DID's Escort Services.
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Cleaning and Maintenance Services:
Sidewalks, streets and other public areas downtown are cleaned six days a week. In addition to three full-time DID employees, three to five men sentenced to Berks County Prison for relatively minor crimes volunteer to assist in the daily cleaning downtown. In July 2005, DID and the Opportunity House forge a joint venture whereby, two residents of the Opportunity House clean Penn Square during lunch-time hours Monday to Friday. Throughout the DID, pole mounted “Smart Cans” are utilized to help reduce the amount of litter downtown. However, in a typical month, the cleaning teams remove approximately 2,000 bags of litter from streets in the district. Therefore, is developing a campaign to educate to public on the littering problem downtown. Reading DID also operates mechanical vacuum sweepers and a heavy-duty pressure washer for more thorough sidewalk cleaning.
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Marketing and Promotion:
When Reading DID was created in 1995, the organization that had been marketing the downtown, Reading Marketing Association (RMA), was disbanded. The initial intent of the marketing component of Reading DID was to build on the existing quality events and festivals in and near downtown, as well as the wide array of marketing projects undertaken by RMA. In the beginning this was done; however, with numerous appeals of assessments and a resulting decline in revenue to Reading DID, its marketing program has been dramatically curtailed. For the past several years the only marketing and promotion performed by Reading DID has been the Holiday Parade, MidDay Café series, the Downtown Reading web site and an occasional newsletter. Reading DID will continue to sponsor the Holiday Parade, and MidDay Café, update and maintain its web site, publish a monthly events calendar, and hold several special events throughout the downtown.