Downtown Cleveland Alliance

Programs: Downtown ambassador program (clean & safe) - working from our central operations center with full communications capabilities, dozens of cross-trained team members work shifts spanning 18 hours a day to create a cleaner, safer, better environment for everyone downtown. Our clean and safe ambassadors spend most of their time providing hospitality services. They're trained to help with information on hotels, restaurants, attractions, events, conventions, and parking locations and costs. They're also knowledgeable about local ordinances such as panhandling, loitering, and solicitation and are in contact with peace officers if a situation requires action.

the sparx program supports the alliance's mission to make downtown cleveland the most compelling place to live, work, and play by creating activity on the streets of downtown. The sparx event includes sidewalk concerts, artist studios and galleries, and historic walking tours. The daylong event invites the downtown workforce and residential population to spend their saturday out and about in downtown cleveland. The liveliness that these performances lend to downtown helps to improve the perception of downtown as clean, safe, fun, and vibrant. By improving public perception of cleveland, we are striving towards our goal of increased economic development of downtown. The event draws thousands of visitors from around the region, creating a great economic impact on the city not only in the sales of art, food, and beverage during the event, but also by showing those who are unfamiliar that cleveland is compelling and dynamic with an arts scene worthy of more frequent visits.

holiday lighting ceremony (winterfest) - winterfest is one of cleveland's most beloved traditions and well attended events. The lights and decorations that are activated during this holiday lighting ceremony create a festive atmosphere in public square and playhouse square to accompany the full schedule of activities that continue downtown throughout the holiday season. Dca has proudly been at the helm of winterfest since 1998. The program is both more economical for the alliance and manageable for visitors, while providing a spectacular holiday experience for the greater cleveland community. Winterfest attracts an estimated 40,000 visitors downtown each year. We continue to maintain and build our strong partnerships in the public and private sector that make the event possible. The winterfest committee we organize works hard to collaborate with venues and vendors to design a downtown experience that will attract local participants, as well as visitors from throughout the region and state. Winterfest is a family-oriented initiative that aims to make it easy and appealing for families to spend an entire day and evening downtown.