Frank Russo, who founded the Downtown BID’s red-and-blue-uniformed Downtown “SAM” (Safety, Hospitality and Maintenance) Program, will retire on January 15, following more than a decade at the Downtown BID.
Russo, deputy executive director of programs and services, will be missed. Thanks to his efforts, Downtown advocates have credited the SAMs with improving people’s perceptions of the area as a place that is “clean, safe and friendly.” Today, the Downtown BID employs more than 100 SAMs, who maintain public spaces and offer friendly faces to Downtown workers, residents and visitors.
“Frank has been an invaluable resource since the Downtown BID’s inception,” said Richard H. Bradley, the BID’s executive director. “We patterned the SAMs on a program that Frank had developed in Baltimore. In addition to developing the SAM program here, he has advanced the concept throughout the world, and has served as a consultant to hundreds of such programs throughout North America and Europe. Though Frank is retiring from full-time employment, his 20 years of BID-related leadership will enable him to continue serving as a consultant worldwide, and to be available as a resource to us as we move forward.”
In addition to leading the SAM program, Russo developed partnerships with city and federal agencies—especially the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and the National Park Service (NPS)—that have helped result in millions of dollars of physical improvements to the one-square-mile Downtown BID area. More recently, he has been instrumental in positioning the Downtown BID’s “Greening Downtown DC” sustainability initiative.
Building upon the “clean, safe and friendly” legacy, Bradley said the Downtown BID has convened an advisory group of Downtown property owners that will examine future strategies for continuing to improve placemaking strategies for Downtown DC.