San Mateo council reviews downtown survey; staff outlines cleanup, retail and safety actions

Jennifer Chen, the city’s economic development manager, presented an updated downtown-survey findings report and a staff action plan at a San Mateo City Council special meeting on Jan. 21, 2025, asking the council to confirm or modify staff recommendations.

The survey and action plan matter because the results are intended to guide city and partner work on cleanliness, retail mix, public seating and safety through the 2025–26 fiscal year and to inform a future downtown area plan. Staff said the results will shape work tied to Council Priority 23 (the “Blue Sky” downtown priority).

Chen told the council the survey was developed collaboratively, offered in multiple languages and promoted across the city’s digital channels and partner networks. She said the survey was live from Aug. 19 through Sept. 3, 2024. In the presentation Chen described broad outreach and at one point said the survey had “gathered over 1,300 responses in just 2 weeks,” and later reported “we've received 183 responses.” The presentation did not reconcile those two counts; staff later described the sampling as statistically significant but did not provide a single definitive response total during the meeting.

On substance, staff summarized four priority gaps between how important users rate downtown attributes and how satisfied they said they were: cleanliness,…