Meet Operations Manager Randi
Q: How long have you been working with the DCA?
A: Two years. I started in July 2020.
Q: What’s your favorite part about your job?
A: It depends on the day. I’ve taken a liking to the outreach component of our job, getting to know the social service providers and how to build those relationships - figuring out what our first step is when dealing with a person experiencing homelessness and/or crisis and the laws and regulations going into that.
Q: What are some of your day-to-day tasks?
A: Everything from recruiting, hiring, motivating, and training a team of 15 individuals to execute our core mission to literally broom and dust panning, cleaning up waste, or whatever it may be. I do it all. My day-to-day usually starts with a couple of hours of admin work and team development to me actually being out on the streets talking to people, helping clean or power wash sidewalks, and water the flowers.
Q: What do you want people visiting Downtown to know?
A: If you haven’t come Downtown since we’ve been here, come Downtown. The beautification, safety, hospitality, and cleanliness of every detail - it just looks different. You can tell where our BID starts and stops, and we’ve worked on everything from the safety aspect to lighting and just general beautification and programming.
Q: What are some of your favorite places in the BID?
A: I love Mayan Kitchen. Also, Lupi’s and the mission behind their establishment. I really like Walk-Ons, and they’re new. Attraction-wise, the aquarium, as cliche as that is, it’s awesome. Anything that’s planned for the green - whether it’s Rock the Riverfront with the seesaws, the reindeer nights at the Chattanooga Green during Christmastime, and all of the programming that goes into the Green.
Q: Is there anything else you want people to know?
A: The development that has occurred while everyone is quarantined is visible and continuous. We have so many business opportunities and vacancies being filled by new businesses. In the next few months, we'll have over five new restaurants. As far as the DCA, I want to speak on the diversity of the team. It's one of my favorite parts of the job. It's a team that we’ve put together - I love the work culture we have and how unique the group is. We are a second chance company, so we’re here to offer people a job who maybe are coming out of our prison systems and may have not worked since coming out. I think all of those things really speak to the culture and the diversity of our team.