Chris Kendrix has spent his career working behind the scenes. Starting as an IATSE stagehand for concerts and trade shows for 10 years before taking a job at Groundwerx to restore his work/life balance with more regular hours. Now he moves to center stage in his new position of Operations Manager of San Jose Downtown Association, replacing Chris Arkley who left SJDA last year to become Downtown Coordinator for the City of San Jose.
As Operations Manager, Kendrix oversees Clean and Safe programs, the Social Impact Team, and the SJPD secondary unit. He is also responsible for PBID service issues, such as infrastructure maintenance, and managing fee-for-service accounts. Coming from his previous position as Program Director for Groundwerx, he is very familiar with most of the programs he now manages.
One of Kendrix’s passions is talking trash with local business owners and government leaders. While he admits that his vision for downtown is not very glamorous, Chris says he longs for a day when every downtown dumpster has a covered place to go at night and every trash receptacle is pilfer-resistant. Another favorite topic for Chris is the Social Impact Team (SIT) he oversees, which regularly connects unhoused individuals with service agencies, distributes care kits, and reunites disconnected people with family members.
Chris became acutely aware of the homeless issues plaguing downtown during the pandemic, when Groundwerx team responsibilities became more about keeping encampments from forming on downtown streets and less about cleaning up after major downtown events. The SIT Team was developed during that time and has made a huge difference that Chris sees every day.
If Kendrix seems like a guy who skates through life effortlessly, it’s probably because he quite literally does. His grandmother managed the local rink in his hometown of Hobbs, New Mexico, and Chris grew up on roller skates. Although he never transferred his skills to the ice, his love of skating lead to a love of hockey and the San Jose Sharks, and Chris is a proud and loyal Sharks season ticket holder. He and Roberta Kendrix, his wife of 15 years, live in South San Jose and can both be found rollerskating around town on the weekends.
Replacing Kendrix as Groundwerx Program Director is Jon Lopez, who moves up from Operations Supervisor, a position he has held for the last 2 years.
The Property-Based Improvement District (PBID) is a special benefit assessment district that provides enhanced maintenance, public safety, beautification and economic development programs above and beyond those provided by the City of San Jose. Key programs include Groundwerx cleaning and ambassador programs, tree-trimming and care, homeless assistance, business development and street life projects such as murals, crosswalk enhancement and decorative lighting. Nationally, PBID services improve the overall viability of business districts, increasing property values and sales tax revenue. Groundwerx is staffed by Block by Block, a company that specializes in staffing clean and safe programming for downtown assessment districts nationwide,
