Fresno Famous

Most Fresnans have heard stories of Downtown Fresno being a lively and thriving area of the city during a time that most of us in my generation have never had the opportunity to experience. Many of us today hear people say that it is nothing like that anymore and that it is a trashy place for the homeless, drunks and criminals, amongst other negative comments. For this reason, many people tend to stay as far away from it as possible. The problem is that because we have heard such bad things about downtown, we never give it a chance to go and experience it for ourselves.

I, being a huge risk-taker (not really), have been going downtown for the past several weeks and I must say, it is not as bad as you may have heard. In fact, it is not bad at all. I will admit that I was one of the people who listened to the negative things people said about downtown, and would dread having to go there, but after visiting many of the bars, restaurants, entertainment venues, housing developments and other businesses in the area, I have been very impressed. There is great potential for it to be that once lively area where residents would flock for the variety of activities that were taking place. If people would go downtown and see for themselves such as I have, that it is actually a great place to be, we might be able to get the support of the community to turn it into a great staple of our city.

During my exploration of downtown, I have busted the myth that there is nothing to do because in fact, as I have recently found out, there are plenty of events and activities happening on a regular basis. For the artsy crowd (or not) there is ArtHop, for music lovers you have Fulton 55, and for all of the sports fans, there is Hero’s. These are just a few of the places and events that I have had the opportunity to experience and there is so much more to discover and explore.

The purpose for writing this piece is to challenge all of those who have heard something negative about downtown and to get your own opinion of it. In order to do so, you would have to go and experience it for yourself, disregarding everything you have heard in the past, and have an open mind to trying something different.