Fresno's Problems and a starting point
At some point in my life, it was decided that the only way to fix downtown Fresno was to gather up a bus load of young artists and make them live there. The reasoning was apparently that downtown could thrive only with an influx of new residents, since the current residents were not keeping the place up. While the effort is noble, it is doomed to failure. Why? Because Fresno's problems will not be solved by who lives downtown.
The first step in making it a better place is to stop defining its attributes by those used in Southern California suburbs. I imagine that part of this is due to the influx of individuals priced out of those very Southern California suburbs. And I imagine that is why nearly every new development looks like it was grown in Orange County.
These people not only bring horrible architecture to town, but they bring with them the disdain for all things Fresno that permeates the coastal urban cities - mainly that we are nothing but backward oakies and hispanics. These thoughts then infect the rest of the town and we all start to believe it. The natural reaction is to try to look like our more urban counsins. Of course, this simply makes us look even more ridiculous.
What Fresno needs is a true leader. Someone who will remind everyone that this State's top economic sector is agriculture. And no one in the world does agriculture better than Fresno. This fact should be celebrated. Those fields that we are plowing over to attract the refuse from the larger urban areas are our heritage. It's what makes Fresno unique. We need a leader who will market these strengths to the world. We are missing a huge opportunity since the rest of the nation, particularly SF and LA, are concerned with green spaces and locally grown produce. Agriculture is both.
Instead we market outselves as a cheaper, more bland, version of countless suburbs. We come up with brillant ideas like building a river downtown or we copy another unique thing first built somewhere else. Why would anyone ever travel to see Fresno's riverwalk? You'd want to see the original - in San Antonio.
The answer to this is to capitalize on our strengths. We do ag better than any other place in the world. Period. We are effectively the gateway to Yosemite. Why not invest in a rail line to the park from downtown? Visitors could stay downtown and ride the new green-rail to one of the world's most breathtaking landscapes. Along the way, they would pass through the worlds most productive agriculture operations.
This new leader will also have to rien in the sprawl. Again, this goes back to Agriculture. The State has a law that protects agriculture land. It's called the Williamson Act. With a few tweaks, the law could greatly reduce the ability of farmers to turn the world's best farm land into some of the world's worst-built homes.
Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with improved city planning. This new leader would not rubber stamp every new development on Palmdon Drive, or whatever new clever combination of street names the developer concots. At the same time, there would be tax and other incentives to get businesses to return to downtown. Use eminant domain to take buildings from absentee landlords and then give them to local businesses on the condition that the buildings are refurbished and occupied for at least 20 years. In any other city in America, the big local businesses and banks and law firms are downtown, not on the fringes of the city.
This is the most important aspect of revitalizing downtown. You have to inject capital into the area, and the only way to do that is to get the businesses and law firms and banks that used to be there to move back. The number of restaraunts would explode. That alone would drive people downtown. This is not to mention all of the other service related jobs that would move to the downtown area.
But for whatever reason, I never hear anyone talk of these two plans - a true leader and improving commercial tenancy in downtown. Instead, we have ill-thought out proposals like a riverwalk, or a trolley car that goes from the tower to downtown. A light rail system only makes sense if parking at your destination is prohibitively expensive. Nowhere in Fresno is parking difficult, except for maybe downtown - but that's another reason why downtown is dying. It's essentially a use-tax on downtown.
So the bottom line is, if we want to make Fresno a better place, we need to take more pride in our circumstances. Yes, our economy is based on Ag, but that's a good thing. We have access to products that others can only dream about. We also need a good leader who will effectively direct the city's growth. And finally, we need to shift our attention from creating residential space downtown to getting the area's larger businesses to return.
I am not sure
Rob DeFrees
Personally, I adore living Downtown. I have made it a point to be in the Downtown part of most cities I have lived.
London is a smasher. Paris has it's chic folks sitting at cafe sipping coffe and having a gasp on horrid smelling fags. Rome has lots of noise. Venice has the Plaze San Marco, with violinist, many many birds and sidewalk cakes. San Franciso, let us just say that the City by the Bay has a bit of everything for everyone.
Fresno has little draw at night. There are no cinemas and a walkabout can be daunting given the number of folks begging for cash or a fag. Many cities saw Downtown die and they came up with reasons for folks to go there. Nice shops, cinemas and for the many who love to drink bars.
Folks in Fresno seem to be mad about motors and they bang on about there being no parking. I do not drive. Not afraid to walk or take public transport. For the folks who want to party, there are plenty of taxis and one would think that if they were going to get into a right pissed state, they would want to call a taxi and get about that way.
So far, no one has got it right. I have always thought that Downtown will happen if folks want it to. Right odd that so many are waiting for the 'burning bush' to be planted before they will consider it HOT to be COOL in Downtown.
In the UK
Rob DeFrees
Brits are an odd lot. An insult is the highest form of flattery.
Now that I have both feet in my cake-hole I will try to explain.
I think you are right clever. MOI feels that a show at the Ice Rink would be a smash. Run for ages. Telling you that I think you should be one of the STARS, means that you are a person of note. So far I have but named folks I think would bring out the crowd.
Odd how you do not deny that you KNOW who is best for the job of Mayor.
Re: I must be thick as a brick
I may be thick as a brick (if I may borrow from Rob), but I'm not sure if that was flattering or insulting or both.
I'm not sure...
who the owner is.
Rob you say people need to live downtown in order for it to change. I used to agree with that, but having lived downtown for three years now, I'm not so sure. I am constantly walking around downtown and more often than not I'll have dinner in one of the restaurants. In all the times I've had dinner downtown (maybe hundreds) I have yet to run into another downtown resident having dinner. And maybe, just maybe, a handful of times while out enjoying live music or an adult beverage have I run into other downtown residents. I think the only place I have been to that may be benefiting from the proximity of residents is The Shepherds Inn. Even then, they say lots of people from Villa Borgata go there, but I haven't run into any of them.
Now, for the record, I'm not an expert in pedestrian traffic patterns and I don't know everyone that lives downtown. So the business' may actually be benefiting from the residents that are here. All I'm saying is, I haven't seen it.
So what is it going to take? Honestly until downtown becomes the cool place to be, it's going to take people making conscious decisions to spend their money downtown. Thats what it boils down to. Money. I know some people won't agree with that, but business' need money to survive. And business' need to survive in order to revitalize downtown. If business' survived on big dreams and high hopes, downtown would already be the place to be.
Abe Lopez
I must be thick as a brick
Rob DeFrees
The chap who posts about Downtown does with panache. He is right clever in hinting at 'leadership' and think he has just the person in mind he wants to bang on about as THE NEW LEADER.
I do like Doug's comments. I love jumbos and when in UK always make time to go to Eastend and find treasures. Folks do love a bragain. Mind, I will pass on the fancy coffee, got to have a cuppa.
Folks can bang on about Downtown until the cows come home. Nothing is going to save Downtown unless folks will LIVE there. There are many problems with that coming to pass and the biggest problem is getting folks to do that. Whatever else happens is for naught if the folks will not be there when the sun goes down.
Mind, if the planned Ice Rink happens, Tommy_Tower can join the show I suggested for it. He will have to go to my website and read the post. I can see him, decked out as the famous Tower, with art, old records, cds, used clothes and holding a discarded cup from Starbucks, gliding across the ice to the tune 'DOWNTOWN' waving the placard of the savior he believes will make Fresno better.
Oi! Famous Whitewater deserves a place as well, he will float over the ice(he is Superman) dressed as a call box to the tune "Hey, look me over'.
Mexicatessen? Who owns it? The original was great.
The original Mexitessen was Downtown next to the AT&T building on Fulton.
It's was only open for lunch and was owned by a sweet lady. When she retired it was torn down.
She was the daughter or daughter-in-law of the original Sal(Sal's in Selma).
She was Bobby Salazar's Aunt.
But his factory processed frozen boil a bag food has never been up to her standards.
It's what they serve at the "Chuck" now.
I have been to the one in the Tower.
Bobby Salazar's food was over priced and poor quality.
Her stuff was the real deal that a real Mexican grandma would serve.
Too bad more places don't hire grandma's to do real cooking.
Speaking of the "Chuck" what is up with the food?
Last year they were serving meat from The Meat Market and now Bobby Salazar's frozen food in a bag.
It's better to eat before a game.
Chris's Meat Market in Chinatown still has good Mexican to go.
speaking of downtown
It seems that downtown has lost another restaurant . The Olive Press closed its doors sometime last week. Which is a bit unfortunate.
But fortunately it seems the space wont be empty for long. A new eatery is moving in. Kabob Express or something like that.
Also Sushi Hanna is open. I think they are still waiting for the alcohol license, but it seems they are open for everything else. I'm not a big sushi fan, so hopefully someone else will review it...EdLuv??
Also in The Galleria, a new restaurant is opening up in Bobby Salazar's old spot. I think they are going to call it Mexicatessen, again I'm not sure about the name. Apparently they will have all kinds of different Margaritas.
Anyway, like Doug said..."explore downtown"
Happy is what you make of it.
Explore the rich tastes of cheap hole in the wall food spots on the Fulton Mall.
Shop in the thrift stores.
Get a double chochlty frappachino and sit back in the big chair and watch the City.
Savvana's Thursday special is Jambalya.
Explore Downtown
Appalachia, eh? Well, if
Appalachia, eh?
Well, if it's the southern part, and you're used to the Bible Belt, you'll find many similarities. The heat sounds unbearable, but I'll take 115 here over 90 in North Carolina heat--or over 85 in Louisiana.
do I want to move to Fresno?
So. There seems to be great opportunity in the world of primary healthcare in Fresno---mostly due to the large influx of people to support the agriculture. This would provide a job and stable career for me...but we all know there's more to life than that...
My question is, does a girl from Appalachia stand a chance of being happy in such a strange and far away place?
Question
First of all, there is a tremendous amount of vacant office space downtown. It is simply not being used. That's why the place is "dead." It has nothing to do with the fact that space is office space, but rather stems from the fact that the former tenants of those offices are moving out to Palm and Nees or Riverpark or Fig Garden. And they've taken a lot of capital with them, which is now supporting the foreign-owned businesses (foreign meaning not local) that have been established in the new areas. You can point to government workers, but its clear that government workers are not enough to support a vibrant downtown. If they were, downtown wouldn't be the skid-row that is has been for the last 20 years. Call me crazy, but this could have something to do with the fact that government workers make less money than their private sector friends.
Fresno already has what amounts to an "arts district." It's called the tower district. There's not enough disposable income income to support two disticts. Why not then focus your artsitic talents on making the already-established arts district even better?
At some point, we are going to have to recognize that the party-line approach of "boutiques and art will revitalize downtown" is a failed experiment. The energy people display towards rebuilding downtown is positive but without a workable solution, we're ultimately wasting everyone's time and resources. It's time for new leadership to take downtown in a new direction.
after 5 pm there is no downtown economy
Number one: all of that square footage is currently going to waste. People who want to move there will and those that don't won't. They will generate their own businesses while they create the "Downtown Scene". Fresno Famous itself is an element of this process. As more stores and restaurants open up jobs are created.
Number two: There's nobody downtown after 5pm already because there is so much office space and so few residents.
Number three: I'm a musician/guitar teacher and this irritates me.
The city spent mucho dinero on the Eaton Plaza Stage and it is empty most of the time.
My father designed the oval stage near the clock tower on the Fulton Mall while working for City Planning in the 1960s. I've played there recently with Patrick Contreras for the Downtown Association. I'm really sad to see it dark almost all of the time too. Why? because noone lives there. If 10% of the Fresno population lived nearby we would be jamming all the time.
true
There are jobs downtown. I don't want to create the impression that there are no jobs downtown. Obviously, there are many government jobs (although, some government orgnizations are trying to move). However, most of the larger businesses and orgnizations in town are not downtown. These entities are comprised of individuals who have a lot of disposable income. Just go to any restaraunt in Fig Garden at lunch time or after work. Now imagine if their offices were downtown.
There are lots of jobs downtown.
Have you been downtown? We don't have a problem with people working down here. In fact, that's about all we have right now. If anything we have a problem with people spending down here. I think most people will agree the problem comes around 5 p.m., when everyone goes home to different parts of the city.
But no one forced anyone to live downtown. The people who moved down here (and they're not all artists) did so because it offered them something they couldn't find in other parts of the city. That probably has something to do with community/asthetics, etc. For some of us, it does put us closer to work, but downtown is a main hub for freeway access (if you need to drive), so...
But you do have some good points about trying to get businesses back downtown. The trick is it probably has to all happen at pretty much the same time.
commerical activity
Those older buildings you are talking about are designed to have retail on the ground floor and office spaces above. You could convert the top floors into condos or lofts, but there are a few problems with that. First, no one has yet answered why anyone would want to live downtown in the first place (aside from a few artists and elderly people). This isn't the soviet union. You can't just tell people where to live. You have to give them a reason to want to be downtown and in most cities that reason is a job. People follow jobs, not the other way around. Second, residential space is much less dense than office space, so that office space will support more retail than residential space will.
Vertical Living
A lot with an empty ten story building has no economic value to a retailer or restauranteur. It is just an empty lot to them. Fill the ten story building with customers and the lot is now ten times as valuable as a suburban residential lot of the same size. Vertical living multiplies the value of the lot and its retail businesses.
This creates population densities that not only allow mass transit but eventually require it.
There are many older folk, even retired farmers, and many others besides the artists who want to move downtown or are already here. Many of these people have lived in big cities and want to bring that same lifestyle here. (I was in SF last winter for Chinese New Year. Think ten block Party Zone!)
When Vagabond Lofts opened up the residential units moved very quickly. How long would it have taken to sell out a third, fourth or fifth floor? Also wouldn't that have helped the rate of sales of ground floor retail spaces?
Let's be a real city!
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