Fresno Famous

try re-reading

it's craig sharton
and
travis sheridan

Czars are Anti-American Democracy

Craig Sheridan, Travis Sheridan
Nepotism is alive in city government.

Do we really want russian emperors with great power giving us despotic rule?

guess we got both

http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/story/1100098.html

"Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil."
J. Paul Getty

Battle of the Czars

All I know is that Scharton stiffed me on a drink at Battle of the Bartenders. I mean really, you call that a pour?

I like Joe

Joe the Moore not Joe the Plumber.
I've always been impressed with his thoughful comments on mindhub and elsewhere. He has a much greater command of downtown details than I have for sure. I only know that I want the lights on in those downtown buildings at night because people live there. Architecture really "Lives" when people live in it. Business follows population.

I really don't know if a

I really don't know if a downtown czar would be a good thing in this recession. Adding another employee to the already cash strapped budget doesn't make sense. But, you connected people know more than me. It might be a good thing, but please, no looney tunes.

I vote Craig

But how about a panel to deal with downtown issues.
Cafe Corazon and Le Roi's closing were no big loss.
Savannah's sadly was forced out by unscrupulus property managment.

Scharton in '09

Craig has been a consistent advocate for revitalizing Downtown Fresno one building, one business at a time -- even when flashy "silver bullet" proposals were getting more airtime. He has experience working with the downtowns of other cities, which I think is tremendously valuable for us, and he is just completing his master's in community and economic development. Talk about bringing in best practices.

In addition, don't overlook Craig's other experience with community and business development, where the goal was consistently to support entrepreneurs and residents themselves, i.e., those who have already invested their own resources and energy in our community. This is the kind of grass-roots mindset that Downtown revitalization must have in common with our city's other community and business development efforts.

So Craig has my vote! But whoever it turns out to be, I hope they'll keep this general approach in mind.

Elliott

PS: If it helps, I will be happy to challenge Craig, Reza, or anyone else to a Downtown duel, such as:
a) A roller blade race from the stadium box office to the spiral garage.
b) A race to plant a tree.
c) Accurately dropping local produce from the top of a tall Downtown building.
d) All of the above: The Downtown Triathlon.

It's not either or

I think Ashley Swearengin is smart enough to have both these highly qualified individuals on her team. So it's not an either or situation. I think they will all be working together no matter what title they are appointed.

I for one look forward to the substantial improvements in downtown's built environment that we will see over the next 4 years.

I don't think choosing Reza Assemi is a viable or a good option. He is not a viable option because he is a developer and would have too many conflicts of interest to do an effective and fair job.

He's not a good option because being in that position would only slow the momentum that he has built. To take our most active and productive developers and embed him in buracracy is probably the worst thing we could do for downtown. We want Reza and hopefully other developers focused on developing quality projects.

We want the Downtown Czar to be focused on enabling development, holding the bar high, attracting businesses, and bringing the public downtown.

Kiel Famellos-Schmidt
ArcHop Curator

with...

businesses closing left and right (Cafe Corazon, Le Roi, Falcons, Savannah's, Olive Press) whoever gets it is gonna have their hands full. That's for sure!

I like them both, but Craig seems more qualified.

I vote for Reza.

I vote for Reza.