Fresno Famous

Fulton Mall / downtown

Seems so hopeless of a situation, but still I am optimistic! "Fresno’s history of sprawl, its relationship with developers, its seemingly unconditional love of all things shiny and new" says it all. I enjoy reading your writing Mr. Tehee.

Extemely interesting articles and thread. I am thinking housing and residents are our best shot at a successful downtown - and not that "all things shiny and new" downtown. SF's try may work because its people's committment is so much more established.

FULTON MALL

I see things, when I am downtown, I like and others? Some of the arty features are in sad repair, especially the water features. Then we look at the shortage of water and perhaps in the desert we live in they need to go by the wayside. It would be nice to see them operable though.

When we look at the mall I think we need to look at all of the "Fresno Sprawl". If you take the time to drive on a Sunday around all of Fresno, or even in your daily travels, look around you and really see, how many malls, shopping centers, buildings in general have failed, setting there empty, thrown away, while we build a new neighborhood, new mall and sprawl somemore. Manchester, Fashion Fair, Sierra Vista in Clovis, are some big ones with many, many empty spaces.

Could it be that some small business might rent one of those spaces creating a new business, new idea and new jobs in retail if the rents weren't so high due in part to very high property taxes that says the rent must be at this leval? Is it possible that a bunch of other crapy laws put a damper on the very small business owner that he/she has to pay to stay in business preventing them from making a living?

I closed my business because it cost me $9,000.00 per year in taxes, licenses, fees, etc. before I got around to buying the milk, bread and, if I was lucky, cheese for my family. There was never a nickle left at the end of the year ,for anything extra. Employess taxes, workers compensation, which are not included in the figure above. I got tired of just paying for city services. Some of those services, such as police, were of no help with two buglars, who, after I caught them actually commiting the crime were let go on the spot because I saw them do it but not the police so they couldn't arrest them. Who paid for my broken windows. I did. Not my insurance, the deductible was too high. High deductible, low enough premium I could afrford, worthless when I had a need.

More problems need addressing than just the Mall. The business environment needs an overhaul that will help free enterprise thrive, then perhaps that would lead to more activity in all of our shopping areas as well as Fulton Mall. Lower taxes and fees would create more business and more people paying in, thus creating more money in city coffers.

What it was...What it is...What it will be...

Yes, there certainly has been an endless debate over Fresno"s Fulton Mall, and there are people on both sides of this issue whom I love and respect. The fact of the matter is this. In 2014 Fresno will have 50 years to celebrate for building another first. One of, if not the first open air mall in the nation. That part of our community is rich with art and fond memories that spoke boldly of our community and what it was.

Today there are still those who would rather it had never been built. Hmm, that sort of reminds me of those people who still fly a confederate flag on their front porch and swear the south will rise again. And still, there are others who are afraid to venture out to "that" part of the city for whatever fear grips their version of reality.

It has been said that a city's DT reflects it's population as a whole, so what is it our DT is saying about us? What it is, as I see it, is a reflection of vision, sophistication and fearlessness in the face of taking on risk in order to move boldly into the future. That is its reflection, and I believe that is our destiny; however, as it stands now, it appears broken, neglected, and at one time abandoned. That is what it is.

What it will be? Hmmm. That's up to us. Do we tear it down and start over? Do we make the whole thing an historical landmark and live with it? Or, do we do a little of both? Fresno really is famous for a lot... Whatever happens, It was, is and always will be a reflection of who we are as a community here and now.

Wm.B.

was the Fulton Mall originally about "walkability"?

hmm? seems like Fresno was ahead of its time, but couldn't make it work;

CNNMoney.com
Putting a price on walkability
Posted by David Futrelle
August 22, 2009 11:13 pm

How much is walkability worth? An intriguing new study suggests that people are willing to pay considerable premiums for houses in neighborhoods that are highly walkable — that is, where you can actually get to nearby stores, schools, and parks without having to hop in the car.

The study, conducted by a group called CEOs for Cities, looked at 90,000 homes in 15 different markets in the US, mashing up home sales data with “walkability” scores from WalkScore.com. (See the press release describing the study here, or download the study itself, in pdf form, here.) In 13 of the 15 areas studied, homes in highly walkable neighborhoods sold on average for $4000 to $34,000 more than homes in neighborhoods of average walkability. The pattern held in locations as diverse as Chicago, Tucson, and Jacksonville, Florida; only in Las Vegas were more-walkable neighborhoods less desirable than less-walkable ones. To the author of the study, Joseph Cortright, this suggests that neighborhood walkability is “more than just a pleasant amenity,” and deserves far more attention from politicians and other urban leaders./blockquote>
http://moneyfeatures.blogs.money.cnn.com/2009/08/22/putting-a-price-on-w...
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welcome to the future

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funny, when Fresno does something its dull, but if SF does it,

WOW!!!, stop the presses, its a big deal from the: "San Francisco Chronicle"

Castro district tries out a pedestrian plaza
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 12, 2009

City work crews hustled Monday to transform a small stretch of 17th Street in San Francisco's Castro neighborhood into a car-free pedestrian plaza, an experiment that could be replicated in neighborhoods across the city if the public buys into the idea.

The 17th Street project is the first of the city's "pavement-to-parks program" in which the traditional use of streets to carry cars is being rethought. Initially, the closure will be temporary but could be made permanent.

"The test of success will be whether the neighborhood accepts it," said David Alumbaugh, San Francisco's acting director of citywide planning.

The new plaza will be about half a block long - located on the west end of 17th Street between Castro and Market streets. A gas station runs along one side of the plaza and neighborhood-serving businesses on the other. The Municipal Railway's historic F-line trolleys run along tracks in the middle of the street, and will continue to do so.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2009/05/12/BARL17IHQ...
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welcome to the future

Can We live there Yet?

Put a few thousand residents on the Fulton Mall in the old buildings and you'll have a scene there growing organically from the people themselves.

I find it amazing that the much of new housing being built in Fresno appears to be downtown. It IS happening just slower than I'd like. Let's keep housing growth downtown and add living space in the old buildings.

Why settle for the fake Disneyland like "Cityscape" of Riverpark when we can create a real "Cityscape" with real big buildings and real population density.

More Fulton Mall Talk

Yes, my hand is raised too.

I think that the South end of the mall (the block that's around the Chuck) should be focused on for nightlife/shopping stuff (or stuff for whitey) and then leave the rest of the mall the way it is (other than some basic improvements, facades, whatever) and let it be what it be.

Great read, Famous.
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www.thefresnan.com

Fresno

While I hope that one day Fresno improves, I am not holding my breath. As soon as I've finished college, I'm moving somewhere better. I would like to stay, but there is no reason to. People in Fresno (for the most part) seem to thrive on ignorance, laziness, and violence. So if you're a big, dumb, beer drinkin' idiot: This is the place for you! Maybe Fresno was never meant to be a major urban center. Maybe it is a product of misplaced ambition that it could never have sustained and hasn't. Fresno is an extremely overgrown highway piss stop, like a giant kidney stone that won't exit the bladder so it keeps causing unbelievable pain to the body. Should I compare it to cancer or should I quit before I get really negative. Anyway, I'm not trying to be a downer, I'm just being truthful. I say, if you're a gifted individual living in Fresno, escape! Who cares about the moronic assholes that live here. They will just mean mug you when you drive, walk or bikeride and be basically unfriendly and unhelpful and uninteresting in any situation (with the exception of a small percentage of people who are worth anything.) If you have not yet started college, go somewhere else! Fresno State sucks! Even the people that work in the new school library are imbeciles. I can tell this by the fact that most of them speak really loudly when addressing your questions. It's a freakin' library! Shut up! There ARE actually people around who can read, I know it may come as a shock. And plus I'm probably high so I don't want you bringing me down with your dumb preppy clothes, haircut and your loud, authoritative, retard speak! I forgot what I was talking about. Oh yeah, the fulton mall sucks and needs work. It could be cool someday if some savvy folks are hired to fix it, but I don't care because I'm moving anywhere but here A.S.A.P.

too funny

i like that people get bounced off the site (antimusic, is this you?) and keep coming back to whine about how they loved the site five years ago. let it go, jarah et al sold the site a long time ago. no one is forcing you to come to this website.

I'll look ...

...For it next time I'm down at the library. I like FF.

Contact link

jtehee@fresnobee.com

Who Likes Fresno Famous?

I did once a lot when it was in a former persons control. Now it's like a brick wall.

besides 3 people or less than a dozen at the most?

if you need support on this site there is no one to contact and when you do make an attempt to contact them they ignore you.

So how do you contact Fresno Famous? I guess you have to hit their myspace page. But they have not logged on to that for four months.

I guess you have to call the Bee and jump though all the phone answering system and hope you get a real person who knows who to contact.

Why does this site still feel very unprofessional. I feel sorry for the advertisers who pay for this place. they must be getting ripped off because of the extrema lack of service.

Don't tell me I need to contact famous whitewasher because that fool does not have a contact link on here with an email. And if they did they might never read it like the myspace page.

So it's time to let Fresno Famous die like it has been for the last 4 months. Since the ones in full control only care because it's there assigned job since they do get paid to work on it. Unlike the rest of us posters who are just ignored.

RIP Fresno Famous... you are just like the Fulton Mall a place where a few people go and eventually gets ignored over time.

I guess I will just visit the
dumbdrum.com
since that is who seems to have anything interesting to say and they always get linked on here so why use this site anymore.

Heya Fresnoise: fresno film?

Hello Fresnoise,
Joe Moore told me that the film (if that waa what you were referring to) is available through the Fresno library system.
Ok, I'm back to reading the article (it's a long 'un).

I love it!

Both my hands are raised!!!
I firmly believe that with the right investors, the Fulton Mall can not only thrive but see successful business's co-exist with the loveable locals who really mean no harm as long as you mind your own business and let them go about theirs.

By way of follow up

Joe Moore sent me an article that ran in the Fresno Bee in 1972. In it a architectural critic, urban historian and community consultant predicts that Fresno will become...well, what it has become. It's another good read.

Wednesday, Jan. 19, 1972 THE FRESNO BEE - Page D1

A Not-Too-Bright Picture of Fresno

Fresno's downtown development may have made the city no more than just another pretty face.

"The pictorial development apparently had the hope in mind that when the prettiness was achieved that all of the other problems would go away, which has not been the case at all,"said Allan Temko, San Francisco Chronicle architectural critic, urban historian, community consultant and University of California instructor who was in Fresno today to lecture at San Joaquin Valley Town Hall in Convention Center Theater.

Temko, who testified at hearings in Fresno during the planning phase of downtown development, said that while the city is to be complimented on the beauty of its achievements, ("Fresno is very kindly toward the arts"), the underlying forces and problems besetting the city and its peoples have, not been solved.

"I think Fresno faces a very real danger of becoming an old people's town, and I mean old people in the literal sense, unless there is social and political change to bring about solutions which will keep the young people and the gifted people in the community."

He referred to the city's unemployment rate as a long-range danger signal.

"Is this part of the permanent picture for Fresno?" he asked. "Are Fresno and other cities of the valley in a downward unemployment trend? While Fresno is getting about one new industry a month, for the most part the people are taking in each other's washing. The city's political and economic leaders have not been energetic in figuring and planning the city's economic future."

He said Fresno has not faced up to rapid technological changes in agriculture and agribusiness.

"The time must come you know, when we must stop kicking the brown people around," he said. "Perhaps they were even better off in the old baronial period, at least they knew who they were working for then. Today the policies of employment and conditions hinge on a board of directors meeting far off somewhere—in Texas for instance."

Temko was bitterly critical of "developers who own property on the edge of-the peripheral and are raising hell with the city's center."

Instead of protecting the downtown core, he said such developments as "Fashion Fair" were permitted to "dilute" it.

The city's downtown investment, economically and social, must be protected, he said. There has been too much dilution of its resources. Part of the problem has been impatience in trying to make it a Chamber brochure.

"The only way to protect and revitalize downtown," he said, "is to stop northward expansion. There is no reason to put the new freeways where the developers want them, taking out middle class homes as they go. Are we planning a city for cars or people?"

"While downtown Fresno should be a viable, lively and healthy place for young people, at night it is totally dead. I was thinking last night how fine it would be to take a building like the Santa Fe depot and turn it into a place where young people can make some noise. The young people should be a part of downtown like in the days when they cruised the drag and sat in the malt shop. There is more to life than the back seat of a Buick."

Temko also took a shot at the new courthouse building.

"While Fresno has done some very good things, we should not knock it, but then I think about the old courthouse building being torn down to be replaced by an Arizona-looking pseudo public building," he said.

On the optimistic side, Temko said Fresno is still of a manageable size and has a good deal to be utilized in revitalizing it and making it into the kind of community in which the young and the gifted will want to live.

"Fresno needs to give more planning to its freeway, sewer and subdivision expansion," he said. "It needs to bring such things as the art center downtown, where they belong. I think the people have got to start demanding from political candidates and organizations, specific information on environmental attitudes. I think man must now consciously begin controlling his surroundings through politics, because man is a political animal."

By W.L.

Reborn

too bad it's not on Netflix. I would take a look if it were.