Fresno Famous

How does a downtown become successful? I have visited the downtown of Fresno, CA for the last five to six weeks, in this time I have talked to several business owners of theaters, restaurants, art galleries, the general Chinatown vicinity, the Fulton mall, and visited several other businesses. I heard many stories about how downtown once thrived, from what the business owners said I would never believe how many people once flocked to that area of the city. These owners said that people weren’t afraid of getting mugged or worse, that there were just as many people there after dark as during the day, and that businesses weren’t in any threat. Between the downtown stories I would try to fit in some questions; I asked about how business is now, what changes they made to their business tactics to survive, how they thought downtown could be revitalized, and among other questions I always asked about the surrounding businesses. Most of the business owners had about the same answers but the idea I want to focus on is about the surrounding businesses. What I found interesting was that only two or three business owners knew about the happenings of downtown and had information on fellow business.
I have always thought that a group of people working together is more effective than several people working individually. People working together can brainstorm ideas, tackle bigger tasks in shorter periods of time, and come up with better ideas through brainstorming sessions. Most business owners in downtown Fresno seem to be working individually in making downtown successful again. They try to give their individual contributions by bringing people to their place of business, which leads to customers visiting other businesses. They might go to council meetings, be beta testers for programs the city tries, or even open new businesses and attractions. These individual business owners are great assets to the downtown area, but if they all worked together, networked, and used all of their personal and business connections it could lead to a blossoming downtown. One reason why these business owners are working individually might be because they want the downtown successful but aren’t willing to do the extra work. If everyone works together business owners and the city alike don’t have to work as hard. As a group the ideas will be far more effective to those prior, goals will be reached faster, and the cohesion downtown will be more evident. If your reading this and you are from downtown take time to make contact with the people around you and bring up the revitalization of downtown. You never know where the conversation might lead.