Fresno Famous

This District was developed after 1900 and served as Fresno's first suburb. The area was dominated by single-family housing, mostly 2-3 bedrooms, serving the working middle and upper middle economic classes. The area housed two elementary schools. Tree-lined streets and proximity to downtown made this neighborhood pleasant and appealing.

In 1957 the neighborhood was bisected by an intersecting pair of planned freeways. The freeways had no funding source or timetable for construction or completion. (the 41 freeway was completed circa 1981 and 180 in 1993?).

Many of the people whose homes were now under the shadow of the planned freeways sold their homes and moved further into the suburbs. Investors purchased the homes, rented them, spent as little money as possible on maintenance, and knew that they would eventually sell them to CalTrans for a good price.

The blight from these doomed homes and their increasingly irresponsible tenants, owners, squatters, and vandals, spread out further into the neighborhoods.

In the early to mid 1960's the City of Fresno crafted a plan to reverse this trend toward disinvestment in the neighborhoods. Planners concluded that if they increased the density of the neighborhood's zoning, that eventually high rise apartments, filled with swinging, hip, downtown office workers would certainly spring up. I've never been sure if these planners spent too much time watching the Jetsons or taking hallucinogens, or both.

The planners rezoned the entire residential neighborhood to high-density multi-family zoning. There were no design standards to ensure that new buildings would fit with the existing character and charm of the neighborhood. They did not enact any protections for the historic homes that made up the neighborhood.

The result was that investors could now purchase the bungalow next to your family's home. They could tear it out and build a multi-unit apartment with less character than a grocery bag. There were no quality standards expected from design, materials, parking or maintenance.

The people who could leave... left. They sold to investors who either tore down the house for another apartment or they simply rented the house without putting any money back into upkeep.

The transiency rate of the neighborhood reflected the transiency of the students in the area's schools. It is reported that the schools suffered from 70-90% transiency within a school year. Imagine trying to teach 30 elemenatry students, with differing languages, while 27 of them shift sometime during the school year. This decreased the quality of education provided and further discouraged investment by homeowners.

The Revitalization District under development by One by One Leadership will create a non-profit corporation whose sole purpose is to oversee the health, well-being and vitality of this district. The Board will be comprised of residents, business owners, property owners, and a representative from Community Hospital, the schools, and the churches.

Examples of priorities for the district could be to:

Rezone single family homes and vacant lots back to single-family.
To institute pro-active code enforcement to require property owners to maintain their properties to the community standard.
To develop Design Guidelines specifically for these neighborhoods to ensure that future development enhances the quality of the neighborhood.
To develop historic preservation protection for the remaining resources and to encourage the development a knowledge base which increases neighborhood pride.
To focus housing rehabilitation programs within this neighborhood to more rapidly increase the revitalization of the area.
To focus all programs which can help people transition from renters to home buyers within the neighborhood. The first priority should be to help existing neighbors benefit by investing in a home within the district.
To ensure that the district is receiving its fair portion of resources for the infrastructure and services provided by government and private institutions.
To enhance communication between residents and businesses within the area. To develop loyalty that strengthens areas businesses and encourages businesses to hire employees from within their neighborhood.