Me and Liz have written a letter to the management of the Tower Farmers Market. I bet if we could get some other phone calls from people we could see a night time market out there. It's not necessarily a college thing, but who cares. Most people are busy during the day regardless of the day of the week. And there is all kinds of stuff to do in the Tower after dark, this market could be another and we think it would do well. Last I spoke to the management they were looking into getting arts and crafts ok'd to be part of the market. That would really open up some doors for local artists if they wanted to.

Realistically there would be some hurdles, like lighting and electricity. Where there's a will there's a way, though. Strings of white xmas lights go a long way without very much power demand.

Tower Farmers Produce Market
8am-3PM Weds, Friday & Saturday -227-8026

Diablo

we do have an outdoor farmer's market in the tower. i'm pretty sure that you may even be able to see parts of it from starline. corner of olive and van ness.

it's not everyday, and i can't say how good it is, but it's there.

i do know can get great coffee there sometimes.

Respect Rowan.

Is Salsa night ages 18+ on Thursdays?

I am the Salsa music promoter at the Starline on Thursdays. I have been involved with promoting salsa for 8 years. I sympathize and salute Daddy Spleece in his efforts to keep his Reggae events "real". He is promoting the music and a vibe. I try to do the samething with Salsa music.

I would welcome a group effort to promote the Tower to a college based crowd. This would be valuable to bring new people to the Tower. It is difficult to promote events on the college campuses, because the campuses do not allow promotions of events not related to the schools. Radio and newspaper are too expensive. A Tower nightlife campaign would be cost effective and easier to promote as a group.

In regards to people's concerns with drawing a undesirable crowd of drunks and fighters, I believe the promoter or nightclub is responsible for maintaining a vibe. The promoter or nightclub has to have an aggressive policy of removing or turning away potential trouble-makers to preserve this special vibe. The promoter should be walking around the floor and catching potential problems before they happen. Use your security staff to stop potential problems before they happen. WE have the power to dictate who comes to our events.

Please let me know what we can do. Shuttles? Aggressive poster flyer campaigns at schools (this poster/ flyer could be a general promotion showing all that is available in the Tower. Why don't we have a outdoor Farmer's market in the Tower? Come talk to me at the Starline on Thursdays.

Rowan

Disclaimer: This is my opinion; not just tryin' to take a jab at tha idea...

I believe tha majority of people cringed when reading about a "college night" in tha Tower, because that is one of those buzz phrases that tha "uncool & mainstream" promoter types usually use when their hyping tha events you're trying to rival. Tha places that "suck" or are not appealing to tha tower crowd, usually come up with a college night and tha crowd is a mundane, drunk, unintellectual, uncultured mess.

Tha tower crowd, for tha most part, is not made up of those people and would not use a term such as "college night".

Again, this is my opinion, but I bet if u had tha same idea with a different name u'd get a MUCH better reaction.

Props for tha idea, but even Tower people will judge a book by it's...title...sometimes. PEACE.

~Rell www.myspace.com/559rell www.myspace.com/trellthareallamane (music production)

So... when should we start this glorious college night in The Tower? When should be the kick off date? Maybe when school gets back in... maybe have a back to school kick off college thursday in tower? what do you all say? maybe a week after FSU starts? or maybe even the week its starts? probably need some time for people to get resettled and also to get the word out!

Again, as we said earlier we are trying to get away from that stuff. Dude I went to the WSP cafe thing and it was lame... I actually almost got beat up, some drunk guy spilt his drink on me then proceeded to blame me for him spilling his drink... i'm not a fighter... he would have won that fight. Then I would have been covered in his girlie drink (i think it was a sex on the beach, seriously) beat up and stuck listening to sean paul... friends, no one wants that. So support college night... it's a good thing. :)

Setting a standard against the backdrop of a night that was --- Tons of hard work with NO respect. Drunken chicks falling down, throwing up, guys fighting. Six billion requests for Sean Paul ---

Let's hear it for college night!

Allright, let me start out by saying again that we are not trying to change tower at all, we're trying to get the word out that tower is here, and its rad, and more people should check it out. And I sincerely doubt that any business would be willing to change anyway, and shouldn't. But I really don't think that there is anything wrong with just getting more people out there regardless of what type of people they are.

I know how hard promotion is, especially music promotion but put whatever preconceived notions you have about our idea aside and look at this from strictly a promotion standpoint. Here are some people who are trying to promote this area of town to get more people there, esentially more business for you, and might just have a way to pull it off and you don't want it. Ya know I'm sure whatever you're doing to promote has been working out ok for you, but we're offering you more free promotion.

Come on guys... lets all just get along here, we're planning on goin' to tower this thursday, perhaps we'll see you there. Maybe we're all just taking the tone of each others messages the wrong way. Maybe not, yo no se. Anyways merry christmas.

Next time you're out at reggae night, come up and say 'high'!

-s

No disrespect, but I get frustrated after posting on every community calendar out there weekly for almost ten years now about where & when my events are (I know I'm not the only music promoter out there hauling ass weekly to do this), then read "duh, what's there to do???" when it's really easy to just check the calendar. Heck, check ANY community calendar and you'll find all kinds of stuff to do in the Tower, ANY NIGHT OF THE WEEK!

BTW: Reggae will not happen again at WSC. That was the LEAST amount of fun I ever had at any regular reggae event anywhere in the past ten years that I've been doing this. Tons of hard work with NO respect. Drunken chicks falling down, throwing up, guys fighting. Six billion requests for Sean Paul, the least rated reggae artist outside of Fresno. Totally NOT a conscious reggae crowd. Praise Jah I had a written and signed contract with WSC or I would have never even gotten paid, though it still took the court system.

We do ONE reggae weekly limited to the Summer on the North side (it's always been at TGIF's prior to WSC), and play pretty mainstream so that crowd can kinda keep up. If you want the real stuff, try any of our events in the Tower District…

-s

maybe i'm wrong, but i don't think i insulted anyone in my post (the first response to this thread). well, i did say that i didn't want stereotypical frat guys and college promotions, so i guess you might have been insulted by those terms. but, i think in the flow of my post they don't come across as insults.

i know, i know, i think you were taking on dj spleece for his subtle dig. however, i do feel that he has presented a very valid point: the tower does have a busy night life with longstanding, regular events such as reggae night. for a long time, reggae night at avalon was my non-weekend venture out. my friends and i about lived there on thursday nights. in time, we migrated to another tower scene, on a different night. livingstones continues to have late happy hours, but not quite as good as their epic "well wednesdays." but, with several years, and police pressure well wednesday faded away. 'stones still offers late night happy hour specials on a few days of the week.

i'd love for the tower to be full of people every night of the week. i'd love for each place (livingstones, starline, starline grill, million elephant, veni's, babylon, club fred, m, palomino's, sequoia, starbucks, landmark, rousseau, and thaiphoon all to be packed. and if i left any tower establishment out, them too! i just hope we don't have to sacrifice what the tower already is to get it that way.

finally, i'd like to assert my opinion that libations in the tower cost less than @ swanky northern locales. tell your friends, more bang for the buck, especially if you can catch a good special. word of mouth, personal testimonies are a beautiful thing. weeknights in the tower are hopping (most of the time).

Yea, I concur about the little insult in every post from people. I understand if you don't agree with the idea but if you are going to make a suggestion about what people should check out don't throw in some passive aggressive little cheap shot while your at it. If you have a suggestion, such as hey check out reggae night at Veni's (as katey pants said above we were there this past week) thats all you need to say. But thank you for the sincere suggestions that we have gotten, such as the one abot down town... me likey, me likey very much. heart

Geez, I'm gettin' kinda tired of how every post has to have at least one little insult in it.
That said, yes, we have attended Reggae Night at Veni's. Actually we were there last Thursday (and probably this Thursday?). And that is a great idea of something to promote. When they did Reggae Nights at World Sports this summer it was packed so there is obviously an interest in reggae in Fresno.
So thanks for the idea. Keep 'em coming!

If your 'college crowd' is cultured enough to appreciate REGGAE (I survived FSU and know first hand most kids there are not), you should try REGGAE THURSDAYS @ Veni Vidi Vici. It's only been happening weekly for 6.5 years now and it's outside of Clovis & North Frez, so I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it…

-s

This Tower thing could really do some good. It seems everyone including college age people are obsessed with the north Fresno scene and to the lesser extent the two bars in Old Town Clovis. They look at anything south of Shaw as another world. Tower is unknowned to a lot of the college crowed (many are from out of town or they are just dumb). If we can get young people as far as Tower and show them a good time, maybe we can lure them to Downtown next as things start to get ramped up down there.. I am not saying that is the ulitmate goal..... but it is something to think about. If we can squash the misconceptions about south fresno and get young college kids with money to spend down there, it could foster growth in the entire area including downtown.

So.. with that said... let's try this... see what happens. Let's not have the "Fresno" mentality that all the rest of the people seem to have.

I think it is a great idea!! How is more business a bad thing?!? Fresno has this misconception that more people equels a bad thing. Living in a bigger city that has a huge nightlife scene, ive scene how the two cities deal with crowds differently.
San Diego: more people, more problems = more police (and NOT the dirty kind that camp out inside bars).... but for the most part, its just a few people getting drunk in publics
Fresno: more people, more problems = cancel the event. such as i believe the marti gras in tower??

anyways... it IS a brilliant idea that would really give a kick to businesses one night a week. if thursdays are already busy, as one gentleman stated above, make it wed or Tower Tuesdays. Fresno is really REALLY lacking an AREA for college students to bar hop without having to drive (and get a DUI). Tower could be that area regardless of how many opposers want to claim tower "as thier own", its an area ALL residents (and former ones) are proud of and would like to go thier to bar hop instead of planning to go to one bar and then drive home ie. jimbos, on the rocks, etc.

So, let me start off by saying that I think a "college night" in tower is an extremely good idea. It would not only help out the local businesses (not saying that they need any large amount of help)but it would bring different types of people and more people in general to tower, and maybe would clear up some common misconceptions about the area.

Tower is a very unique area and definitely has a culture all its own. But, what is wrong with branching out, or letting new people in. When we thought of this idea, a tower college night, it was not thought out with the intention of marketing it to a certain group of people or turning Tower into a virtual Thursday night frat party. (Not that there is anything wrong fraternities… thought I would throw the disclaimer in there) We came up with the idea because many people that we have talked to about going to tower on Thursdays or Fridays or any day have many misconceptions about the area. These people are missing out; I think that if they were to give tower a try one time they would definitely want to come back because they would see that their assumptions are not true.

Yes, the type of people that my friends and I are thinking about marketing it to are college age, mostly because that is the age that we are and what age a large percentage of the nightlife in Fresno and Clovis is. So, the general problem in our minds was, we want to get more people to go to the tower area and we need some sort of draw to get them there. *Bing* some sort of event night, College night if you will. Why Thursdays? Friday and Saturday generally don't need a reason to go out, and if you have ever been near a college campus you know that Thursday is the unofficial start of the weekend.

Tower is one of the best places in Fresno to go in general, and has the potential to be the best place to go as far as nightlife. It is the only place to go in the area that has multiple bars and clubs to walk to and there is generally a fairly good crowd. But, if you have ever been out in other cities, even ones smaller than Fresno, in areas with the same characteristics (alcoholic beverages, cool venues, and walk able area) it is quite a bit busier. And although I'm sure the tower businesses are doing fine already I do not think that they would be opposed to some extra business.

The friends and I were in Tower on Thursday night as well, always a swell time. We were going to start our night off at Sequoia, it was closed (I think they closed at 10, perhaps on Thursdays they would be willing to stay open later with the promise of extra business). We didn't check out Landmark, but Bobby's looked to have a good crowd, at least people were standing outside of it. Stones had a decent crowd, few empty tables but fairly busy. Starline had the usual salsa crowd and at starline grill the patio was pretty full but inside only right in front of the bar was busy with very few people sitting at the tables in the dining area. Vini's was fairly slow when we got there around 11:30 but seemed to pick up as the night went on. But when we left, at about 1:45 or 2:00 am, the streets were pretty empty.

Bottom line, this idea was not thought out with the intention of turning The Tower District into a college night like Jimbos. It is to give people who do not want to go to Jimbos or the like, somewhere else to go. True they can go already, no-one is stopping them (except maybe the mindset that they are "outsiders", because last time I checked someone who lives in Clovis's money is just as good as someone who lives in tower, and the people who live outside of tower are really just as cool as those who live there). I doubt radio stations will be promoting it, we are looking to do a total grassroots promotion campaign through simply talking to people about the idea and promoting it in outlets like Fresno famous, mindhub, and plain old flyers.

No one is trying to offend anyone here by attempting to bring more people to the tower area. Just trying to advertise a good thing, if anyone is interested in helping out with promoting this please email Kate (her email is in the original post… scroll up..) Ok, sweet.

yeah, yeah, I like to write.

I also like to eat.

I got turned on to these little hunnies by one of the Sequoia Staff late one night, and seriously? Was totally blown away.
I will spill this one time, and then you are completely on yer own, buttacup.

Shrimp and Crab Quesedillas (or how ever the heck you spell 'em,)
At 'Stones.

Amazing... totally filling, and just... wow.
Really reasonably priced too...
(Part of the Ap menu, so you can get them late.)

Okay, go back to regular life now... Just try these things...

why a "college" night? is it because you want more people out, or because you want a certain type/age of people.

if it's because you want more people, okay. but, many of the bars in the tower are doing good business throughout the week (not just thursdays). i stopped by veni's on thursday night, and at least while i was there it seemed to have a nice crowd going. they weren't all "college," but people were at the bar ordering drinks, others were grooving to the sounds pumped out by the reggae dj's. the parking lot at babylon was mostly full, so i'm assuming that they also had a decent crowd. as i walked toward livingstones, i passed a busy Million Elephant.

in livingstones, all the seats at the bar were taken, and there were several parties seated in the main bar area. most of the tables outside had people at them as well.

starline seemed to be its usual busy self with its thursday night salsa dancing.

starline grill (formerly lipari's) had a rather packed outside bar, most of the seats at the inside bar were filled, and several of the tables were filled.

is every thursday as busy? well, maybe. i'd venture that several of those places are, because they have weekly scheduled events (reggae night, salsa). i'm not usually out on thursdays but the 3 or 4 thursdays that i have been out in the tower over the last 4 months seemed to be hopping.

and, i don't know what sort of business landmark, salazars or sequoia were doing last night. i didn't make that way down olive.

if you're wanting to just attract college students, well, okay. but, the tower already has its own "clientele." this doesn't mean that it's not open to outsiders. i'm sure that some (many?) of the current patrons of tower establishments are college students. city college is generally thought of as part of the tower area. then again, i'm sure there are some of us here in the tower that don't want "our" area over run with stereotypical outsiders (frat guys) or stereotypical college nights (radio station promotions like "bucket night," etc.).

so, do we need a "college" night? in my opinion, no. we need to encourage the businesses to keep offering: quality service, properly prepared libations at a good price, and entertainment. keep doing what you're doing tower. stay classy.

hopefully, the "extravaganza" tonight at starline will be an example of what really is good about the tower. i know, it's friday and not thurdsay, but still. check it out.

Disclosure - i live in the tower, and mostly seek entertainment there. i tend to have a "tower first, tower is best" perspective.