County Supervisors to sell out Downtown?
Submitted by jarah on Tue, 05/15/2007 - 14:51.
Oh geez. The Fresno County Board of Supervisors is voting today on whether to move 80,000 square feet of office space out of downtown and into Ed Kashian's Fancher Creek project.
The big master planned community has dubious air quality standards, but sources say the Supervisors are leaning towards the move. Which County department is moving into the development, compliments of Mr. Kashian, who has offered them discounted (or free, we're not sure) space? The Planning Department! Excellent move Board of Supervisors. Move the County Planning department out of downtown and into the sprawl. Makes perfect sense.
Don't forget that thanks to the lobbying of Valley congressmen the Federal government is required to keep its offices downtown. Nice to know the County Planning Department could be located in the midst of the sprawl it helps create, compliments of the developer who benefits.
eh... get over it
not to quibble here
but maybe part of the problem with DT is that Fresno may be relying too heavily on Gov offices & Gov workers to save the day, instead of putting housing or museums there, because I think that more people staying after 5PM, that need services, stores, would then attract boutique shops, used bookstores, cafes, lounges, etc...
My experience is, that once 5 o'clock strikes, those Gov workers are out of here & all those people that have had to interact with Gov for the day there are probably none too happy about the experience & so want to jamm as quickly as possible from there
So the answer is finding some way of attracting afterhours the 5PM crowd that makes a mad dash to the rest of Fresno, Clovis, Sanger to stay for a few hours more, then leave at a more leisurely pace as 10 PM rolls around (or 2AM for the bars)
One idea could be, to turn one of those old warehouses into a disco, to blast music, who cares about loud music in an abandoned district?
County move from Downtown
Hey, before criticizing the County too much, look what they've done for the Fulton Mall. The Health Dept, Superior Court, Housing Authority, and other offices in the old Roos Atkins and Trade Center are ALL occupied by county agencies. And on the Fed side, the IRS and INS are right there, too. On the other hand, what has the City of Fresno put on the Fulton Mall? I don't want to complain too loudly about the City or they may take away the small amount they do now, but it is getting out of hand. Right now, the only thing sustaining the North end of the Fulton Mall, particularly for the food / entertainment businesses (which are already woefully lacking) are the County and Federal Governments.
Why not the county Jail too?
Let the county move the Jail to Fancher creek. It should fit right in.
It's not like their presence really did anything for downtown anyway. The focus should be on getting the private sector build housing downtown.
Just ... just freakin' insane
Given Fresno's seedy history with developers and urban sprawl, it's WITHOUT CONSCIOUS that the County Planners would even consider this move for a nanosecond.
Thanks for bringing this out Jarah, I hope some sanity washes over the planning department.
Special Interests Sellouts...
What does the mayor have to say about this?
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