Trumped.
Submitted by KimBurly on Thu, 06/21/2007 - 00:13.
My grandmother rents a few properties, and one that I am partial to opened up last year, and my then-boyfriend, now-husband and I were able to move in in August. After a rough year, things were looking up. This home belonged to my great grandparents, it was a small shack that they built around making it a wonderful place to raise a family. So they did. My Grandma grew up here, and when she married, she built her own home on the property. My mother grew up in that home, and walked across the sandy dirt in front of the houses to visit her grandmother in this home, my home. When I was a little girl, I would visit my grandmother and walk the same sandy path to visit my great grandma, someone who now, years after her death, I still consult in major decisions, wondering "What Would Mollie Do?"
Once we moved in, we found out that we were pregnant. I had been promoted at my job from Junior High Youth Leader to Interim Christian Ed Director, and everything was great.
We began dreaming, as expecting parents are wont to do. With 2.5 acres under our feet, and my grandma as our landlord, we started to fix the place up. We've spent almost a whole year making the home better, repainting, tearing down and rebuilding and cleaning out a field that has been cluttered with junk for years. Its been becoming more and more our home, which fits in with our dreams- we want to be able to buy the house from my grandmother in a few years.
The only drawback to this? We're just up the road from Running Horse, that skeletal golf course and neighborhood that has been in the news an awful lot lately. It's fate, no matter who owns it, directly affects us. If it falls apart and gets abandoned, so does our "neighborhood". If it succeeds, its only a matter of time before it expands, and our home may be in jeopardy.
We've been in a state of limbo with this. Every hit that Running Horse has taken, it's taken us with it, further increasing or jittery nervousness about the future of this property.
When Mr. Trump expressed interest, I was initially ecstatic. It would be done well, and be done right. No half-assed greenish brown grass, no more bankruptcy, it would be a class act. Who wouldn't want that in their neighborhood. But when he issued his list of demands, I realized that what we want isn't going to really matter, we wouldn't be in the neighborhood long. I didn't mind him wanting to close Kearney, people travel so fast down that street that by the time they hit Madison they're flying at 85-90 mph. But I start to tear up when I think about him wanting to develop the surrounding areas by calling on that old devil, eminent domain.
See, we are those surrounding areas.
Almost a century of family memories are tied to this block, which was once owned in its entirety by my great grandfather. It happens every day to so many people, but now its coming terrifyingly close to my family that we may be offered "fair market value" but nowhere near Fair Emotional Value. And I'm sad that this sacred ground where my grandmother modeled her prom dress, my mother took her first steps and spoke her first words, this place where my cousins and I hunted for easter eggs and sucked on Werthers candies, might be out of my reach, not allowing any further generations to enjoy it. If we buy it, it might not be our home for long. If we don't, we'll have to find somewhere else to live without that "fair market value" lie to get us started.
I'm a sentimental old gal, and in my ripe old age of 24, most of my love for my hometown is tied to the things that never change. That's why I get sandwiches at Cosmopolitan almost every day, only switched up to go to Triangle Drive In on Saturdays for a combo #2 (Jumbo burger, fries and drink...mmm). If my family loses this, I lose my tie to my ancestors, and my favorite tie to Fresno. Where else can I touch the same soil that was lovingly planted with poppies by my great uncle Norman who died in childhood? How can I channel my great grandmother while making Vareniks, Beerocks, and Grebble- where else can I go that even knows the history of these foods, brought over from Russia along with hope of a better life?
Mr. Trump, I'm probably jumping the gun in assuming my home will be bulldozed in favor of 30 tract homes. I know can't tell you not to take this away from me, but I hope you know that you'd not only be displacing people, but you'd be uprooting 4 generations of memories made here. Good for Fresno or not, it still has the potential for hurt.
LLLLLLOOOOLLLLAAAAHHH, LA CHOOOOOLLLLAAAAHHH!!!
..there she goes ladies and gentlemen, one little lady who's as meek and humble as a morning dove, -and durn proud of it...! (Kim's probably still sacked out... she wrote the orig' post way past Midnight... Motherhood... where a person who weighs less than a sack of sugar, TOTALLY determines your sack time....
Whups... there she is I spoketh too soon...
(one man with a bad haircut to turn the town around... OUCH...)
fab. We got worried because it was said that the 9 sq miles would be revitalized, and we're within that.
Eminent Domain
The city will only eminent domain the properties inside the already planned development. He wants the areas around the project to be developed of course, but this will not be through eminent domain, it will be the city building up the infrastructure and encouraging development. I can also tell you Trump will not be building tract homes.
Unless your Grandma is in the actual project area (in which you would already have been in the bulldoze zone), you should be alright. Your Grandma's property values are going to shoot through the roof, you should be excited.
A Worthy Venture...
Now i could get behind 40 million pumped into roller derby!
oh yeah!
and thanks for the compliments. if i wasnt such a vain and overly confident gal, i'd blush. but since i am the queen of my world, i'll just beam with pride and be happy that someone besides me noticed that im kinda cool.
ERIC, DEAR ERIC
i have to comment on your comment to my comment.....uh, i think. you always make me smile. even when im scrollling the loooooong scroll down mindhub lane. i like how you wrote that i tell you whats what. Because try as i may, i cannot help but demand my audience. usually, free thinking people will walk away from me and my rants. ideally, like minded people will find the not so subtle "what for" and listen if not move into action!
So back to Fresno; i love me some Fresno. and not just cause FrankD! made me. Because i truly love Fresno. The heat, the empty buildings downtown that match the empty minds sitting at the local starbucks, the way Fresno Famous lets us write about nothing, thank you Jarah.....it'll always be jarah. but mostly i love Fresno because we are a town of fast movers, forward thinkers and risk takers. Trump? hmmm i dont know but i think i may like it. This may mean eminant domain as The Fresno Bee reported today, and i'm not for that at all but in the long run, thinking clearly, i see a future where it took one man with a bad hairdo to come in and put to action what tons of Downtowners have been threatening to do for some time. and it reminds me of Fresno Famous. Everyone jumped on Jarahs neck because she "sold out". to me that was entrepreneurship. is that a word? i guess you get my drift. sometimes we have to sell out to gain a whole new level of success. really, thinking about the big picture, i envision a city where Running Horse makes its way to Chukchansi park which makes its way to the Fresno Courthouse which makes its way to A THRIVING LIFE IN DOWNTOWN FRESNO!!!!! how can this go wrong. its scary how this all seems to make sense.
now on to praying. i dig OOTV's idea that we should all pray as frantically as we drive! i think we should all take some time, close our eyes and hum a little diddy to God or Bhudda or whomever you look up to, hell, Elmo, but still do it. and granted, your will may not be done but His will be and thats the most important thing. and i am a firm believer that my God wants Downtown to thrive. Why else would he send that creepy bible thumpin' guy to stand at the Courthouse park fountain ranting and raving about the apocalypse?
i for one want to see Fresno as it is in my dreams: SFesque and free of negativity ala Riverpark aka Disneyland. i like my cities filled with savvy movers and shakers and little bit of transient thrown in for good measure!
hmmm
...Chris Sorensen's ladies do their show...
...trump buys out SCRG (which means another run of full color (please) T-Shirts... (plus that other upcoming bout...)
...and I get to catch a couple Hard-Top Races??
Dang, bubba, my summer would be heaven on earth...
Seriously?
And I mean this with all due respect.
You folks look at the authors of these two entries.
Kim and Joey.
Kim is one of the few writers who, when I read, I just go and do, often with a lump in my throat, Joey has a habit of sitting me down and telling me what's what.
-Few have that impact on me.
Now, to me?
In a way these ladies will always be, in such a beautiful way, the SanJoaquin valley, and Fresno personified.
(and I mean this in a good way, a very good way.)
How?
Well, they're both prettier than sunsets.
They're genuinely nice and approachable people who really care about others.
They not only love their town, but they know the history and see it for it's faults and strengths.
They're both not only tremendous thinkers, -but are two of the most captivating and memorable writers I've had the pleasure to read, anywhere.
And either one of them, if you're an opponent, will knock you into the middle of next week, (but you'd deserve it.) And probably send you cookies or something while you're laid up.
And yeah, though they're characters? They are sweet as anything, have huge hearts, and are 100% genunine and straight shooters.
(not to leave Sorensons girls out either, I met Amy, and know D, and can tell you the same is true with that crew too.)
-And they're all extremely creative.
So yeah... to me?
-it was obvious that God had just put together a bunch of birds, animals, sea critters, trees and rocks, and then, you know, because it was the end of the week, built Adam.
Then He took some time off, got some rest, had some coffee, ate breakfast, saw how stuff was going, and then really thought out and designed someone, and we got Eve as a result.
Folks, I'd advise you to pray in general,
particularly the way you people drive in this town,
(besides, even if you don't believe there is a God, you will be talking to yourself, it relieves stress,
-and folks will, nod give you a wide berth, and let you go first at the grocery store, (try it, it works... Works real good in Riverpark.)
-But get to know your local SCRG roller derby grrl, (yes, folks, a regular Fresnan just like yourself,) and pray for them and their families (or in somebody's case... familia...) too...
Thanks ladies, congrats on holding up in grand style against some opponents that probably ate cement and led shot for breakfast that day, and weighed more than my pickup, (but you know, not in a bad way...)
Be blessed
Now go write more.
(please.)
-Eric
TRUMPED
OH DEAR MR. TRUMP.....will you please buy the SCRG and turn us into recovering drug fueled, alcohol riddled blond Pageant Queens on wheels, whirling around the banked tracks AKA ditches of Fresno yelling: YOU'RE FIRED!!!!!!!
~LOLA LA CHOLA #17
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